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Chariot racing (Ancient Greek: ἁρματοδρομία, harmatodromía; Latin: ludi circenses) 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.
Gaius Appuleius Diocles (104 – after 146 AD) was a Roman charioteer.His existence and career are attested by two highly detailed contemporary inscriptions, used by modern historians to help reconstruct the likely conduct and techniques of chariot racing.
The Circus Maximus (Latin for "largest circus"; Italian: Circo Massimo) is an ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium and mass entertainment venue in Rome, Italy.In the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire.
During the first century, people across Rome were obsessed with chariot races, which frequently produced horrific crashes.However, one charioteer steered his way to victory more than 2,000 times ...
However, Roman customs were influenced by the Greeks in a direct way, especially after they conquered mainland Greece in 146 BC. According to one Roman legend Romulus used the stratagem of organizing a chariot race shortly after the founding of Rome to distract the Sabines. While the Sabines were enjoying the spectacle Romulus and his men ...
Denarius depicting the helmeted head of Mars, with Victory driving a biga on the reverse (issued 88 BC by Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus). The Equirria (also as Ecurria, from equicurria, "horse races") were two ancient Roman festivals of chariot racing, or perhaps horseback racing, [1] held in honor of the god Mars, one 27 February and the other 14 March.
Horse- and chariot-races were part of the ludi, sacred games held during Roman religious festivals, from Archaic times. A magistrate who presented games was entitled to ride in a biga. [13] The sacral meaning of the races, though diminished over time, [14] was preserved by iconography in the Circus Maximus, Rome's main racetrack.
A popular legend that has been around since at least 1937 traces the origin of the 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in standard railroad gauge to Roman times, [59] suggesting that it was based on the distance between the ruts of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire.