BonsaiK said:The rabbit-hole goes massively deep on this one. I could answer this comprehensively but I don't have five days or the time to put together all the references I'd need to stop people yelling "source?". I'll just say that the OP is onto something bigger than Ben Hur and he's not going to get a defintive answer to this question anywhere outside a university.
I appreciate it. Ben Hur was rather big, though not specifically in the chestal region.