The Origins of Chariot Racing in Rome

Possibly the oldest and certainly the most popular sport in Rome was chariot racing. Fortunes were won and lost by betting on the races. Successful charioteers earned themselves vast wealth and huge estates by their victories, but losers were treated as worthless - or mangled to death by the speeding chariots of the victors. The Romans viewed the dramatic races of the Circus as a peculiarly Roman invention. And yet the first Romans knew nothing of the chariot, still less of racing.

All the earliest accounts of Rome agree that there were no chariots in the young kingdom. Men fought on foot or rode horses to battle, but of the chariot there is no mention in any of the early sources. The oldest chariot so far found in central Italy was in a tomb in Regolini dating to about 650BC. The vehicle seems to have come from Greece, where chariots had been abandoned as a weapon of war about three centuries earlier, but were retained for ceremonial purposes and to allow a commander to get about the battlefield at speed. It was in the ceremonial role that they came to Italy, the early Romans using them in their triumphal processions.

The idea of racing lightweight chariots against each other seems to have emerged across central Italy in the 6th century BC, though whether it originated in Rome itself or somewhere else we have no way of knowing. Throughout central Italy, chariot and horse racing were held to be sacred to agricultural deities. Romulus, the founder of Rome, held a horse race in honour of the god Consus, patron of the harvest. Other races were held to honour Segesta, goddess of growing crops, and Ceres, goddess of corn. The original religious significance of the races has been lost, but was probably linked to rejuvenating the fertility of these deities. Equally obscure is the date at which chariot racing replaced horse racing in the ceremonies.

At first the chariots, horses and drivers were provided by the Roman knights, the lesser nobility who were citizens of wealth but who lacked aristocratic ancestry. Participation in the race was a religious duty which helped to ensure the future prosperity of the city. Later men were more concerned with winning and began to hire professional charioteers, or buy them if they were slaves. By the time the chariot races were first recorded in any great detail the earlier freelance drivers and team owners had been replaced by two large and wealthy teams, known as factiones, which were known by their colours: White and Red. About 30BC the Green faction was established and soon afterwards the Blues made an appearance. In the 80s AD the Emperor Domitian oversaw the establishment of two more factiones, the Purples and the Golds, but these new teams failed to attract much support among Romans and soon vanished.