Chariot racing takes place in an arena called the hippodrome. The hippodrome can seat 100,000 spectators. Down the center of the racecourse was a spina, which is a low wall, which had sculptors that would be tilted, to let the spectators know how many laps had been completed. chariot races were 7 laps long, and usually had up to 12 charioteers at one time. Chariot racing was orginized in 4 teams- Red, white,green and blue. Each team had a scout that looked for up and coming stars and horses. The best horses were imported from Africa and Hispania. Chariot races were also usually 15 minutes long. Chariot racing was also very popular in the Roman Empire. Up to 24 races happened at one meeting. Sometimes in between races, the men and their horses would go outside and perform acrobatic stunts/skills. My reasearch is from http://spartacus-educational.com/ROMchariot.htm and http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/chariot.html
|
Archives
April 2015
Categories |