Hot wheels: Roman racing-chariot toy

On the 18th January, we retweeted a Tweeted link to an interesting mini article on the Archaeology magazine web-site titled ‘Bronze toy offers clues to Roman racing technology’, posted on the 12th January at www.archaeology.org/news/5198-170112-roman-chariot-wheel . This is about a bronze Roman ‘toy’ or figurine in the form of a racing-chariot, from the River Tiber, now held by the British Museum. The racing-chariot is described as a two-horse biga and its two wheels are not identical – they have been studied to analyse the technology of Roman racing-chariots: see ‘Tire choices in Roman chariot racing’ by B Sandor in the Journal of Roman Archaeology (volume 29, 2016, abstract published online at www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-archaeology/article/div-classtitletire-choices-in-roman-chariot-racingdiv/BEF56EB676DFE2E7A501C0B8A6A0EA61 ).

As it happens, the toy was used as the basis for our reconstruction of a Roman racing chariot which is on display in the circus centre. The original model in the British Museum is generally called a biga on the basis that it was drawn by two horses. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?partid=1&assetid=34760001&objectid=399770 However, there is a little problem here in that it should simply be referred to as a Roman racing chariot and not a biga since the number of horses that the model originally had is unknown.

Lots of images of Roman racing chariots survive from antiquity mainly in mosaics, pottery, and glass. Nearly always they are shown as being drawn by teams of four horses yet, where the images are clear enough, they all look like the so-called biga in the British Museum in that they have yokes long enough for just two. In other words, the motive power of the chariot was provided by two horses attached to its yoke regardless of the number in the team. This means that the extra horses must have had some other purpose. (Nero famously drove a chariot pulled by a ten horses, presumably all in a single row.) So what could this be? We can only speculate. Maybe it was a mixture of reasons. Perhaps the extra horses made the races more exciting to watch or perhaps they were there to stretch the charioteers’ powers of horsemanship. But maybe more likely, they were there because a four-horse team was more responsive than a two-horse one. We saw a hint of this when the Time Team came to Colchester to make their Roman circus programme. Time Team raced a quadriga (a four-horse chariot) around a mini circus which they set out with bales of hay. It was interesting to see how the lead horse (always the one on the inside left by the way) nibbled the head of his neighbour just in enough time to tell him or her when to start the turn around the end of the central barrier. Horses, being herd animals, naturally copy their leader. Training aside, perhaps the secret of an effective team of horses lay not in their number but in the quality of its leader. The value of lead horses in chariot racing was recognised and celebrated in the Roman world. Circus-related mosaics bear witness to this where the lead horse is named on a mosaic but the others are not.

Also on the 18th, a generous private individual came in to the Roman circus centre, the Trust’s HQ, and donated a book to our library – this is Procopius the secret history, translated by G Williamson and published by the Folio Society in 1990. Interestingly, the book includes some illustrations of Roman circus scenes. One of these, coincidentally, features a Roman chariot wheel! This is shown being bowled along during a game in a Roman circus by a man using a stick.

Read the mini article at www.archaeology.org/news/5198-170112-roman-chariot-wheel .

[Images to follow.]

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