Why is chariot racing dangerous

The poet Ovid gives an entertaining account of a visit to the races, where he goes not so much to look at the chariots but to look at the girls and try to pick them up as they are being jostled by the crowd. The whole sense of his poem is about the packed nature of the crowd and excitement of the occasion, and he is trying to be Mr.

Charming, the knight in shining armor to a girl who has been jostled around; ultimately it was all a ploy on his part. Learn more about where Roman slaves came from. We also hear from inscriptions of the enormous popularity of individual charioteers, who often became the superstars of their day. By far the most famous and successful charioteer raced during the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius in the 2nd century AD.

He was an immensely popular and immensely wealthy man at his death. Another charioteer mentioned in historical sources was a young man called Scorpius, who seemed to have a great career ahead of him for the green faction when, unfortunately, he crashed into the finishing post, and his career came to a swift end at the end of the 1st century AD.

Learn more about the construction of the Roman Colosseum. In the end, the emperor had to send in the troops, with the result that 7, people were killed in the ensuing chaos. The support of the charioteers for their faction was noticeable. All kinds of underhanded stories are told of charioteers poisoning other charioteers or trying to poison their horses so they would perform poorly the next day. The fanatical support of the mob for their individual factions is commented on again and again in the sources.

We hear that in AD one charioteer from one of the factions in Thessalonica in Greece made a sexual advance on a Roman general in the area, and he was ordered to be arrested. When word got out, the supporters of his faction rioted, lynched the general concerned, broke their charioteer out of jail, and, continuing to riot, burned down the center of the city of Thessalonica.

In the end, the emperor had to send in troops, with the result that 7, people were killed in the ensuing chaos. Learn more about what Romans ate, where they lived, what their homes were like, and what they did for a living. The following curse survives from an inscription in which a person who hates the green and white factions calls down the following curse upon their horses and drivers.

The curse reads:. This rivalry sometimes resulted in fights between spectators. On one occasion, Emperor Vitellius , who was a strong supporter of the Blues, had several spectators executed for shouting out rude comments about his team. The race was made up of seven laps 8. Each lap was marked by the lowering of an egg from a platform.

Each faction would provide one, two or three chariots for every race. If more than one from each faction was used, the drivers raced as a team rather than as individuals.

There were twelve starting-boxes and the drivers would draw lots to decide where they started from. The best draw was on the rails as it was the shortest way round. However, it was also the most dangerous because if the chariot hit the spina a long thin island in the middle of the arena the driver was in danger of being thrown out into the path of the other teams.

Horses had to be very brave to run so close to the walls of the spina and the most important horse was the one at the front on the left. The best horses were imported from Africa and Hispania. The lead-horse would be named on the racecard, and during the race the crowd would chant the name of this horse, the driver or the faction.

Before the race started the driver would wrap the reins around his waist and then hold them with his left hand. In his right hand he would carry his whip. The successful charioteer was not only able to persuade his horses to go fast but was also skilled at impeding his rivals.

As the race neared its end the tactics became more violent. The charioteers would try to 'shipwreck' the leader by whipping their horses into the back of his chariot. Another tactic was to try and break your rival's axle by driving your chariot into his wheels. If he was 'shipwrecked', the charioteer had to quickly draw his dagger and cut the reins wound around him. If he failed to do this he would be dragged along the floor by the horses and was likely to be killed or seriously injured.

Many drivers were thrown from a broken or overturned chariot. Given the dangerous nature of the sport, chariot racing was very expensive. The chariot was a fast, light, open, two-wheeled conveyance drawn by two or more horses that were hitched side by side, and was little more than a floor with a waist-high guard at the front and sides.

The chariot apparently originated in Mesopotamia in about bc; monuments from Ur and Tutub depict battle parades that include heavy vehicles with solid wheels, their bodywork framed with wood and covered with skins.

The two-wheeled horse-drawn chariot was one of the most important inventions in history.