Chariot Racing Roman passions ran high when it came to chariot racing and most supported one of the teams and its colours, - white, green, red or blue. Though passions could often boil over, leading to violent clashes between opposing supporters. There was four different parties (factiones) to support; the red (russata, the green (prasina), the white (albata) and the blue (veneta). Emperor Caligula was a fanatical supporter of the green party. He speat hours in their stables, amongst the horses and charioteers, he even ate there. ‘The public adored the top drivers. They were quite literally comparable to modern day sports stars. And, quite naturally, there was a huge amount of betting surrounding the \ ‘races. Most drivers were slaves, but there was also some professionals among them. For a ‘good driver could win vast sums. The chariots built purely for speed, as light as possible, ‘ind were drawn by teams of two, four or sometimes even more horses. The larger the teams of horses, the greater the expertise of the driver needed to be. Crashes were frequent and spectacular. ‘A team of horses was called an auriga, whereas the best horse in the auriga was the jfunalis, The best teams were therefore those, in which the auriga co-operated to best ‘effect with the funalis. A two-horse team was called a biga, a three-horse a sriga and a four-horse team was a quadriga. ‘The charioteers drove standing upright in their chariots, wearing a belted tunic in the colours of his team and.a light helmet. $1 1 ‘Teh full length of the race consisted normally of seven laps around the stadium, totalling about 4000 metres when measured in the Circus Maximus in Rome. Their was incredible tight turns at either end of the track, around the narrow isle (spina) which divided the arena. EAch end of the spina would be formed by an obelisk, which was called the meta. ‘The skilled charioteer would try to comer the meta as tightly as possible, sometimes grazing it, sometimes crashing into it. ‘The arena being sand, there was no lanes - and there was nothisig which one could describe as rules. The first to complete the Seven rounds was the winner, that was it Between start and finish pretty much anything was allowed. This however Was not to ‘mean that a skilled charioteer had as dangerous a job as a gladiator. Some of the starts achieved over a thousand victories and some horses are reported to have won several bundred races. | Gaius Apuleius Diocles was perhaps the greatest star of them all. He was 2 quadriga charioteer who is said to have contested 4257 races. Of those he finished second 1437 times and won 1462. In the reign of the horse-crazed Caligula, one of the great names of the day was Eutyches. His many wins made him a close friend of the adoring emperor, who gave him no less than two million sesterces in rewards and prizes. Chariot racing was indeed a frequent affair in Rome on race day. Under teh rule of ‘Augustus one might see up to ten or twelve races in a day. From Caligula onwards there would even be as many as twenty four a day.Circus Disasters At times, the dangers of the circus were not only to be found in the arena. Pompey organized a grandiose fight involving elephants in the Circus Maximus, which until the construction of the Colosseum, was often used to stage gladiatorial events. Iron barriers were to be put up as archers hunted the great beasts. But things got seriously out of control as the crazed elephants broke some of the iron barriers put up (o protect the crowd. The animals were eventually driven back by the archers and succumbed to their ‘wounds in the center of the arena. Utter disaster had just been averted. But Julius Caesar wasn't to take any chances and later had a ditch dug around the arena in order to prevent similar disasters. In AD 27 a wooden temporary amphitheatre at Fidenae collapsed, with perhaps as many as 50'000 spectators being involved in the disaster. In response to this catastrophe the government introduced stringent rules, for example preventing anyone with less than 400000 sesterces from staging gladiatorial events, and also listing minimum requirements for the structure of the amphitheatre. Another problem were local rivalries. During Nero's reign the games at Pompeii ended in disaster. Spectators had gathered from Pompeii. as well as Nuceria to see the games. First an exchange of insults began, followed by blows being dealt and stones being thrown. ‘Then a furious riot broke out. The spectators from Nuceria were fewer than those of Pompeii and hence fared far worse, many being killed or wounded. Nero was furious at such behaviour and banned the games at Pompeii for ten years. Pompeians however continued long after to boast of their deeds, scribbling graffiti om the walls which told of their ‘victory’ over the people of Nuceria, Constantinople also had its fair share of crowd problems at the games. Most famously the riotous fans of the different parties at the chariot races. The supporters of the blues and those of the greens were fanatical militants. Politics, religion and sport combined into a dangerously explosive mixture. In AD 501 during the festival of Brytae, when the green attacked the blues in the Hippodrome, even the illegitimate son of emperor Anastasius was among the victims of the violence. And in AD 532 the Nika rebellion of the blues and greens in the Hippodrome almost overthrew the emperor. By the time it was over tens of thousands lay dead and a substantial part of Constantinople had burnt down.