Chariot races survive today only in the form of harness
racing, a sport far less thrilling and less dangerous than
the chariot races of classical times. The origins of chariot racing are not fully known, but it was a major public sport and spectacle in ancient Greece and Rome. It
declined with the decline of Rome and, with the chariot, has disappeared as a cultural activity.
History
Chariot racing could not have emerged before the domestication of horses and the invention of the twowheeled light chariot, preconditions fulfilled at the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E., but it is not
known for sure where the first races took place. Archeological evidence suggests that eastern Anatolia played
a leading role in the first phase of horse-taming and
chariot-making; other possible sites include Mesopotamia, among the Hittites, or in ancient Egypt. By the
middle of the second millennium B.C.E., it was known
not only in Egypt and the ancient Near East but also in
India and among the Mycenean Greeks. (Somewhat
later, chariots appeared in China as well.) Chariots were
culturally important as status symbols, which gave the
chariot race a certain aristocratic flair. The oldest depictions of chariot races come from late Mycenean
Greece in the 13th century B.C.E. In Greece, the sport experienced its first great flowering.
The first unambiguous evidence is the first depiction of a chariot race on a late Mycenean amphora from
the city Tiryns in southern Greece. On this 13th-century B.C.E. vase, as in later sources, chariot racing appears in conjunction with a funeral ritual. The most
vividly detailed account appears in Book XXIII of
Homer’s Iliad where he describes the chariot race as
the most splendid sporting event in the funeral games
held in honor of Achilles’ friend Patroclus, slain by the
Trojan hero Hector. Homer’s account of the race is more
than twice as long as his report on the other seven athletic events, a statement about the importance of chariot racing.
After the Homeric age, chariot racing remained a
popular sport for centuries. No important athletic meet
was complete without a chariot race, and the chariot
race was often the high point of an athletic festival. Until the very end of the race’s Greek history it remained
an aristocratic—at times even a royal—property, unsurprising given the expense of a stable of horses and
the costs of sending a four-horse chariot to Olympia.
Chariot races figure frequently in the visual arts of
Etruscan civilization, where they clearly had a significant place, especially in the first half of the 5th century
B.C.E. In eleven different tombs, chariot races can be
seen in frescoes of the highest quality and are a motif in
ceramics and in stone and bronze reliefs.The depictions
of chariot races—and other sports—in tomb frescoes
strongly suggest that they were a part of funeral games
in honor of the deceased. Etruscan evidence shows
characteristics of the sport unknown in Greek iconography—such as the use of a crash helmet and the custom of knotting the reins tightly at the charioteer’s back.
Chariot races reached their height of popularity in
Roman times, in Rome’s huge Circus Maximus. The
satirical poet Juvenal’s famous reference to panem et
circenses (“bread and circuses”) expressed his dismay
at a public depoliticized and deprived of its rights by
the ancient equivalent of food stamps and football
games. Victorious charioteers enjoyed great fame and
received immense sums in prize money. The Romans
left monumental material evidence of their passion for
chariot racing. From the Imperium Romanum 74 largeformat structures have survived, some of them in excellent condition. Outside of Rome, the chief geographical centers of chariot racing were southern Spain, North
Africa, and the Near East (Syria, Palestine, Egypt). The
northernmost “circus” was constructed in what is now
the German city of Trier (Augusta Treverorum).
The last chariot races held in the city of Rome took
place in 549 C.E. under Totila, king of the conquering
Ostrogoths. When the seat of empire was shifted to
Byzantium (renamed Constantinople), chariot races
continued until the Crusaders seized the city in 1204.
After the fall of Rome, the passion for chariot races
survived in the Hippodrome at Constantinople, the
capital of the Byzantine Empire, where they became a
part of official state ceremony. Although the seizure of
the city by Crusaders, in 1204, briefly interrupted the
races, they resumed after the intruders were expelled
and continued until the conquest of Constantinople by
the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
The rule that declared the owner of the chariot to be
the victor, rather than the charioteer, allowed women
who were otherwise excluded from the Olympic Games
to become Olympic victors. The first was the Spartan
princess Cynisca, whose victor’s inscription proudly
testifies to her lineage. Among the later victors was
Queen Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy III of Egypt.
Rules and Play
Conventions of chariot racing varied by region. Rome
provides one example: The chariots started when the
games’ sponsor dropped a white cloth. At the same
time, a mechanical device opened the gates of the starting boxes (carceres), which were staggered across the
width of the stadium in order to give every chariot an
equal opportunity to reach the breakpoint.
The usual distance for a race was seven rounds, approximately 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). Since roughly 15
minutes were required to complete a race, it may have
been possible hold up to 24 races in a day. Between
races it was customary to keep the spectators entertained with running, jumping, and throwing events or
other “pause fillers.” The standings of the factions were
indicated by means of a movable “scoreboard” consisting of seven artificial dolphins or seven oversized eggs.
Most charioteers (agitatores or aurigae) came from
the lower classes. Success, which sometimes meant frequent changes in team membership, brought not only
great fame but also a substantial income. Roman chariot races are best understood, from a sports-historical
perspective, if one compares them with modern soccer
(association football) games; they even kept detailed
statistics.
Professional charioteers lived dangerous lives. A
spill could all too easily take a driver’s life. In an attempt to safeguard the charioteer from an accidental
death, protective gear was developed; there were
leather pads for the thighs and chest, and a leather
crash helmet too. The charioteer carried a sharp knife
with which, in the event of a crash, he could free himself from entangling reins.
Chariot racing enjoyed a brief revival in the 14th
and 15th centuries when Renaissance scholars rediscovered Greek and Roman sports and were inspired to
imitate the ancients. In Florence and elsewhere, they
staged chariot races. They were not very successful and
never reached the appeal of classical times centuries
earlier.
—WOLFGANG DECKER
Bibliography: Cameron, Alan. (1976) Circus Factions: Blues
and Greens at Rome and Byzantium. Oxford: Clarendon
Press. Decker, Wolfgang. (1992) Sports and Games of Ancient Egypt, trans. by Allen Guttmann. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press. Humphrey, John H. (1986) Roman
Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing. London: B. T. Batsford.