25th January, 2023 in History

The world of the Roman chariot horse

By Caroline Freeman-Cuerden

‘The horses burst through the sky and with swift-hooved feet cut a dash through the clouds, which blocked their way as borne on wings they passed the east wind.’

(Ovid, Metamorphoses II.157–60)

The Formula One of the Roman world was the high-adrenalin sport of chariot racing where rival teams of superstar charioteers and horses destroyed the opposition in front of thousands of roaring fans.

The Circus Maximus

With over sixty race courses spread throughout its empire, from Carthage in modern-day Tunisia to tracks in Spain, Portugal and Egyptian Alexandria, charioteers and horses thrilled crowds across the Roman world. But if you were a top chariot horse breeder or a first-rate chari- oteer, the Circus Maximus in Rome was the place to aim for. This was the biggest and most impressive stadium and it was here that the premier horses raced.

With galleries three storeys high, the Circus Maximus could hold more spectators than the capacity of both Manchester United’s and Manchester City’s football stadiums combined. A crowd of 150,000 watched from stands surrounding the great horseshoe-shaped course. As the air filled with the sounds of trumpet calls, cheering, shouting, cracked whips and horses’ hooves trampling the sun-baked track, and the sights of flying manes, swirling dust, jostling horses and dramatic crashes, the atmosphere at a chariot race would have been a thrilling experience. In the same way as football clubs have teams of workers behind the scenes, a crowd of professionals kept the chariot wheels turning: stable managers, stable assistants, grooms, vets, blacksmiths, senior charioteers, juniors, cartwrights and apprentices, as well as talent scouts on the lookout for potential chariot stars of the future.

Chariot racetracks were constructed in a horseshoe circuit with a straight wall known as the spina – meaning ‘backbone’ – running down its middle. Charioteers and horses raced down this central barrier hurtling towards three large cones protruding from the metae – ‘turning posts’ – at the end of the spina. This was the crucial race point where the horses would take the sharp 180 degree turn to gallop back along the other side of the course. If you wanted to see a crash close-up, the seats at the turning posts were the ones you wanted.

Those charioteers who dared to drive their horses as close as possible to the inner barrier on these turns would have less ground to cover than those who drove their chariots further away from the spina. But getting so close on the turns was a risky move, as horses and chariot only needed to touch the barrier to crash with explosive results. Crashes were referred to as naufragia – ‘shipwrecks’ – and when these inevitably occurred, horses, chariots and men would litter the track, turn- ing it into a treacherous obstacle course for those charioteers still in the race.

‘The Circus grabs the whole of Rome today, and an ear-splitting din tells me that the Greens have won. For if they’d lost, this city would look as mournful and dazed as it did when the Consuls were conquered in the dust of Cannae.’

Juvenal, Satires XI.197–201

The ancient equivalent of footballers playing for teams, charioteers rode for factiones – ‘factions’. There were four factiones and the superfans lived for them.

• Veneti: the Blues
• Prasini: the Greens
• Russati: the Reds
• Albati: the Whites

In the days of Empire, the Blues and the Greens became the premier league of chariot races. Chariot race fans were like football fans today, following their team with a passion, wearing their colours and sometimes placing bets on their faction. In the same way a seething rivalry can exist between different football teams today, the Blues hated the Greens and the Reds couldn’t stand the Whites. A riot at Constantinople in ad 532 amongst rival circus faction supporters resulted in the deaths of thousands of fans.

The emperor Nero wore the Greens colours. Other Greens fans included the emperors Caligula, Domitian, Verus, Commodus and the third- century Roman emperor Elagabalus. High-status fans of the Blues included the emperors Vitellius, Caracalla and Justinian I.

A charioteer could be sold to another team and might switch factions in his career, but it was the faction the fans supported and it was unlikely someone would switch their colours along with the charioteer, just as a football fan today wouldn’t dream of changing teams if their best player was sold to a rival club.

One wealthy Roman kept swallows and would take some of these birds to the Circus Maximus at Rome. After the race, he would smear the winning faction’s colour onto the birds and send them flying back to their nests so his friends at home would know who had won the chariot racing. Not everyone was a fan though. Here’s what the first-century writer Pliny the Younger thought about chariot racing enthusiasts and their teams.

‘I am amazed that so many thousands of men are desperate, like a bunch of children, to see horses running over and over and men driving on their chariots. If it was the speed of the horses or the skill of the charioteers that captivated them, I might understand it, but it’s the racing colours they cheer on, the racing colours they love and if, on the track, right in the middle of a race, their colour was changed from this one to that one, their support and enthusiasm would switch, and as quick as a flash they would abandon the drivers and horses whom they recognise from far off and whose names they yell aloud. Such is the regard, such is the power of one paltry cheap tunic.’

Pliny the Younger, Letters IX.6