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The circus rules give something useful at least – but you on the right though, whoever you are, be careful of my girl: the poking of your elbow’s hurting her. May each of us win through the favour of his lady! Why move away, in vain? The rows force us together. As when the Pisan’s spear nearly killed Pelops, when he glanced at your face, Hippodamia! Of course he still won because of his girl’s favour. If I caught sight of you as I rushed by, I’d falter, and the slack reins would fall from my hands.
Ancient rome chariot races driver#
Happy the charioteer you like! What’s he got, to make him dear to you? Let it be me, flung from the starting gate, I’d be the brave driver urging the horses on, now I’d give them their heads, now touch their backs with the whip, now scrape the turning post with my inside wheel. You watch the track, and I watch you: we’ll both see what delights us, and both feast our eyes. I come to speak to you, and sit with you, in case you don’t notice how my love’s on fire. I’m not sitting here studying the horses’ form: though I still hope that the one you like wins. Ovid’s poem about supporting his mistress’s teams show a little of the enthusiasm for the various factions
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But my guests may speak of the rival factions in the circus, and my drink shall make no man guilty.
Ancient rome chariot races free#
Like sports, factions were the sort of subject you’d talk about over dinner, as the poet Martial mentions in this invitation to a dinner party:Įverything will be seasoned with pleasantry free from bitterness there shall be no unchecked conversation that brings regret the next day, and nothing said that we should wish unsaid. In case, however, that this event might not be attributed to the great excellence of the dead man in his art, and so add to his glory, the other parties all declared that he had been overpowered by the strength of the perfumes. We find it stated in the Annals, that when Felix, a charioteer of the Reds, was placed on the funeral pile, one of his admirers threw himself upon the pile a very stupid way to behave. We are not sure when the factions started, but our first mention of them is from the 70s BCE when one of the supporters of the Reds threw himself in the funeral pyre of the charioteer Felix: Charioteers were the superstars of the ancient sporting world – far more so than gladiators – and some earned immense sums (see, for example, Diocles’ inscription below), although they risked life and limb to do so. Once, when the charioteers refused to race until they were paid more money, one aedile threatened to race dogs two crumbled but the Blues and Greens held out. In addition to horses there were more exotic forms of chariot racing, with animals like elephants and camels. Sometimes the factions raced pairs of chariots or teamed up against each other, racing two against two. Most races involved all four factions racing against each other either in two or four horse chariots (there could be chariot teams that had up to 10 horses, but those were not used regularly). Fans were incredibly devoted to their factions, which were run as private enterprises owned by those of equestrian status until quite late, only being taken over the emperors in the 300s CE.
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Unlike supporting gladiators, supporting factions brought very, very strong passions to the fore.
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Domitian added two more (Purple and Gold) but they did not have last long. There were four racing factions in Rome: the Reds the Greens the Blues and the Whites. the importance of the factions to fans of chariot racingįrom top left to bottom right, the Roman parties: the “Greens”, “Reds”, “Whites” and “Blue”.the organization of chariot racing into four factions.