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Aliptae, among the Greeks, were persons who anointed the bodies of the athlets preparatory to their entering the palaestra. The chief object of this anointing was to close the pores of the body, in order to prevent much perspiration, and the weakness consequent thereon. The athlet was again anointed after the contest, in order to restore the tone of the strained muscles. He then bathed, and had the dust, sweat, and oil scraped off his body, by means of an instrument similar to the strigil of the Romans, and called stlengis, and afterwards xystra. The aliptae took advantage of the knowledge they necessarily acquired of the state of the muscles of the athlets, and their general strength or weakness of body, to advise them as to their exercises and mode of life. They were thus a kind of medical trainers.
Among the Romans the aliptae were slaves who scrubbed and anointed their masters in the baths. They, too, like the Greek aliptae, appear to have attended to their masters' constitution and mode of life.
They were also called unctores. They used in their operations a kind of scraper called strigil, towels (lintea), a cruise of oil (guttus), which was usually of horn, a bottle (ampulla), and a small vessel called lenticula.
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