VIII.—CHARIOT-RACING AND THE CIRCUS.
(Wall-Case 110.)
Chariot-racing was one of the oldest of Greek sports, and is described in the Iliad as one of the contests held at the funeral of Patroklos. At that time the two-horse war-chariot was used in the race, and a special type of racing-car does not seem to have existed.
Fig. 62.—Roman Racing-Chariot Turning the Post (No. 179). L. 16 in.
The introduction of chariot-races in the great athletic contests was a concession to the wealthy inhabitants of prosperous cities. To enter a chariot with a team of four horses, which was now the usual number for the great race at Olympia, demanded almost as large a proportionate expenditure as to run a horse for the Derby to-day. Rich men in Greece Proper found rivals in the tyrants of Sicily and Cyrene, who ruled over cities with large revenues and districts providing good opportunities for successful horse-breeding.
Fig. 63.—Ivory Statuette of a Charioteer (No. 180). 5:8.
At Olympia four-horse chariots raced for the first time in 680 B.C., chariots with two horses not until 408. Between those dates a race for horsemen was started, and won on the first occasion by a native of Thessaly, which, owing to its rich plains, was celebrated in antiquity for a magnificent breed of horses. A winner in the horse-race is depicted on the vase No. 178 (exhibited in Case 107), about to receive a wreath and a tripod as his prizes, while a herald proclaims: "The horse of Dysneiketos wins."