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Political RacesĬhariot racing had long been intimately linked with power and violence. Accounts describe Porphyrius, who started in provincial arenas before working in Constantinople, as oozing with divine charisma, dashing good looks, and amazing athletic abilities. One of the most famous was Porphyrius, an African-born pilot who took the sport to new heights of popularity in its sixth-century heyday.
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Haloed with an aura of skill, speed, and danger, charioteers were the professional athletes of their day. These brutal contests were often the scene of smashups and horrific injuries-but also opportunities for glory and gain.
#What was the largest hippodrome for watching chariot races full
The most dangerous moment was the sharp, full turn at each end of the spina, a maneuver that involved slowing the horses, but which was still executed at nearly 20 miles an hour. The Hippodrome’s spina was crowned with the ancient Egyptian Thutmose obelisk, the so-called Constantine Obelisk, and a bronze pillar composed of three entwined snakes that had been looted from Delphi. Shorter races lasted about 15 minutes, marked in laps around the central spina (spine) of the racecourse. Often traveling at highly dangerous speeds, each chariot raced around a track about 150 feet wide. These heroes piloted the quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses. Unauthorized use is prohibited.īyzantine charioteers were idolized by tens of thousands of fans. Earlier in Roman history, it was common for an arena to have four chariot teams, but by the later Byzantine period, the typical number was two-in the case of Constantinople, the Blues and the Greens. On race days, people would arrive at the Hippodrome hours early, sometimes sleeping in the stands to save their seats. To the public, circuses were no less important than bread, and the fortunes of their favorites were followed obsessively by a huge fan base. If the Senate, the imperial palace, and the Christian cathedral stood for the legislative, executive, and religious power of the eastern Roman Empire, the Hippodrome represented the power of entertainment. The Hippodrome was one of the four buildings framing the central square of Constantinople. 330, the year he re-founded Byzantium as Constantinople, he remodeled the Hippodrome to make it one of the capital’s most prominent buildings. The HippodromeĬonstantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, took interest in charioteering.
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Bets were placed on which team or driver would win, and although the charioteering was top billing, there was plenty of activity to keep the crowd amused between races: Food vendors, acrobats, dancers, and animal tamers, all were a part of the noisy scene at the Hippodrome. There were several categories of race, typically broken up by the age of the driver: teenagers, charioteers in their early 20s, and very experienced pilots ages mid-20s and older. The number of laps varied, but a seven-lap race could last as long as 15 minutes. In the quest for victory a charioteer faced plenty of hideous fates: crashing his vehicle, becoming tangled in the reins and being throttled or maimed or falling out and being crushed under stampeding horses’ hooves. The number of races might range from eight to 25 in the course of a day, giving viewers the chance to see many of their favorite racers risk their lives. The typical events at the Hippodrome promised nonstop spectacle and excitement for the fans of chariot racing. While not as large as Rome’s Circus Maximus, it was still huge historians disagree on its capacity, putting it somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000. Even after Rome’s importance began to fade, the new eastern imperial power center, Constantinople, built a monumental racetrack, the Hippodrome. From provincial outposts such as Jerusalem, the setting of Ben-Hur, to Rome-whose Circus Maximus was the biggest arena in the empire-chariot racing packed in the crowds with its spectacle. The fervor of the races led to tensions that occasionally simmered over into full-scale revolt. If anything, the emotions on the big screen pale in comparison to the passions of ancient Romans.Ĭhariot racing stoked fanaticism in the Roman world, and fans flocked to see their favorites compete. For all its artistic license, the movie’s creators were not exaggerating the danger of the races nor the excitement of the arena. Before a frenzied crowd of thousands, horse-drawn chariots hurtle around a track as each pilot tries to avoid catastrophic crashes to win the day. Perhaps the greatest action sequence caught on film is the chariot race from the 1959 Hollywood blockbuster Ben-Hur.