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Modern depiction (1876) by Jean Léon Gérôme of a chariot race in Rome's Circus Maximus, as if seen from the starting gate. The Palatine Hill and imperial palace are to the left. Chariot racing (Ancient Greek: ἁρματοδρομία, harmatodromía; Latin: ludi circenses) was one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sports.
In Greek, a four-horse chariot was known as τέθριππον téthrippon. [3] The four-horse abreast arrangement in a quadriga is distinct from the more common four-in-hand array of two horses in the front plus two horses behind those. Quadrigae were raced in the Ancient Olympic Games and other contests.
Cimon was a well-known chariot race organizer, winning three consecutive times the chariot race, one of the most important competitions of the Ancient Olympic Games. In fact, the renown of the victory in the chariot race was given to the organizer of the team, who was funding the chariot, breeding the horses and hiring the charioteer. [3]
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.
The depiction of this chariot race on the east pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, along with that of the Twelve Labours of Heracles on the metopes of the frieze, relate to the location of the temple in Olympia; the chariot race and Heracles were both believed to have started the tradition of the Olympic Games. [3]
The equestrian sports of the time were the tethrippon, the apene, the synoris, the tethrippon for foals, the synoris for foals, the perfect keles race, the kalpe and the pole horse race. According to mythology, the first chariot race took place in Olympia between King Pelops and King Oenomaus of Pisa. In the ancient Olympic Games the jockeys ...
Except for the chariot race, all the events were performed nude. [10] Since the Olympic Games was the original and the pinnacle of all the games in the circuit, each festival might have had its own events but had to include all the events that took place at the Olympics, according to Young. [ 11 ]
The Charioteer of Delphi, also known as Heniokhos (Greek: Ἡνίοχος, the rein-holder), is a statue surviving from Ancient Greece, and an example of ancient bronze sculpture. The life-size (1.8m) [1] statue of a chariot driver was found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi. [2] It is now in the Delphi Archaeological Museum.