Circus Maximus and Chariot Racing

Gentle Readers,

This blog post was written by the always sporty and fabulous Renee Hall and Katie McCombs. Enjoy this ancient version of NASCAR!

Picture of the Large Area that is the Circus Maximus. WOW!

The Circus Maximus was the first and largest chariot racetrack of ancient Rome. It is located between the Aventine and Palatine hills. Each lap around the track is 1.2 kilometers, making an entire race of 7 laps 8.4 kilometers. The starting gate was a flat surface called the carceres or prisons. When they started the race they used a series of levers attached to a rope, this way chariots would leave the gate at the same time making it a fair race. The rise in the middle of the track, in which they raced around, is called the spina.  The race would go counterclockwise making it left hand turns. During the race there were turning points and end points called the matte. At the turning points, they would put down dolphins at one end and wooden eggs at the other. This marked the amount of laps they have taken.  They used eggs because the twin brothers Castor and Pollux were born out of an egg. Castor was the son of Tyndareus and Pollux was the son of Zeus.  They both were associated with horsemanship.  The dolphinswere used because Neptune was the god of sea.  

A Reconstruction of the Circus and its Seating.

Authors sitting on the hill where the seats would have been. So artsy!

Seating was placed all around the racetrack and consisted of 70 rows and could hold up to 150,000 people. The picture above shows where the seating would have been, but nothing of it is left (but see reconstruction above). Seating was subdivided into four sectors, from bottom to top, the ima, media, summa cavea, and a porticus in summa cavea. It was associated with social class with the poor being at the very top and wealthy at the bottom. The emperor was expected to come down from his home on the Palatine and sit with the people. If not, several people would laugh and yell at him and basically say he’s a jerk until he came down.  This represents that he acknowledged that he could only rule with the people's consent. This signifies how the Circus Maximus and races in general could bring the people together socially. Unlike the Colosseum, seating was not segregated by gender; men and women could be seated next to one another. Even so, it may have been that the poor sat in seating that was made of wood while the wealthier classes had seating that was made of marble and travertine towards the bottom. (ancient.eu by Mark Cartwright)

Medieval Tower standing in the Medieval Circus. Click here for more!

Most people think that gladiatorial combat was the most popular entertainment.  However, contrary to popular to belief, chariot racing was the most popular form of entertainment for the Romans.  Chariots were basically a platform with two wheels and reigns. Depending on the race, there were different types of chariots. There was biga, triga, and quadriga, which were 2, 3, or 4 horses per chariot. There were four common racing teams designated by color; green, blue, white, and red.  The green team was the most famous or popular.  Many people would bet money on races as well as shout defixiones or curses, mostly to the green team.  They would shout things such as “I hope green dies!”  For more on the Circus, go to vroma.org.