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CHARIOT RACING, races using chariots drawn by horses or other animals. Double or quadruple teams used in ancient times were usu. made up of horses or foals, but also of mules or even donkeys. In the Gk. tradition, quadruple-team races were called >TETRIPPON, while the Romans called them quadrigas (>QUADRIGA RACES). Double-team races were called >SYNORIS, and were divided into adult horse races (>HIPPON), foal races (>POLON SYNORIS), and mule races (>APENE, also, officially, synoris hemionon). However, chariot races were known not only in Greece and Rome. Two-wheeled combat chariots were also used by ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, as testified by numerous records, murals, bas-reliefs and sculptures. It seems a fair guess that spontaneous races used as military exercise were also known in those cultures. Another type of combat cart developed among the Brit. Celts. However, the information we have on Celtic chariots is only fragmentary; see >CELTIC CHARIOT RACING. Julius Caesar is one writer who mentions Celtic combat carts, stressing the exceptional agility the Celts showed, which means they could not have practiced chariot driving exclusively during battles. Caesar liked the chariots so much that he ordered them to be brought to Rome. They were used in >GLADIATORIAL FIGHTS by the so-called essedarii (gladiators of a kind, introduced by Caesar and called so from the Latin word for Celtic chariots, essedum).



 
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