Apart from coincidence - if it was the other way around you could ask why it was clockwise - it is suggested by Tertullian on the spectacles IX that everything in the chariot races had to do with references to the universe. The four colored teams symbolized the seasons, for example. In that case, the counter clockwise movement is the either the rotation of the earth around its axe, or the revolvement of the universe around the sun. As the obelisk is a symbol of the sun, they do run around the sun in the case of the circuses of Rome and Constantinople. Before the games started, there were also clown-like entertainers, dedicating the games to the sungod.
Remember that funeral rites consisted of the same movement, just like the Roman triumphs; and the same goes for the foundation of a new city [sulcus primgenius]. It must have been an important movement.
About the only resemblance Roman chariot races and our horse races have today is the betting on the outcome. True we have harness racing where one horse pulls a cart, but the horse has to be controlled, that is, he has to run at a pace or a trot. The Romans, however, had rather light weight racing chariots pulled by (usually) four horses and they ran at breakneck speed four times around the circuit.
Philip
The Romans themselves never ran on fire. However, in April they celebrated a festival of Ceres, the grain goddess. On the last day of the festival they held chariot races and besides the races, they would set foxes loose in the circus with torches tied to their tails. This was suppose to symbolize the red blight that burns up the grain.
The Holy Roman Emperors were the heads of this empire.
I guess you mean elected officials. It was the government of the Roman Republic.
About the only resemblance Roman chariot races and our horse races have today is the betting on the outcome. True we have harness racing where one horse pulls a cart, but the horse has to be controlled, that is, he has to run at a pace or a trot. The Romans, however, had rather light weight racing chariots pulled by (usually) four horses and they ran at breakneck speed four times around the circuit.
Philip
33 olympic runing races
Shergar won 6 races out of the 8 that he ran in.
no
Bill Elliott ran five races in 2011.
Horses have been raced as long as there have been horses and mankind together.
yes
The Romans themselves never ran on fire. However, in April they celebrated a festival of Ceres, the grain goddess. On the last day of the festival they held chariot races and besides the races, they would set foxes loose in the circus with torches tied to their tails. This was suppose to symbolize the red blight that burns up the grain.
He ran about 97 times.
They were held in the Hippodrome, a wide, level open space with two pillars at hte ends. One marking the start and the finish and the other marking the turning post. The course itself was divided along it's axis by a partition of stone or wood called the embolon, in which the horses and chariots ran. A distances of 4 stades (769 meters) was covered on each circuit.The horse races were held included the following:• Keles (648 B.C.E. onward), a race for fully grown horses with a ride;• Kalpe (Trot) or race for mares (496 B.C.E. onwards) ;• and a race for foals was also held (256 (BC onwards).The following is a list of Chariot races, in chronological order, that were also held:• Tethrippon (four-horse chariot, 680 B.C.E. onwards);• Apene, a chariot a chariot pulled by two mules (500 B.C.E. onwards);• Synoris, a chariot pulled by a pair of horses (408 B.C.E. onwards);• Tethrippon for foals (384 B.C.E. onwards); and the• Synoris for foals (268 B.C.E. onwards)
Mahmoud the horse was foaled in the year 1933 and ran iin eleven races between the years 1935 and 1936. He won four of the races he ran in, and was considered to be a highly esteemed racing house of his era.