THE FORMULA ONE OF ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES

To begin with, a chariot race was a spectacular performance. Just like with modern football or basketball games, the races were complemented by a huge entertainment program. One could watch acrobats or trained bears, wrestling matches, or prisoners of war brought from other countries fight each other. One could also make fun of the enemies of the emperor. These opponents would be brought out into the arena naked, riding a donkey and accompanied by clowns, all while the crowd pelted them with rotten vegetables. Sometimes, the whole process ended with a public execution. For example, on one occasion, Justinian II had his nose cut off at such an event, and a heretic was burned alive at another.

The emperor was always present at the games in Constantinople, which is why the hippodrome was a part of the Great Imperial Palace. Before or after the races, one could submit a complaint to the BasileusiThis is what the Byzantine emperor was called.about excessive taxes or the arbitrariness of officials. Once, enraged spectators rebelled against Emperor Justinian, and Constantinople was heavily damaged as a result. The revolt had to be suppressed by Justinian's best commander, Belisarius.

In addition to the games, one could socialize at the stadium, discuss the line-up before the games, assess the pedigrees of the best horses, and make one’s bets. To engage in all of this fun, one could even skip church services! The best part of the games, though? All the entertainment was at the emperor’s expense.

The races themselves were at the center of all the entertainment. Usually, four bronze chariots drawn by four horses (quadrigae) competed, and there were a total of twenty-four races if the event took place in the capital. There were fewer races and participants in provincial cities. In each race, the team of horses had to circle the stadium seven times.

The race started on a signal, which in races held in Byzantium may have been the emperor throwing his scarf down. The charioteer's task was to win as many races as possible by whatever means possible. For example, the charioteers could cut each other off and thus knock the opponent out of the race. And it was especially prestigious to knock down a rival in the emperor’s sight. The most intense moment of the race would take place at the turning column. The most terrible accidents took place at the turn, often ending with the racer's death, all of which delighted the fans.

There were a total of four teams for the colors: Red, White, Blue, and Green, of which the last two had the most followers. Initially, a fan's choice of team could be determined by their social status or religious views. For example, the Greens symbolized Monophysitism and were associated with the lower classes, while the Blues represented orthodoxy and were aligned with the upper classes. Later, the differences in social composition between the ‘clubs’ were erased. According to the well-known Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, women were just as passionate about these teams as their husbands, and sometimes a husband and wife would support opposing teams.

Until approximately the seventh century, the circus factionsiThe Latin name for sports associations.were not just sportive organizations or unions but full-fledged political organizations. Therefore, in science, they became known as parties. Emperors often tried to curry favor with the parties: some supported the Greens, others supported the Blues. Over time, the political functions of the circus parties were lost, and their role was reduced to organizing competitions and participating in the ceremonial processions of the emperors.

Like any sport, there were superstars and favorite athletes in chariot racing. The charioteers were honored with monuments and dedicated epigrams, and the most successful racers had fan clubs. It is believed that the greatest charioteer was Porphyrius (fifth to sixth centuries), and he competed in races until he was sixty years old, being honored with seven monuments during his lifetime. This was unusual because statues of athletes were typically erected either after their retirement or death. Porphyrius raced for both the Greens and the Blues and was a favorite of fans from both factions.

Other charioteers were popular at this time as well. For example, a contemporary of Porphyrius’s earned a golden statue for his skill. The Byzantine historian John Malalas also mentioned a charioteer named Constantine who broke all of Porphyrius's records. According to the chronicler, on a single day, Constantine won twenty-five races in the morning and, after a break, won twenty-one races using the horses of his defeated opponents.

Sometimes, even rulers themselves would take up the reins of a chariot and become so engrossed in racing that they would forget about state affairs. Such behavior, of course, was not approved of by the aristocracy, although for ordinary spectators, it was probably even more exciting to watch a race in which the emperor himself was participating.

Races were held at the hippodrome (or stadium) in Constantinople, the largest in the ancient world. It was built in 203 CE, when the city was still called Byzantium. The width of the hippodrome was 117.5 meters (a little more than the length of a football field) and the length was 400 meters (almost as large as four football fields). The stadium could hold 100,000 spectators, which is still a huge number for a sports facility even today. The spectators could be seated comfortably, with seats approximately 70 centimeters wide and 38 centimeters high. There were food stalls and toilets in the stadium, and the grandstands had cloth awnings to protect spectators against the sun. Fans had their own sections, and the emperor's box was separate and inaccessible by ordinary spectators.

Richly decorated and located opposite the Hagia Sophia, the Hippodrome of Constantinople was also connected to the imperial palace. As written in city legends, Constantine the Great brought many statues from Athens, Cizikos, Caesarea, Tralles, Sardis, Mokis, Sebastia, Satala, Chaldia, Great Antioch, from Cyprus, Crete, Rhodes, from Attalia, Smyrna, Seleucia, Tyana, Iconium, Nicaea in Bithynia, from Sicily and from all cities of the east and the west to the hippodrome. Four columns with a bronze quadriga (a chariot drawn by four horses) on top towered over the central gate. In 1204, the statue was stolen by the crusaders from Constantinople, and today, the original quadriga can be found in Venice in the Basilica of Saint Mark.

The quadriga was not the only decoration at the Hippodrome of Constantinople. For example, an Egyptian obelisk, brought specifically for the stadium from Thebes, has also been preserved. Today, however, the obelisk's current height is nearly half of its original 32 meters. The pedestal on which the obelisk is placed is decorated with reliefs depicting Emperor Theodosius surrounded by spectators of the hippodrome. The entire monument was part of the spina, a wooden barrier that ran the length of the whole stadium and divided the race tracks into two. The statues placed on the spina were transformed into fountains so visitors could enjoy not only the games but these structures as well. Two other monuments have survived from the spina: the Serpentine Column and the Obelisk of Constantine. Both these monuments were also taller in the past, with the Serpentine Column being 6.5 meters tall instead of the current 5 and the obelisk being 32 meters.

After the conquest of Constantinople, the Turks did not destroy the hippodrome, as was the case with many Byzantine buildings, although many parts of its walls were used in Ottoman construction. For example, tiles from the hippodrome were used in the Topkapı Palace, the sultan's residence. For a time, the stadium even served the same social function as it did during Justinian's time. Sometimes, ceremonies were held here with the sultan participating, and Turkish races called cirit also took place here.

Later, during the construction of the Sultanahmet Mosque, the race tracks were filled in. Along with the three obelisks from the hippodrome, a part of the sphendone (a spectator stand), inside which circus animals were kept, has remained.

At the height of the hippodrome’s golden era, the horses were just as large celebrities as their riders. The names of the horses were consistently inscribed on reliefs and monuments honoring charioteers. Porphyrius's horses, including Aristid, Palestinearch, Pyrrhus, Eutynichus, Nicopolis, and Radiatus, have endured through the ages. There were other famous racehorses as well. Even in Roman times, a horse named Kotin, belonging to the charioteer Diocles, became famous by winning 445 races with him. Before the game, fans always discussed their favorite horses and knew their bloodlines by heart.

Horses were trained and fed especially for racing. Preparation began when the animal reached the age of five. Healthy horses ready for racing had their tails tied up, while sick or retired horses had their tails untied. Before a race, four people examined the horse and decided whether it was ready to compete. The horses were then harnessed and led along a special route towards the stadium, and the crowd greeted them with shouts of ‘Lord, help them!’

Interestingly, horses were used at the hippodrome not only for racing but also for acrobatic tricks. One trick involved the rider standing on a galloping horse, jumping from its mane to its rump and then to the ground, where they would grab the horse's tail and leap back onto it. Bent over the saddle, they would slip underneath the horse and reappear on the other side all while the horse galloped quickly.

Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus wrote in his Book of Ceremonies that during the emperor's greeting, the teams of the hippodrome would parade their horses decorated with gold ribbons and collars. And the son of Emperor Romanos Lekapenos, Theophylaktos, loved horses so much that he had around 2,000! Byzantine historian John Skylitzes reports that Theophylaktos fed them not only with hay and oats but also with cedar nuts, dates, figs, and raisins, mixed with wine and expensive spices. And once he even ran away from a church service because his favorite mare was giving birth.

It is not entirely clear whether the horses were divided into breeds in the modern sense of the word. However, horses were distinguished by their place of origin and purpose. The horses from Cappadocia and Thessaly were the most highly valued, and Cappadocia was once called the Land of Beautiful Horses.

An entire industry was built around the search and delivery of horses for those who participated in the races. Each team had its own stables, which required constant care and significant expense. All the available knowledge related to the breeding, treatment, feeding, and even grooming of horses was recorded in a special veterinary treatise called Hippiatrica, as well as in separate chapters of the Byzantine agricultural encyclopedia Geoponica. Byzantine veterinary medicine had a significant influence on Arabic veterinary medicine, and the Arabs built and organized their stables according to the Byzantine model.

Spectators could make money by placing bets, while cash prizes were awarded to the winners of the races. Of course, the staff also received their salaries. The claqueurs could boast an unusual way of making money—these were paid fans whose main task was to shout out certain demands that other spectators should pick up. Anyone, from a poor person to someone from a noble family, could become a claqueur.

The hippodrome was the center of social life in Constantinople and a place for the emperors to relax until the crusaders captured and destroyed the city in 1204. However even before that, chariot racing had gradually lost its popularity largely due to the high cost of competitions, which fell to the state. Over time, emperors and wealthy residents of Constantinople increasingly began to prefer the game of cycanon, which was like modern polo.