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151-465: Two-horse chariot races ( bigae ) were held in the Campus Martius , the area of Rome named for Mars, after which the right-hand horse of the winning team was transfixed by a spear , then sacrificed. The horse's head (caput) and tail ( cauda ) were cut off and used separately in the two subsequent parts of the ceremonies: two neighborhoods staged a fight for the right to display the head, and

302-513: A Spartan noblewoman is known to have trained horse-teams for the Olympics and won two races, one of them as driver. In ancient Rome, chariot racing was the most popular of many subsidised public entertainments, and was an essential component in several religious festivals. Roman chariot drivers had very low social status, but were paid a fee simply for taking part. Winners were celebrated and well paid for their victories, regardless of status, and

453-577: A suffimentum as an effective cure for draft animals and for humans prone to emotional outbursts, as well as for driving off hailstorms, demons and ghosts (daemones and umbras) . Sacrificial victims were most often domestic animals normally part of the Roman diet, and the meat was eaten at a banquet shared by those celebrating the rite. Horse meat was distasteful to the Romans, and Tacitus classes horses among " profane " animals. Inedible victims such as

604-607: A chariot race is in Homer 's poetic account of the funeral games for Patroclus , in the Iliad , combining practices from the author's own time (c. 8th century) with accounts based on a legendary past. The participants in this race were drawn from leading figures among the Greeks; Diomedes of Argos , the poet Eumelus , the Achaean prince Antilochus , King Menelaus of Sparta , and

755-646: A citizen was murdered in the church of Hagia Sophia. Long-running factional disorder culminated in the Nika riots of 532 AD, against the backdrop of scheduled chariot races on the Ides of January , and factional "discontent" at political corruption and mismanagement. The Blues and Greens united and attempted but failed to overthrow the emperor; thousands were killed by the Byzantine military in retribution, including many ordinary citizens. The Byzantine historian Procopius saw

906-530: A crash on Menelaus . Race winners were celebrated throughout the Greek festival circuit, both on their own account and on behalf of their cities. In the classical era, other great festivals emerged in Asia Minor , Magna Graecia , and the mainland, providing the opportunity for cities to compete for honour and renown, and for their athletes to gain fame and riches. Apart from the Olympics, the most notable were

1057-588: A day sacred to Mars doubles up with that of another god. The Equus preceded the Armilustrium ("Purification of Arms") on October 19. Although most of Mars' festivals cluster in his namesake month of March ( Martius ) , ceremonies pertaining to Mars in October are seen as concluding the season in which he was most active. André Dacier , an early editor of Festus, noted in regard to the October Horse

1208-537: A few towns. The Circus Maximus was still adequately maintained for use, though for what purposes is uncertain. The last known beast-hunt there was in 523. The last recorded race there was in 549 AD, staged by the Ostrogothic king, Totila ; whether this was a display of horsemanship or a chariot-race is not known Most Roman chariot drivers, and many of their supporters, belonged to one of four factions; social and business organisations that raised money to sponsor

1359-407: A full-sized racing stadium, the chariots could reach high speeds along the straights, then overturn or be crushed along with their horses and driver by the following chariots as they wheeled around the post. Driving into an opponent to make him crash was technically illegal, but most crashes were accidental and often unavoidable. In Homer's account of Patroclus' funeral games, Antilochus inflicts such

1510-463: A high concentration of puppies, sometimes ritually dismembered. Inedible victims were offered to a restricted group of deities mainly involved with the cycle of birth and death, but the reasoning is obscure. The importance of the horse to the war god is likewise not self-evident, since the Roman military was based on infantry. Mars' youthful armed priests the Salii , attired as "typical representatives of

1661-724: A horse for his journey to the afterlife, sometimes pointing to his head. This gesture signifies the Genius , the divine embodiment of the vital principle found in each individual conceived of as residing in the head, in some ways comparable to the Homeric thumos or the Latin numen . Pendants of bread were attached to the head of the Equus October: a portion of the inedible sacrifice was retained for humans and garnished with an everyday food associated with Ceres and Vesta . The shape of

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1812-627: A horse's tail to a helmet may originate in a desire to appropriate the animal's power in battle; in the Iliad , Hector 's horse-crested helmet is a terrifying sight. In the iconography of the Mithraic mysteries , the tail of the sacrificial bull is often grasped, as is the horse's tail in depictions of the Thracian Rider god , as if to possess its power. A pinax from Corinth depicts a dwarf holding his phallus with both hands while standing on

1963-509: A living on stage, arena or racetrack were infames , the best of them could earn popular and elite support that verged on adoration, and near-fabulous wealth if not respectability. Juvenal bewailed that the earnings of the charioteer Lacerta were a hundred times more than a lawyer's fee. Emperors who took the reins as charioteer, or promoted drivers to elite status or freely mixed with arenarii —as did Caligula , Nero and Elagabalus , for example—were also notoriously "bad" rulers. Two jurists of

2114-630: A lustration for the army. Immediately after describing the October Horse, Festus gives three other examples: the Spartans sacrifice a horse "to the winds " on Mount Taygetus ; among the Sallentini, horses were burnt alive for an obscure Jove Menzana; and every year the Rhodians dedicated a four-horse chariot ( quadriga ) to the Sun and cast it into the sea. The quadriga traditionally represented

2265-520: A minority among chariot racing enthusiasts as a whole. In Byzantium as elsewhere, racing fans cheered on their favorite charioteers, and sought out the company of like-minded supporters. Charioteers could change their factional allegiance but their fans did not necessarily follow them. Semi-permanent alliances of Blues ( Βένετοι , Vénetoi ) and Greens ( Πράσινοι , Prásinoi ) overshadowed the Whites ( Λευκοὶ , Leukoí ) and Reds ( Ῥούσιοι , Rhoúsioi ). In

2416-448: A move to suppress paganism and promote Christianity. Gladiator contests were eventually abandoned, but chariot racing and theatrical entertainments remained popular. The Church did not, or perhaps could not, prevent them, although prominent Christian writers attacked them. Justinian I 's reformed legal code specifically prohibits drivers from placing curses on their opponents, and invites their co-operation in bringing offenders before

2567-494: A myth in which the ass misplaces a pharmakon entrusted to him by the king of the gods, thereby causing humanity to lose its eternal youth. The symbolism of bread for the October Horse is unstated in the ancient sources. Robert Turcan has seen the garland of loaves as a way to thank Mars for protecting the harvest. Mars was linked to Vesta, the Regia, and the production of grain through several religious observances. In his poem on

2718-426: A parade ( pompa circensis ) that featured the charioteers, music, costumed dancers, and gilded images of the gods , headed by Victoria , goddess of victory. These images were placed on dining couches, which were arranged on a viewing platform ( pulvinar ) to observe the races, which were nominally held in their honour. The sponsor or editor of the races shared the pulvinar with these divine images. In

2869-471: A part in Rome's foundation myth and local politics. Consuls were obliged to subsidise races at the beginning and end of their annual terms, as a sort of tax on their office and a gift to the people of Rome. Races on January 1 accompanied the renewal of loyalty vows; emperors gave annual games on the anniversary of their succession, and on their own and other imperial birthdays. Chariot races were preceded by

3020-438: A procession into the hippodrome, while a herald announced the names of the drivers and owners. The tethrippon consisted of twelve laps. The most immediate and challenging aspect of the races for drivers, judges and stewards was ensuring a fair start, and keeping false starts and crushes to a minimum. Then as now, the marshalling of over-excited racehorses could prove a major difficulty. Various mechanical devices were used to reduce

3171-706: A racing chariot was thought a very low class occupation, beneath the dignity of any citizen, but making money from it was truly disgraceful, so investors of high social status usually resorted to negotiations discreetly through agents, rather than risk losing reputation, status and privilege through infamia . No contemporary source describes these factions as official, but unlike many unofficial organisations in Rome, they were evidently tolerated as useful and effective rather than feared as secretive and potentially subversive. Tertullian claims that there were originally just two factions, White and Red, sacred to winter and summer respectively. By his time, there were four factions;

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3322-459: A severed horse's tail may drip or ooze about three minutes – a timeframe within which a good runner could reach the Regia but with the potential for an unlucky or poorly performing runner to fail ominously. A phallic-like potency may be attributed to the October Horse's tail without requiring cauda to mean "penis," since the ubiquity of phallic symbols in Roman culture would make euphemism or substitution unnecessary. The practice of attaching

3473-478: A similar throwing away of food abundance as a background to the October Horse, which he saw as the embodiment of the " corn spirit ". According to tradition, the fields consecrated to Mars had been appropriated by the Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus for his private use. Accumulated acts of arrogance among the royal family led to the expulsion of the king. The overthrow of the monarchy occurred at harvest time, and

3624-535: A single afternoon, presumably by drastically lowering the number of laps from the standard 7. Twenty four races in a single day became the norm, until the slow collapse of Rome's economy in the West, when costs rose, sponsors were lost and racetracks were abandoned. In the 4th century AD, 24 races were held every day on 66 days each year. By the end of that century, public entertainments in Italy had come to an end in all but

3775-551: A threat. On the Becket altarpiece of Hamburg, one of two known medieval depictions of the scene, the mutilator makes a phallic gesture with the horse's tail. A legend then arose that the descendants of the perpetrator grew tails and earned the insulting nickname caudati , the "tailed ones," which spread to attach itself to all Kentishmen ; Greek-speaking Sicilians hurled the insult at the English generally in an incident during Richard

3926-593: A traditional "pagan" practice and advised Christians not to participate. Soon after the end of the Roman Empire in the West, the influential Christian scholar, administrator and historian Cassiodorus describes chariot racing as an instrument of the Devil. Most cities had at least one dedicated chariot racing circuit. The city of Rome had several; its main centre was the Circus Maximus which developed on

4077-427: A treasured "trace" horse. A chariot's "trace" horses partly pulled the chariot and partly guided it, as flankers to the central pair, who were yoked to the chariot and provided both speed and power. A left-side trace horse's steady performance could mean the difference between victory and disaster; mares were thought the steadiest. Left-side trace horses were the closest to the spina , and are most likely to be named in

4228-569: A war-horse before the city in the Campus Martius, because the capture of Troy was due to the wooden horse — a most childish statement. For at that rate we should have to say that all barbarian tribes were descendants of the Trojans , since nearly all of them, or at least the majority, when they are entering on a war or on the eve of a decisive battle sacrifice a horse, divining the issue from the manner in which it falls. Timaeus in dealing with

4379-410: A white cloth; all the gates sprang open at the same time, allowing a fair start for all participants. Races were run counter-clockwise; starting positions were allocated by lottery. The spina carried lap-counters, in the form of eggs or dolphins; the eggs were suggestive of Castor and Pollux , the mythic dioscuri , one human and one divine. They were born from an egg, divine patrons of horsemen and

4530-575: Is a military, or an agricultural festival; but see it rather as one of the ways in which the convergence of farming and warfare (or more accurately of farmers and fighters) might be expressed. This polyvalence was characteristic of the god for whom the sacrifice was conducted, since among the Romans Mars brought war and bloodshed, agriculture and virility, and thus both death and fertility within his sphere of influence. The Augustan poets Propertius and Ovid both mention horse as an ingredient in

4681-459: Is documented in inscriptions and in curse tablets . Charioteers occupied a peculiar position in Roman society. If originally citizens, their chosen career made infames of them, denying them many of the privileges, protections and dignities of full citizenship. Undertakers, prostitutes and pimps, butchers, executioners, and heralds were considered infamous, for various reasons; but although gladiators, actors, charioteers and any others who earned

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4832-401: Is paralleled by the spear used by the officiating priest at the October sacrifice. Timaeus, who interpreted the October Horse in light of Rome's claim to Trojan origins, is both the earliest source and the only one that specifies a spear as the sacrificial implement. The spear was an attribute of Mars in the way that Jupiter wielded the thunderbolt or Neptune the trident . The spear of Mars

4983-566: Is part of a complex of meanings surrounding equine mutilation in Europe. It appears notably in the medieval Welsh narrative of Branwen when Efnisien, one of a set of twins, mutilates the horses of the King of Ireland, including cutting "their tails to their backs." A similar act of horse disfigurement as an insult occurs in the Old Icelandic saga of Hrólf Kraki . In the medieval period,

5134-468: Is said to be thus disgraced. Timaeus (3rd century BC) attempted to explain the ritual of the October Horse in connection with the Trojan Horse —an attempt mostly regarded by ancient and modern scholars as "hardly convincing." As recorded by Polybius (2nd century BC), he tells us that the Romans still commemorate the disaster at Troy by shooting (κατακοντίζειν, "to spear down") on a certain day

5285-463: The Iliad has warriors taking chariots as transportation to the battlefield, then fighting on foot. Chariot racing was a part of funeral games quite early, as the first reference to a chariot race in Western literature is as an event in the funeral games held for Patroclus in the Iliad . Perhaps the most famous scene from the Iliad involving a chariot is Achilles dragging the body of Hector ,

5436-458: The Athenians was chopping off the manes and tails of their horses: "The public prisoners were collected together, the fairest and tallest trees along the river bank were hung with the captured suits of armour, and then the victors crowned themselves with wreaths, adorned their own horses splendidly while they sheared and cropped the horses of their conquered foes." The October Horse sacrifice

5587-486: The Capitoline citadel . At an emergency council of the gods, Mars objects to the removal of the sacred talismans of Trojan Vesta which guarantee the safety of the state , and is indignant that the Romans, destined to rule the world, are starving. Vesta causes flour to materialize, and the process of breadmaking occurs miraculously during the night, resulting in an abundance ( ops ) of the gifts of Ceres. Jupiter wakes

5738-520: The Consualia that at times propitiated chthonic deities. The horse races at the shadowy Taurian Games in honor of the underworld gods ( di inferi ) were held in the Campus Martius as were Mars' Equirria. The horse had been established as a funerary animal among the Greeks and Etruscans by the Archaic period. Hendrik Wagenvoort even speculated about an archaic form of Mars who "had been imagined as

5889-461: The Equestrian order . Dolphins were thought to be the swiftest of all creatures; they symbolised Neptune , god of the sea, earthquakes and horses. The spina bore water-feature elements, blended with decorative and architectural features. It eventually became very elaborate, with temples, statues and obelisks and other forms of art, though the addition of these multiple adornments obstructed

6040-1043: The Isthmian Games in Corinth , the Nemean Games , the Pythian Games in Delphi, and the Panathenaic Games in Athens , where the winner of the four-horse chariot race was awarded 140 amphorae of olive oil , a highly valued commodity. Prizes elsewhere included corn in Eleusis , bronze shields in Argos , and silver vessels in Marathon . Winning Greek athletes, no matter their social status, were greatly honoured by their own communities. Chariot racing at

6191-472: The Olympic hippodrome of the second century AD, when Greece was part of the Roman Empire. The perimeter groundplan, southeast of the sanctuary itself, was approximately 780 meters long and 320 meters wide. Competitors raced from the starting-place counter-clockwise around the nearest (western) turning post, then turned at the eastern turning post and headed back west. The number of circuits varied according to

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6342-697: The Vedic ashvamedha and the Irish ritual described by Giraldus Cambrensis , both of which have to do with kingship. Although the ritual battle for possession of the head may preserve an element from the early period when Rome was ruled by kings , the October Horse's collocation of agriculture and war is characteristic of the Republic . The sacred topography of the rite and the role of Mars in other equestrian festivals also suggest aspects of youth initiation and rebirth ritual. The complex or even contradictory aspects of

6493-649: The Western Roman Empire after the fall of Rome ; the last known race there was staged in the Circus Maximus in 549, by the Ostrogothic king, Totila . In the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire , the traditional Roman chariot-racing factions continued to play a prominent role in mass entertainment, religion and politics for several centuries. Supporters of the Blue teams vied with supporters of

6644-466: The hero Meriones . The race, which was one lap around the stump of a tree, was won by Diomedes, who received a slave woman and a cauldron as his prize. A chariot race also was said to be the event that founded the Olympic Games ; according to one legend, mentioned by Pindar , King Oenomaus challenged suitors for his daughter Hippodamia to a race, but was defeated by Pelops , who founded

6795-412: The ithyphallic god Priapus , an imported deity who was never the recipient of public cult, was about to rape Vesta as she slept, the braying ass woke her. In revenge, Priapus thereafter demanded the ass as a customary sacrifice to him. The early Christian writer Lactantius says that the garland of bread pendants commemorates the preservation of Vesta's sexual integrity ( pudicitia ). Aelian recounts

6946-495: The penis of the October Horse, which might be expected to contain more blood to drip on the hearth at the Regia towards the preparation of the suffimen . However, the tail itself was a magico-religious symbol of fertility or power, and in 1974, at the request of Georges Dumézil , a vétérinaire-inspecteur from the Veterinary Services of Paris carried out a horse-slaughter experiment to demonstrate that blood from

7097-408: The psychē from both thūmós and ménos so that it may pass into the afterlife; the horse, which embodies ménos , races off and leaves the chariot behind, as in the philosophical allegory of the chariot from Plato . The anthropological term mana has sometimes been borrowed to conceptualize the October Horse's potency, also expressed in modern scholarship as numen . The physical exertions of

7248-497: The suffimen was the ash produced from the holocaust of an unborn calf at the Fordicidia on April 15, along with the stalks from which beans had been harvested. One source, from late antiquity and not always reliable, notes that beans were sacred to Mars. Suffimentum is a general word for a preparation used for healing, purification, or warding off ill influence. In his treatise on veterinary medicine, Vegetius recommends

7399-660: The "breads" is not recorded. Equines decorated with bread are found also on the Feast of Vesta on June 9, when the asses who normally worked in the milling and baking industry were dressed with garlands from which decorative loaves dangled. According to Ovid , the ass was honored at the Vestalia as a reward for its service to the Virgin Mother , who is portrayed in Augustan ideology as simultaneously native and Trojan. When

7550-464: The "law of the place" allowed most to sit together, which for the Augustan poet Ovid presented opportunities for seduction. The circus was one of few places where the populace could assemble in vast numbers, and exercise the freedom of speech associated with theatre factions and claques , voicing support or criticism of their rulers and each other. The charioteers had to keep to their own lanes for

7701-454: The 177 days of religious festival games scheduled in a late Roman Calendar of 354 . Races were held as part of triumphal processions, foundation anniversary rites and funeral games subsidised by magnates during the Regal and Republican eras, and by the emperors during the imperial era. According to Roman legend , Rome in its earliest days was faced with a lack of marriagable women. Romulus ,

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7852-505: The 5th century, the outstanding Byzantine charioteer Porphyrius raced as a "Blue" or a "Green" at various times; he was celebrated by each faction, and by the reigning Emperor, and was honoured with several imperially subsidised monuments on a grand scale in the Hippodrome. While the racing factions, their supporters and the populace at large were overwhelmingly composed of commoners, as in Rome, Cameron (1976) sees no justification for

8003-514: The Campus Martius had been consecrated to Mars by their ancestors as horse pasturage and an equestrian training ground for youths. The "sacred rite" that the horse's blood became part of is usually taken to be the Parilia , a festival of rural character on April 21, which became the date on which the founding of Rome was celebrated. Verrius Flaccus notes that the horse ritual was carried out ob frugum eventum , usually taken to mean "in thanks for

8154-468: The Campus Martius, during a religious festival celebrated for Mars, it is often assumed that the Flamen Martialis presided. This priest of Mars may have wielded a spear ritually on other occasions, but no source names the officiant over the October Horse rite. The Equus October occurred on the Ides of October. All Ides were sacred to Jupiter . Here as at a few other points in the calendar,

8305-527: The Circus races and the Theatres, responsible for the production and performance of the chants, theatrical displays and lavish religious ceremonies that accompanied imperial court rituals and chariot races. The acclamations of emperors and of winning charioteers employed much the same triumphalist language, symbolism, honours and pledges of allegiance. From around the mid-fifth century, the support and approval of

8456-495: The First's crusade (1198–92). Equine mutilation as a form of insult survived into the early modern era. At Somerset in 1611, a horse was paraded in a skimmington ride , a form of public mockery usually aimed at a sexual offense or adultery. On this occasion, horns were attached to the animal's head, indicating cuckolding, and its ears and the hair of its mane and tail were cut off. The horse, in an instance of transferred epithet ,

8607-551: The Games in honour of his victory. The Olympic Games were traditionally founded in 776 BC, by the Eleans , a wealthy, prestigious horse-owning aristocracy. Pindar , the earliest source for the Olympics, includes chariot racing among their five foundation events. Much later, Pausanias claims that chariot races were added only from 680 BC, and that the games were extended from one day to two days to accommodate them. In this tradition,

8758-473: The Greek racing circuits, Victory songs, epigrams and other monuments routinely omit the names of winning drivers. The chariots themselves resembled war chariots, essentially wooden two-wheeled carts with an open back, though by this time chariots were no longer used in battle. Charioteers stood throughout the race. They traditionally wore only a sleeved garment called a xystis , which would have offered at least some protection from crashes and dust. It fell to

8909-546: The Greens for control of foreign, domestic and religious policies, and imperial subsidies for themselves. Their displays of civil discontent and disobedience culminated in an indiscriminate slaughter of Byzantine citizenry by the military in the Nika riots . Thereafter, rising costs and a failing economy saw the gradual decline of Byzantine chariot racing. Images on pottery show that chariot racing existed in thirteenth century BC Mycenaean Greece . The first literary reference to

9060-513: The Hagia Sophia shows a charioteer named Samonas, performing a victory lap. The graffito, no earlier than 537, includes an engraved cross to seek God's help for the charioteer. Samonas is otherwise unknown. Several earlier Byzantine charioteers are known by name or race records, six of them through short, laudatory verse epigrams ; namely, Anastasius; Julianus of Tyre; Faustinus and his son Constantinus; Uranius; and Porphyrius . Among these,

9211-414: The Homeric epics with thūmós , "spiritedness," and psychē , "soul," all of which depart the body in death. The gods endow both heroes and horses with ménos through breathing into them, so that "warriors eager for battle are literally 'snorting with ménos .'" A metaphor at Iliad 5.296 compares a man falling in battle to horses collapsing when they are unharnessed after exertions. Cremation frees

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9362-583: The October Horse and dogs were typically offered to chthonic deities in the form of a holocaust , resulting in no shared meal. In Greece, dog sacrifices were made to Mars' counterpart Ares and the related war god Enyalios . At Rome, dogs were sacrificed at the Robigalia , a festival for protecting the crops at which chariot races were held for Mars along with the namesake deity, and at a very few other public rites. Birth deities, however, also received offerings of puppies or bitches, and infant cemeteries show

9513-405: The October Horse as a harvest festival in origin, because it took place on the king's farmland in the autumn. Since no source accounts for what happens to the horse apart from the head and tail, it is possible that it was reduced to ash and disposed of in the same manner as Tarquin's grain. George Devereux and others have argued that cauda , or οὐρά (oura) in Greek sources, is a euphemism for

9664-582: The October Horse cannot be taken as a sacrificial reenactment against the Trojan Horse, there may be some shared ritualistic origin. The Trojan Horse succeeded as a stratagem because the Trojans accepted its validity as a votive offering or dedication to a deity, and they wanted to transfer that power within their own walls. The spear that the Trojan priest Laocoön drives into the side of the wooden horse

9815-401: The October Horse probably result from overlays of traditions accumulated over time. The rite of the October Horse took place on the Ides of October, but no name is recorded for a festival on that date. The grammarian Festus describes it as follows: The October Horse is named from the annual sacrifice to Mars in the Campus Martius during the month of October. It is the right-hand horse of

9966-471: The Olympic chariot race, twice as owner and trainer, and at least once as driver. Most charioteers were slaves or hired professionals. Drivers and their horses needed strength, skill, courage, endurance and prolonged, intensive training. Like jockeys, charioteers were ideally slight of build, and therefore often young, but unlike jockeys, they were also tall. The names of very few charioteers are known from

10117-487: The Panathenaic Games included a two-man event, the apobatai , in which one of the team was armoured, and periodically leapt off the moving chariot, ran alongside it, then leapt back on again. The second charioteer took the reins when the apobates jumped out; in the catalogues of winners, the names of both these athletes are given. Images of this contest show warriors, armed with helmets and shields, perched on

10268-649: The Reds were dedicated to Mars , the Whites to the Zephyrus , the Greens to Mother Earth or spring, and the Blues to the sky and sea or autumn. Each faction could enter up to three chariots in a race. Members of the same faction often collaborated against the other entrants, for example to force them to crash into the spina (a legal and encouraged tactic). The driver's clothing was color-coded in accordance with his faction, which would help distant spectators to keep track of

10419-485: The Roman cavalry was formed primarily from allies ( auxilia ) , and Arrian emphasizes the foreign origin of cavalry training techniques, particularly among the Celts of Gaul and Spain . Roman technical terms pertaining to horsemanship and horse-drawn vehicles are mostly not Latin in origin, and often from Gaulish . Under some circumstances, Roman religion placed the horse under an explicit ban. Horses were forbidden in

10570-408: The Romans never used chariots in war, though they faced enemies who did. The chariot was part of Roman military culture primarily as the vehicle of the triumphing general , who rode in an ornamented four-horse car markedly impractical for actual war. Most Roman racing practices were of Etruscan origin, part of the Etruscan tradition of public games ( ludi ) and equestrian processions . Chariot racing

10721-411: The Trojan heir to the throne, three times around the tomb of Patroclus; in the version of the Aeneid , it is the city walls that are circled. Variations of the scene occur throughout Roman funerary art. Gregory Nagy sees horses and chariots, and particularly the chariot of Achilles, as embodying the concept of ménos , which he defines as "conscious life, power, consciousness, awareness," associated in

10872-458: The actual docking of the tail of a knight's horse carried a message of emasculation, defamation, and domination. Dozens of such mutilations are recorded in medieval England after the practice was brought in by the Normans . Tail mutilation was carried out frequently enough that it was criminalized and penalties were set in early medieval Germanic, Scandinavian, and Welsh law. As an indication that

11023-428: The age of 42, his lifetime winnings reportedly totalled 35,863,120 sesterces (HS), not counting driver's fees. His personal share of this is unknown but Vamplew calculates that even if Diocles' personal winnings were only a tenth part of the declared prize money, this would have yielded him an average annual income of 150,000 HS. Most races and wins were team efforts, results of co-operation between charioteers of

11174-408: The ankles and was fastened high at the waist with a plain belt. Two straps that crossed high at the upper back prevented the xystis from "ballooning" during the race The body of the chariot rested on the axle, so the ride was bumpy. The most exciting parts of the chariot race, at least for the spectators, were the turns at the ends of the hippodrome. These turns were dangerous and sometimes deadly. In

11325-514: The archaic infantry," performed their rituals emphatically on foot, with dance steps. The equestrian order was of lesser social standing than the senatorial patres , "fathers", who were originally the patricians only. The Magister equitum , "Master of the Horse," was subordinate to the Dictator , who was forbidden the use of the horse except through special legislation. By the late Republic,

11476-430: The army's return and reintegration into society, for which Verrius also accounted by explaining that a horse is suited for war, an ox for tilling. The Romans did not use horses as draft animals for farm work, nor chariots in warfare , but Polybius specifies that the victim is a war horse . The ritual was held outside the pomerium , Rome's sacred boundary, presumably because of its martial character. But agriculture

11627-564: The authorities, rather than acting like assassins or vigilantes. This not only reiterates a very longstanding prohibition of witchcraft throughout the Empire but confirms a reputation that charioteers had for living at the very edge of the law, for violent thefts, blackmail and bullying as debt collectors on their masters' behalf, and an easy-going criminality that could extend to the murder of opponents and enemies, disguised as rough but rightful justice. A sixth-seventh century Byzantine graffito in

11778-496: The back of their racing chariots. Some scholars believe that the event preserved traditions of Homeric warfare. The Romans probably borrowed chariot technology and racing track design from the Etruscans , who in turn had borrowed them from the Greeks. Rome's public entertainments were also influenced directly by Greek examples. Chariot racing as a feature of Roman ludi is attested in Rome's foundation myths, and on 66 of

11929-409: The best could earn more than the wealthiest lawyers and senators. Racing team managers may have competed for the services of particularly skilled drivers and their horses. The drivers could race as individuals, or under team colours: Blue, Green, Red or White. Spectators generally chose to support a single team, and identify themselves with its fortunes. Private betting on the races raised large sums for

12080-527: The blood from the tail was dripped or smeared on the sacred hearth of Rome in October, blood or ashes from the rest of the animal could have been processed and preserved for the suffimen as well. Although no other horse sacrifice in Rome is recorded, Georges Dumézil and others have attempted to exclude the Equus October as the source of equine blood for the Parilia. Another important ingredient for

12231-534: The calendar , Ovid thematically connects bread and war throughout the month of June ( Iunius , a name for which Ovid offers multiple derivations including Juno and "youths", iuniores ). Immediately following the story of Vesta, Priapus, and the ass, Ovid associates Vesta, Mars, and bread in recounting the Gallic siege of Rome . The Gauls were camped in the Field of Mars, and the Romans had taken to their last retreat,

12382-498: The chariot races of the Equirria or the October Horse, it is plausible that they were, and that they were seen as a test or assurance of the lustration's efficacy. The significance of the October Horse's head as a powerful trophy may be illuminated by the caput acris equi , "head of a spirited ('sharp') horse," which Vergil says was uncovered by Dido and her colonists when they began the dig to found Carthage : "by this sign it

12533-402: The chariot was destroyed and the charioteer and horses were incapacitated were called naufragia, (a "shipwreck"). The best charioteers could earn a great deal of prize money, in addition to their contracted subsistence pay. The prize money for up to fourth place was advertised beforehand, with first place winning up to 60,000 sesterces. Detailed records were kept of drivers' performances, and

12684-411: The charioteers themselves performed formal, ritualised mimes, or dances, which won them fame and adulation Preparation for races could involve ritualised public dialogues between charioteers, imperial officials and emperors, a prescribed liturgy of questions, answers, and processional orders of precedence. Each race required the emperor's consent. In the eastern provinces, and Constantinople itself,

12835-606: The city's chariot-racing circuit ( hippodrome ), which had been provided by Septimius Severus . As a Christian emperor, or at least one with Christian leanings, Constantine supported and financed Constantinople's chariot racing infrastructure and overheads in preference to gladiatorial combat, which he considered a vestige of paganism . A possibility of spiritual damage through the witnessing of traditional public spectacles had concerned Christian apologists since at least Tertullian 's time. The Olympic Games were eventually ended by Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379–395) in 393, perhaps in

12986-574: The city's founder, invited the Sabine people to celebrate the Consualia , honouring the grain-god Consus with horse races and chariot races at the Circus Maximus . While the Sabines were enjoying the spectacle, Romulus and his men seized the Sabine women . The women eventually married their captors, and were instrumental in persuading Sabines and Romans to unite as one people. Chariot racing thus played

13137-400: The completed harvest" or "for the sake of the next harvest", since winter wheat was sown in the fall. The phrase has been connected to the divine personification Bonus Eventus , "Good Outcome," who had a temple of unknown date in the Campus Martius and whom Varro lists as one of the twelve agricultural deities . But like other ceremonies in October, the sacrifice occurred during the time of

13288-606: The course of the seventh century, in line with the Empire's dwindling economy and loss of territory. After the Nika riots, the factions had become less antagonistic to imperial authority as their importance and roles in imperial ceremony were increased. The iconoclast emperor Constantine V (r. 741–775) deployed both Green and Blue "rowdies" in his anti-monastic campaigns, staging theatrical shows in which monks and nuns were exposed to public ridicule, abuse and forced marriages. The number of races per race-day declined sharply to eight in

13439-635: The crowd, apparently seeing this offer as both humble and magnanimous, found something like a "popular voice" and shifted their collective posture from opposition to support. Byzantium's theatre claques, which already had a reputation for well-organised violence, were now identified with the racing factions, and were thought to represent the rowdiest, most uncontrollable elements among the Blues and Greens. Blue–Green rivalry increasingly erupted into armed and lethal gang warfare. Justin I (r. 518–527) took severe, but apparently indiscriminate, misdirected and ultimately ineffective measures against urban violence after

13590-427: The description of any Byzantine racing faction, racing sponsor or factional ideology as "populist", nor the conflicts between factions and authorities as expressions of "class conflict" or religious squabling on a grand scale. The urban mass disturbances that characterise much of Byzantium's early history were not associated with racing factions until the 5th century, when the imperial government appointed managers of both

13741-516: The driver of the Greek racing chariot were different persons. In 416 BC, the Athenian general Alcibiades had seven chariots in the race, and came in first, second, and fourth; evidently, he could not have been racing all seven chariots himself. Chariot teams were costly to own and train, and the case of Alcibiades shows that for the wealthy, this was an effective and honourable form of self-publicity; they were not expected to risk their own lives. On

13892-462: The earliest evidence for colour factions is from AD 315, coincident with the extension of imperial authority into local government and public life. The cost of financing the races was split between the factions, the state, the Emperors, and senior officials. The annually appointed consuls were obliged to personally fund their own inaugural games. Members of racing factions (known as demes ), were

14043-544: The entire affair as a failure of the Emperor and his authorities to manage their imperial troops and govern their people, and the almost complete lack of a dedicated police force. Civil law reforms enacted by Justinian I in 541 ensured that only emperors or their representatives could subsidise the races; soon after, the emperor Tiberius II Constantine curbed imperial spending on the factions, which further reduced their power and influence. Chariot racing declined further in

14194-605: The entrance-ways to the track. It was thought to be malevolent, as it terrified horses for no apparent reason when they raced past it, and was a major cause of crashes. Pausanias reports that consequently "the charioteers offer sacrifice, and pray that Taraxippus may show himself propitious". It might simply have marked the most dangerous and difficult section of track, at the semi-circular end. Pausanias describes very similar, identically named places in other Greek hippodromes. Their name may have been an epithet of Poseidon , patron deity of horses and horse-racing. Races began with

14345-482: The event. Spectators could watch from natural embankments to the north, and artificial embankments to the south and east. A place on the western side of the north bank was reserved for the judges. Pausanias does not describe a central dividing barrier at Olympia, but archaeologist Vikatou presumes one. Pausanias offers several theories regarding the origins of an object named Taraxippus ("Horse-disturber"), an ancient round altar, tomb or Heroon embedded within one of

14496-465: The excitement and interest for spectators. Most charioteers were slaves or contracted professionals. While records almost invariably credit victorious owners and their horses for winning, their drivers are often not mentioned at all. In the ancient Olympic Games , and other Panhellenic Games , chariot racing was one of the most important equestrian events, and could be watched by unmarried women. Married women were banned from watching any Olympic events but

14647-482: The fact on his coinage, claiming it as divine confirmation of his legitimacy as Greek overlord. Women could win races through ownership, though there was a ban on the participation of married women as competitors or even spectators at the Olympics, supposedly on pain of death; this was not typical of Greek festivals in general, and there is no consistent record of this ban, or the penalty's enforcement. The Spartan Cynisca , daughter of Archidamus II , entered and won

14798-499: The factions in confirming the legitimacy of emperors became a formal requirement. The factions were represented as loyal commoners, or "the people". Social discontent and disturbances in Constantinople tended to focus on the Hippodrome, which was not only ideal for racing but by far the largest and most conveniently designed space for mass meetings and their containment. The structure of the Hippodrome in Constantinople allowed

14949-413: The first two laps. Then they were free to jockey for position, cutting across the paths of their competitors, moving as close to the spina as they could, and whenever possible forcing their opponents to find another, much longer route forwards. Every team included a hortator , who rode horseback and signalled their faction's charioteers to help them navigate the dangers of the track. Roman drivers wrapped

15100-405: The foolish practice seems to me to exhibit not only ignorance but pedantry in supposing that in sacrificing a horse they do so because Troy was said to have been taken by means of a horse. Plutarch (d. 120 AD) also offers a Trojan origin as a possibility, noting that the Romans claimed to have descended from the Trojans and would want to punish the horse that betrayed the city. Festus said that this

15251-462: The foot race of a stadion (approximately 600 feet) offered the greater prestige. Votive offerings associated with Olympic victories include horses and chariots. The single horse race (the keles ) was a late arrival at the games, dropped early in their history. The major chariot-races of the Olympic and other Panhellenic Games, were four-horse ( tethrippon , τέθριππον ) and two-horse ( synoris , συνωρὶς ) events. Pausanias describes

15402-552: The freshly bloodied cauda was carried to the Regia for sprinkling the sacred hearth of Rome . Ancient references to the Equus October are scattered over more than six centuries: the earliest is that of Timaeus (3rd century BC), who linked the sacrifice to the Trojan Horse and the Romans' claim to Trojan descent, with the latest in the Calendar of Philocalus (354 AD), where it is noted as still occurring, even as Christianity

15553-412: The god of death and the underworld in the shape of a horse." The two-horse chariot races ( bigae ) that preceded the October Horse sacrifice determined the selection of the optimal victim. In a dual yoke, the right-hand horse was the lead or strongest animal, and thus the one from the winning chariot was chosen as the most potent offering for Mars. Chariots have a rich symbolism in Roman culture, but

15704-455: The grain from the Campus Martius had already been gathered for threshing . Even though the tyrant's other property had been seized and redistributed among the people, the consuls declared that the harvest was under religious prohibition. In recognition of the new political liberty, a vote was taken on the matter, after which the grain and chaff were willingly thrown into the Tiber river. Frazer saw

15855-569: The grove of Diana Nemorensis , and the patrician Flamen Dialis was religiously prohibited from riding a horse. Mars, however, was associated with horses at his Equirria festivals and the equestrian "Troy Game" , which was one of the events Augustus staged for the dedication of the Temple of Mars Ultor in 2 BC. Horse sacrifice was regularly offered by peoples the Romans classified as " barbarians ," such as Scythians , but also at times by Greeks. In Macedonia , "horses in armor" were sacrificed as

16006-499: The hard-breathing horse in its contest are thought to intensify or concentrate this mana or numen . In honoring the god who presided over the Roman census , which among other functions registered the eligibility of young men for military service, the festivals of Mars have a strongly lustral character. A lustration was performed in the Campus Martius following the census. Although lustral ceremonies are not recorded as occurring before

16157-399: The horse tail represented or was associated with the penis, a 13th-century English law condemned a rapist not only to lose his life and limbs but also to have both the genitals and the tail of his horse cut off. In one of the most striking incidents, on Christmas Eve 1170, four days before Thomas Becket was martyred, an enemy cut off the tail of one of his horses and taunted him with it as

16308-526: The horse's head suggests its talismanic potency. The substance hippomanes , which was thought to induce sexual passion, was supposedly exuded from the forehead of a foal; Aelian ( ca. 175–235 AD) says either the forehead or "loins." Called amor by Vergil, it is an ingredient in Dido's ritual preparations before her suicide in the Aeneid . On Roman funerary reliefs, the deceased is often depicted riding on

16459-527: The imperial era, the pulvinar in the Circus Maximus was directly connected to the imperial palace, on the Palatine Hill. Several deities had permanent temples, shrines or images on the dividing barrier ( spina or euripus ) of the circus. While the entertainment value of chariot races tended to overshadow any sacred purpose, in late antiquity the Church Fathers still saw them as

16610-457: The invention of the two-horse chariot to the " Phrygians ", an ethnic designation that the Romans came to regard as synonymous with "Trojan." In the Greek narrative tradition, chariots played a role in Homeric warfare, reflecting their importance among the historical Mycenaeans . By the time the Homeric epics were composed, however, fighting from chariot was no longer a part of Greek warfare, and

16761-508: The later imperial era, and some modern scholars, argue against the legal status of charioteers as infames , on the grounds that athletic competitions were not mere entertainment but "seemed useful" as honourable displays of Roman strength and virtus . Most Roman charioteers started their careers as slaves, who had neither reputation nor honour to lose. Of more than 200 dedications to named charioteers catalogued by Horsmann  [ de ] , more than half are of unknown social status. Of

16912-428: The likelihood of human error. Portable starting gates ( hyspleges , singular: hysplex ), employed a tight cord in a wooden frame, loosened to drop forwards and start the race. According to Pausanias, the chariot furthest from the start-line began to move, followed by the rest in sequence, so that when the final gate was opened, all the chariots would be in motion at the starting line. A bronze eagle (a sign of Zeus , who

17063-560: The names, breeds and pedigrees of famous horses. Betting on results was widespread, among all classes. Most races involved four-horse chariots ( quadrigae ), or less often, two-horse chariots ( bigae ). Just to display the skill of the driver and his horses, up to ten horses could be yoked to a single chariot. The quadriga races were the most important and frequent. Magnates and emperors courted popularity by staging and subsidising as many races as they could, as often as possible. In Rome, races usually lasted 7 laps, or even 5, rather than

17214-551: The natural slopes and valley (the Vallis Murcia ) between the Palatine Hill and Aventine Hill . It had a vast seating capacity; Boatwright estimates this as 150,000 before its rebuilding under Julius Caesar , and 250,000 under Trajan . According to Humphrey, the higher seating estimate is traditional but excessive, and even at its greatest capacity, the circus probably accommodated no more than about 150,000. It

17365-452: The other hand, they were not necessarily dishonoured when they did. The poet Pindar praised Herodotes for driving his own chariot, "using his own hands rather than another's". Entries were exclusively Greek, or claimed to be so. Philip II of Macedon , pre-eminent through his conquest of most Greek states and self-promotion as a divinity, entered his horse and chariot teams in several major pan-Hellenic events, and won several. He celebrated

17516-446: The people to voice their religious and political opinion in the presence of the emperor, thus empowering the charioteers who were presented as political mediators between the people and the emperor. In 498, the crowd showed its dissatisfaction with the emperor Anastasius by launching a hail of stones at the kathisma ; during a near-revolutionary riot of 512 at the Hippodrome, the same emperor feared for his life, and offered to abdicate;

17667-486: The preliminary parade ( pompa circensis ) of the first Roman Games . The tail of the wolf, an animal regularly associated with Mars , was said by Pliny to contain amatorium virus, aphrodisiac power. Dumézil rejected any phallic significance for the tail. Plutarch relates that at the conclusion of the Sicilian Expedition (413 BC), among the many humiliations inflicted by the victorious Syracusans on

17818-567: The price of their eventual manumission . While most freed slave-charioteers would have become clients of their former master , some would have earned more than enough to buy their freedom outright, assuming they survived that long. Scorpus won over 2,000 races before being killed in a collision at the meta when he was about 27 years old. The charioteer Florus' tomb inscription describes him as infans (not adult). Gaius Appuleius Diocles won 1,462 out of 4,257 races for various teams during his exceptionally long and lucky career. When he retired at

17969-488: The procurement of spells. One charioteer was beheaded for having his young son trained in witchcraft to help him win his races; and another burnt at the stake for practising witchcraft. The horses, too, could become celebrities; they were purpose-bred and were trained relatively late, from 5 years old. The Romans favoured particular native breeds from Hispania and north Africa. One of Diocles' horses, named Cotynus, raced with him in various teams 445 times, alongside Abigeius,

18120-520: The race record. Another key performer in a standard quadriga race was the right-hand yoke-horse. Celebrity horses named in Diocles' extraordinary record of 445 races and more than 100 wins in a year include Pompeianus, Lucidus and Galata. Constantine I (r. 306–337) refounded the eastern Greek city of Byzantium as a "New Rome", to serve as the administrative center of the eastern half of the Empire, and renamed it Constantinople. He replaced or restored

18271-484: The race's progress. The emperor Domitian created two new factions, the Purples and Golds, but they vanished from the record very soon after his death. The Blues and the Greens gradually became the most prestigious factions, supported by emperors and the populace alike. Blue versus Green clashes sometimes broke out during the races. The Reds and Whites are seldom mentioned in the literature, but their continued activity

18422-512: The races. The factions offered security to their members in return for their loyalty and contributions, and were headed by a patron or patrons. Each faction employed a large staff to serve and support their charioteers. Every circus seems to have independently followed the same model of organisation, including the four-colour naming system: Red, White, Blue, and Green. Senior managers ( domini factionum ) were usually of equestrian class. Investors were often wealthy, but of lower social status; driving

18573-486: The reins round their waist, and steered using their body weight; with the reins looped around their torsos, they could lean from one side to the other to direct the horses' movement while keeping the hands free "for the whip and such". A driver who became entangled in a crash risked being trampled or dragged along the track by his own horses; charioteers carried a curved knife ( falx ) to cut their reins, and wore helmets and other protective gear. Spectacular crashes in which

18724-422: The remainder, 66 are slaves, 14 are freedmen, 13 either slaves or freedmen and only one a freeborn citizen. All race competitors, regardless of their social status or whether they completed the race, were paid a driver's fee. Slave-charioteers could not lawfully own property, including money, but their masters could pay them regardless, or retain all or some accumulated driving fees and winnings on their behalf, as

18875-455: The ritual preparation suffimen or suffimentum , which the Vestals compounded for use in the lustration of shepherds and their sheep at the Parilia. Propertius may imply that this horse was not an original part of the preparation: "the purification rites ( lustra ) are now renewed by means of the dismembered horse". Ovid specifies that the horse's blood was used for the suffimen . While

19026-514: The sacred rite ( res divina ) . In a separate passage, the Augustan antiquarian Verrius Flaccus adds the detail that the horse's head is adorned with bread. The Calendar of Philocalus notes that on October 15 "the Horse takes place at the Nixae," either an altar to birth deities ( di nixi ) or less likely an obscure landmark called the Ciconiae Nixae . According to Roman tradition,

19177-573: The same faction, but victories won in single races were the most highly esteemed by drivers and their public. Charioteers followed a ferociously competitive, charismatic profession, routinely risked violent death, and aroused a compulsive, even morbid reverence among their followers. A supporter of the Red faction is said to have thrown himself on the funeral pyre of his favourite charioteer. More usually, some charioteers and supporters tried to enlist supernatural help by covertly burying curse tablets at or near

19328-482: The same horse team that he had defeated earlier, virtually eliminating mere chance or better horses as the deciding factors in both victories. In Byzantine chariot racing, the expected standards of professional athleticsm were very high. Competitors were sometimes assigned to age categories, though very loosely; youths under approximately 17 (described as "beardless"), young men (17–20), and adult men over 20; but skill counted more than age, or stamina. In some circumstances,

19479-486: The single epigram to Anastasius offers very little personal information, but Porphyrius is the subject of thirty-four. He is described as the best charioteer of his time; and as the only charioteer known to have won the diversium twice in one day. The diversium was unique to Byzantine chariot racing, a formal rematch between the winner and a loser, in which the competing charioteers drove each other's team and chariot. A winning charioteer could thus win twice over, driving

19630-455: The sleeping generals and delivers an oracular message: they are to throw that which they least want to surrender from the citadel onto the enemy. Puzzled at first, as is conventional in receiving an oracle, the Romans then throw down the loaves of bread as weapons against the shields and helmets of the Gauls, causing the enemy to despair of starving Rome into submission. J.G. Frazer pointed to

19781-426: The sun, as the biga did the moon. A Persian horse-sacrifice to " Hyperion clothed in rays of light" was noted by Ovid and Greek sources. In contrast to cultures that offered a horse to the war god in advance to ask for success, the Roman horse sacrifice marked the close of the military campaigning season. Among the Romans, horse- and chariot-races were characteristic of "old and obscure" religious observances such as

19932-600: The tail of a stallion carrying a rider; although the dwarf has sometimes been interpreted as the horse-threatening Taraxippus , the phallus is more typically an apotropaic talisman ( fascinum ) to ward off malevolence. Satyrs and sileni , though later characterized as goat-like, in the Archaic period were regularly depicted with equine features, including a prominent horsetail; they were known for uncontrolled sexuality, and are often ithyphallic in art. Satyrs are first recorded in Roman culture as part of ludi , appearing in

20083-491: The teams, drivers and wealthy backers. Generous imperial subsidies of " bread and circuses " kept the Roman masses fed, entertained and distracted. Organised violence between rival racing factions was not uncommon, but it was generally contained. Roman and later Byzantine emperors , mistrustful of private organisations as potentially subversive, took control of the teams, especially the Blues and Greens, and appointed officials to manage them. Chariot racing faded in importance in

20234-401: The track to begin the race, each enclosed within a cell known as a carcere ("prison") behind a spring-loaded gate. These were functionally equivalent to the Greek hysplex but were further staggered to accommodate a median barrier, known originally as a euripus (canal) but much later as the spina (spine). When the chariots were ready the editor , usually a high-status magistrate, dropped

20385-516: The track, appealing to spirits and deities of the underworld for the success of their favourites or disaster for their opponents; a common practise among Romans of all classes though like all magic, strictly illegal, and punishable by death. Some of the most talented and successful charioteers were suspected of winning through the illicit agency of dark forces. Ammianus Marcellinus , writing during Valentinian 's reign (AD 364–375), describes various cases of chariot drivers prosecuted for witchcraft or

20536-583: The tradition that Troy had fallen in October. The October Horse figured in the elaborate efforts of the 19th-century chronologist Edward Greswell to ascertain the date of that event. Greswell assumed that the Equus October commemorated the date Troy fell, and after accounting for adjustments to the original Roman calendar as a result of the Julian reform , arrived at October 19, 1181 BC. Chariot racing Chariot racing ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : ἁρματοδρομία , harmatodromía ; Latin : ludi circenses )

20687-427: The typical 12 laps of the Greek race. Some emperors were spendthrift enthusiasts; Caligula sponsored 10–12 races a day, Nero sponsored 20–24 a day. Commodus once held and subsidised 30 races in just 2 hours of a single afternoon; Dio Cassius predicted that such extravagance could only lead to government bankruptcy. In a previous century, the emperor Domitian had managed to squeeze an extraordinary 100 races into

20838-407: The view of spectators on the trackside's lower seats, which were close to the action. At each end of the spina was a meta , or turning point, consisting of three large gilded columns. Seats in the Circus were free for the poor, and either free or subsidised for the mass of citizens ( plebs ), whose lack of involvement in late Republican and Imperial politics was compensated, as far as Juvenal

20989-436: The wealthiest aristocrats, whose reputations and status benefitted from offering such extravagant, exciting displays. Their successes could be further broadcast and celebrated through commissioned odes and other poetry. In standard Greek racing practise, each chariot held a single driver and was pulled by four horses, or sometimes two. Drivers and horses risked serious injury or death through collisions and crashes; this added to

21140-599: The winning team in the two-horse chariot races. The customary competition for its head between the residents of the Suburra and those of the Sacra Via was no trivial affair; the latter would get to attach it to the wall of the Regia, or the former to the Mamilian Tower . Its tail was transported to the Regia with sufficient speed that the blood from it could be dripped onto the hearth for the sake of becoming part of

21291-399: Was Rome's earliest and greatest circus. Its basic form and footprint were thought more or less coeval with the city's foundation, or with Rome's earliest Etruscan kings. Julius Caesar rebuilt it around 50 BC to a length of about 650 metres (2,130 ft) and width of 125 metres (410 ft). It had a semi-circular end, and a semi-open, slightly angled end where the chariots lined up across

21442-467: Was a common belief, but rejects it on the same grounds as Polybius. Mars and a horse's head appear on opposite sides of the earliest Roman didrachm , introduced during the Pyrrhic War , which was the subject of Timaeus's book. Michael Crawford attributes Timaeus's interest in the October Horse to the appearance of this coinage in conjunction with the war. Walter Burkert has suggested that while

21593-456: Was also an extra-urban activity, as Vitruvius indicates when he notes that the correct sacred place for Ceres was outside the city (extra urbem loco) . In Rome's early history, the roles of soldier and farmer were complementary: In early Rome agriculture and military activity were closely bound up, in the sense that the Roman farmer was also a soldier. … In the case of the October Horse, for example, we should not be trying to decide whether it

21744-487: Was becoming the dominant religion of the Empire . Most scholars see an Etruscan influence on the early formation of the ceremonies. The October Horse is the only instance of horse sacrifice in Roman religion; the Romans typically sacrificed animals that were a normal part of their diet. The unusual ritual of the October Horse has thus been analyzed at times in light of other Indo-European forms of horse sacrifice , such as

21895-449: Was concerned, by an endless supply of handouts and entertainments, or panem et circenses (" bread and circuses "). The seating nearest the track was reserved for senators, the rows behind them for equites and the remainder for everyone else. The better-off could pay for shaded seats with a better view. The Vestal virgins occupied their own privileged seating, close to the track. Men and women were supposed to occupy segregated seating but

22046-464: Was directed at actual practices; binding spells ( defixiones ) have been found at race tracks. The defixio sometimes employed the spirits of the prematurely dead to work harm. On Greek racetracks , the turning posts were heroes' tombs or altars for propitiating malevolent spirits who might cause harm to the men or horses. The design of the turning posts (metae) on a Roman race course was derived from Etruscan funerary monuments. Pliny attributes

22197-617: Was imported from Magna Graecia no earlier than the 6th century BC. Images of chariot races were considered good luck, but the races themselves were magnets for magic in attempts to influence the outcome. One law from the Theodosian Code , published in AD 438, prohibits charioteers from using magic to win, on pain of death. Some of the ornaments placed on horses were good-luck charms or devices to ward off malevolence, including bells, wolves' teeth, crescents, and brands . This counter-magic

22348-419: Was kept in the Regia, the destination of the October Horse's tail. Sacrificial victims were normally felled with a mallet and securis (sacrificial axe), and other implements would have been necessary for dismembering the horse. A spear was used against the bull in a taurobolium , perhaps as a remnant of the ritual's origin as a hunt, but otherwise it is a sacrificial oddity. Because the sacrifice took place in

22499-400: Was one of the most popular ancient Greek , Roman , and Byzantine sports. In Greece, chariot racing played an essential role in aristocratic funeral games from a very early time. With the institution of formal races and permanent racetracks, chariot racing was adopted by many Greek states and their religious festivals. Horses and chariots were very costly. Their ownership was a preserve of

22650-410: Was patron of the Olympic games) was raised to start the race, and at each lap, a bronze dolphin (a sign of Poseidon) was lowered. The central pair of horses did most of the heavy pulling, via the yoke. The flanking pair pulled and guided, using their traces. Horse teams were highly trained, and tractable. Greek aficionadoes thought mares the best horses for chariot racing. In most cases, the owner and

22801-556: Was shown that the race ( gens ) would be distinguished in war and abound with the means of life." The 4th-century agricultural writer Palladius advised farmers to place the skull of a horse or ass on their land; the animals were not to be "virgin," because the purpose was to promote fertility. The practice may be related to the effigies known as oscilla , figures or faces that Vergil says were hung from pine trees by mask-wearing Ausonian farmers of Trojan descent when they were sowing seed. The location of sexual vitality or fertility in

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