Journal articles on the topic 'Chariots. Chariot racing'

Formal chariot racing was a sophisticated and popular sport for over 1800 years, from Etruria in the 6th c. B.C. down to the fall of Constantinople, and the races held in a large number of circuses and hippodromes imply that huge numbers of racing chariots were made over the course of those centuries. It may therefore be thought surprising that no racing machine has been found, but the dearth of such hardware is plausible given the perishable wood and leather components of the lightweight vehicles and the desirability of recycling the metal parts. In this situation a particular artifact must be accorded special significance. It is a hand-sized bronze model of a Roman racing biga, known as the Tiber model because found in the river. Dated to the 1st-2nd c. A.D., it is now on display in the British Museum (GR 1894.10-30.1, Bronze 2694). With this model as our guide, all the major dimensions of Roman racing chariots have been reasonably well determined; further, several technical aspects (some obvious, others quite subtle) of actual racing chariots can be established from it. Among the subtle details of the model, one feature is especially intriguing in view of the remarkably realistic work of its maker, who was clearly knowledgeable in matters large and small of vehicular racing. As first mentioned to me by J. Swaddling of the British Museum during our latest study of the model (November 2014), an unusual tire configuration is apparently represented on this all-bronze model: the right wheel has a slightly raised rim, as if to indicate a thin iron tire, but the left wheel lacks this feature (fig. 1). This asymmetrical arrangement is not only curious, it also implies extra work and expense. What, then, could be the reason for it?One possibility for having apparently only one tire on the Tiber model — which was probably a toy for a rich individual; the emperor Nero, an avid racer, was said to play with toy chariots — is that two different castings were used in the toy's production, and either one could have been used in the assembly, in random selection from a box.

This has all the appearance of being a straightforward, even conventional, transition. Indeed, the conceit of Night′s chariot is common and has a history stretching back at least as far as the beginning of the fifth century B.C. Night is elsewhere described by Virgil as umida, the epithet reflecting the traditional view that Night, like Dawn (cf. Theocr. 2.148), arises from and sinks back into the stream of Ocean. In fact, the chariot of Night had been referred to as recently as lines 721 and 738 of this book, in the latter instance with the epithet umida applied to Night. What is new and interesting in our passage is the ‘meta caeli’ round which Night′s chariot turns. The effect of this novelty is to make of Night′s vehicle a racing chariot, as it is the chariots in the Circus that must negotiate a meta. The programmatic reasons for Virgil′s having done this in Book 5 are obvious. Earlier in the book Virgil had described the games held in honour of the anniversary of Anchises′ death. The first and most elaborately portrayed event in these games had been the boat-race, which is plainly modelled on the chariot-race in Iliad 23, the first and most elaborately portrayed event in the funeral games for Patroclus. Just as Achilles had required the competing chariots to race once around a distant turning-post, so Aeneas requires the competing ships to race once around a rock out at sea, which rock is three times called a meta (5.129, 159, 171). A simile comparing the sailors and their ships to charioteers and their teams (5.144–7) makes the connection explicit.

Abstract On the basis of the preserved evidence, corpse daemons were practically employed in two specific fields: in love magic and in chariot racing. In this respect, the material of our sources seems significant: in Egyptian papyri the daemons are primarily used in erotic magic, whereas in lead tablets they are meant to manipulate chariot races. The study examines all known occurrences of nekydaimones, analyzing their functions and names, whenever referred to in the sources.

Over the last decade, a Herodian facility for chariot racing has been excavated at Caesarea Maritima by two different teams. A team of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) under my direction has been responsible for excavating the cavea and most of the arena (fig. I), while the Combined Caesarea Expedition under J. Patrich has excavated the carceres and a small portion of the arena. Patrich recently published (JRA 14, 269-83) the archaeological evidence for the carceres, but some of his conclusions about how the facility as a whole operated, especially those relating to the larger area excavated by the IAA, are misleading, and I would like to discuss and correct them.Patrich calls the stone-built facility for chariot racing a “hippodrome/stadium”, although that is not a commonly accepted term among the types of ancient entertainment buildings. The sources and archaeological evidence make it clear that an entertainment building belonging to a particular building type could house a wider variety of performances than just those chiefly associated with that type. Thus, in addition to chariot races, a circus could legitimately hold athletic contests typical of the stadium in front of the longitudinal sections of the cavea, and it might even hold performances typical of theatre and amphitheatre in its semicircular end opposite the start.

Support in sport is certainly one of the oldest human passions. Residents of the eastern Roman imperial capital cheered the chariot drivers The passion for supporting the drivers was common for all groups and social classes. The hippodrome was visited by the representatives of the aristocracy, artisans and the poor of the city alike. The popularity of chariot racing is evidenced by their frequency 66 days were reserved for circenses, that is racing. Organizing the competition along with all the accompanying events has been an essential task of circus factions (demes) In the empire, there were four factions named Blues, Greens, Whites and Reds. These factions were real sports associations, which can be compared to modern clubs. They had significant financial resources at their disposal. Each faction had their own racing team. They paid for and supported a number of drivers, runners, trainers of horses and wild animals, mimes, dancers, acrobats, poets, musicians and singers. They cared for their recruitment and training They also employed caretakers, messengers, artisans of various specialties, grooms, etc Expectations of subjects meant that emperors put great emphasis on the organization of shows and they were actively engaged in them themselves The preparation was personally supervised by the city prefect, and in the relations with the factions the emperor was represented by the praepositus sacri cubiculi. The latter managed the Hippodrome staff. Byzantine supporters, like their modern counterparts, had their idols. The object of their worship, and at the same time the elite among those working on the hippodrome, were charioteers. Outstanding competitors enjoyed immense popularity, just like modern stars of football or volleyball. They had monuments and stelae dedicated to them, as well as poems which praised their achievements. The ceiling in the gallery above the imperial kathisma featured images of famous drivers.

Roman ludi circenses are well known, especially chariot-racing, which was extremely popular during the Roman Empire. In many aspects, this competition even foreshadows modern sport seen as show business (the Circus Maximus could accommodate about 150,000 spectators). One could not say the same thing about the athletic exercises of Roman citizens: the common view is that Romans had a negative attitude towards athletics, which were not regarded as useful and were sometimes considered as scandalous. But Roman citizens did, in fact, practise much sport, for instance in the Campus Martius in Rome, and in the palaestrae of public baths. They were particularly fond of ball-games and of swimming in very large cold pools.

В статье изучена роль физической культуры и спорта в процессе подготовки византийских воинов в ранневизантийский и средневизантийский периоды. Рассмотрены различные виды спортивных игр и состязаний – как детских и юношеских, благодаря которым обеспечивалась допризывная подготовка, так и военно-спортивные упражнения и соревнования в византийской армии. Сделан вывод о том, что, несмотря на ликвидацию античной системы палестр и гимнасиев, массовая физическая подготовка византийских мальчиков, подростков и юношей призывного возраста в Византии представляла собой хорошо продуманную и логично выстроенную систему, нацеленную на воспитание сильного, смелого и закаленного воина. Ее принципиальное отличие от античного периода заключалось в том, что физическое воспитание детей и подростков было возложено не на государство или общину, а на семью. Задачей общины при этом было создание условий для проведения спортивных соревнований, а государство подключалось к физическому воспитанию юношей после их включения в воинские списки в ходе учений и боевых походов. Библиографические ссылки Анонимный воинский трактат «Как выдерживать осаду» / пер. и коммент. В.В. Хапаева // Хапаев В.В. Византийский Херсон на рубеже тысячелетий: вторая половина Х – первая половина XI в. Симферополь: Нижняя Орiанда, 2016. С. 509–538. Армурис // Памятники Византийской литературы IX–XV веков / Отв. ред. Л.А. Фрейберг. М.: Наука, 1968. С. 158–160. Дигенис Акрит. 1960. М.: Изд-во АН СССР. 1960. 218 с. Дьяконов А.П. Византийские димы и факции (τα μέρη) в V–VII вв. // Византийский сборник / Oтв. ред. Е. А. Косминский М., Л.: АН СССР, 1945. С. 144–227. Курбатов Г.Л. Ранневизантийский город (Антиохия в IV веке). Л.: Изд-во ЛГУ, 1962. 284 с. Лазарев В.Н. История византийской живописи. М.: Искусство, 1986. 194 с. Левченко М.В. 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The purpose of the article is the introduction into the cultural discourse of analytically processed and summarized information on the genesis and evolution of chariot racing as the form of entertainment events in ancient Rome, their functional features, specific features of mass events of Antiquity in the context of entertainment culture of Rome. The methodological basis consisted of the methods of critical analysis of cultural, historical, and literary sources, specific and historical analysis, and interdisciplinary synthesis, induction, and deduction. The problematic and chronological, system and structural, comparative, descriptive methods and methods of social and phenomenological analysis were applied from specific and scientific methods. Scientific novelty. The article analyzes the genesis and evolution of chariot racing as a form of events in the context of entertainment culture in ancient Rome. Based on the ancient literary reflection, through the prism of works of culturologists, philosophers, historians, poets, writers of the ancient Rome Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, annals of Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Cassius Dio, ethic works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, letters of Gaius Pliny the Younger, poetry pages of Publius Ovidius Naso, epigrams of Marcus Valerius Martialis and others. The author revealed the essence and content of chariot racing as an entertainment form of events in ancient Rome, statistics, and specific features of entertainment events and instruments of ruling the Roman emperors. The author describes the moral aspects of chariot racing in the context of the entertainment culture of antiquity. Conclusions. The place of entertainment culture of Antiquity in the system of cultural knowledge and cultural tradition of their social universe is revealed. The transformations of chariot racing as a social and humanitarian experience of ancient society, the political instrument of government in Rome are explored. The role of entertainment of Antiquity for modern cultural practices is established.

Abstract This article offers a new, ironic reading of the false narrative of Orestes’ chariot accident in Sophocles’ Electra (680–763). It argues that the speech exploits an established connection between the ancestral evils of the Atreids and the thematic nexus of horses, chariot racing and disaster to evoke Orestes’ flight from the Erinyes following the matricide. Focusing on the language and structure of the narrative as well as drawing on other versions of the story (notably the surviving plays by Aeschylus and Euripides), the article demonstrates, in contrast to previous readings, that the speech is much more than an over-elaborate means to an end. Instead, in an ominous and profoundly ironic twist, the Paedagogus’ fictional narrative of the chariot race offers a possible vision of the trials awaiting the real Orestes. The matricide and murder, far from ending the ancestral woes of the Atreids, may well bring about Orestes’ pursuit by the Erinyes.