Roman Sports

I chose Roman sport because there are many Roman sports all of which are very interesting. For example chariot racing a violent but exciting sport. From the name you would imagine a horse and chariot going round and round a course but it was more than that : they rammed each other hoping to smash the other racer's chariot. In each lap you never knew what might happen. I also chose roman sport because I think gladiatorial fights would have been amazing to see and I know quite a lot of information on them. Due to my interests in the fights I have watched many documentaries and read many books on them.

The sports I will write about are gladiatorial fights and chariot racing. In both I will be discussing the rewards, the dangers, which people were involved, the many different participants, the equipment involved and the popularity of each. I will also compare them to modern sports.

Chariot racing

Stadium

Chariot races were held in places called circuses which they were called

because of their oval shape. The Circus Maximus was one of the biggest.

The building was by the time of Emperor Augustus 620 metres long and 140 to 150 metres at its widest point. The fact that it was built in a valley stretching between two hills gives you an idea of its size. At first there were no buildings, just a rough sandy track with provisional markers. The viewers of the races had to sit on the hills on each side of the track. Eventually as popularity rose they developed it into a larger venue as can be seen today. It could seat approximately 150 000 viewers while modern racing venues can support up to 300 000 spectators. Roman circuses would have been very ornate, they would have statues and wall paintings which I would have loved to have seen. Modern stadiums are not as good-looking as Roman circuses and feel as if the person who built them didn't care about looks, just how much it would have cost to build it.

The teams

There were four different teams and each team had its own stables, trainers and backers, who made great profits out of their investments. The four different groups were the reds, the whites, the blues and the greens. Each would have its own different set of supporters including emperors sometimes, who often became fanatic. Often fans would announce their loyalty to a group e.g. "partisans of the blue" in the same way some people today would call themselves the fans of the blues (Rangers) in football.

Chariots and Crew

Romans chariots were constructed carefully specially to be fast. They made sure the chariots were as slim and weightless as possible. Unlike roman army chariots which were larger in size and reinforced with metal racing chariots offered little or no protection at all and were reinforced with wood alone.

Drivers had to balance themselves on the axle because there were no handles or bars to hold onto. The chariots themselves were usually pulled by four horses but it was not unheard for them to be pulled by six or seven horses. The horses pulling the chariots were of course very highly trained and if they were very fast would be worth a lot of money and often got as much praise as the drivers.
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The races

Before the games were ceremonies in which there was an elaborate procession headed by the person who was sponsoring the games followed by the charioteers and teams, musicians and dancers and priests carrying depictions of the gods who were watching the races. In modern times we do not have processions before the races as we do not see them as a something special and they happen very often. The usual number of races was originally twelve, though later it was doubled undoubtedly by an enthusiastic emperor. The charioteers drew lots to decide which position they ...

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