Charioteers

[Nathan Ross]

There are quite a few depictions in Roman art of professional charioteers, but I don't think I've ever seen a modern illustration or reconstruction of what they might actually have looked like. It would appear that they had quite a strange and distinctive costume - but compared to appearance of gladiators (for example), the aurigae seem to have been a bit neglected.

The clearest illustrations are these famous ones, from near Rome:




...which show men of the four factions. The costume appears to consist of a coloured (and banded?) tunic, with a wrapping around the torso - this would be to protect against the reins, which were lashed around the body. This wrapping has been described as leather bands, but linen seems maybe more likely - lighter, and the examples above look coloured. Linen too, perhaps, wrapping the arms, and some kind of leg protection laced on as well.

The hats or helmets look very unusual here, with something flipped up at one side, rather like the brim of a baseball cap. Does anyone have a theory on what this might be? Other images appear to show an actual helmet of some kind, even what looks like a 'military' attic style thing:



This one, meanwhile, seems to have beads (?) on his helmet, and those odd protrusions on both sides:



Does anyone have any further clues?

Regards - Nathan

[PhilusEstilius]

Nathan.

When we look at the top four pictures are these charioteers or just riders, they do of course have this thing sticking up from their hats or helmets as you mention but two have this at the left where the others are at the right.

The lower picture does of course show a charioteer which makes me wonder about the four guys at the top for there were I believe also simple horse races with a Jockey, indeed several republican denarius coins do show this type of rider.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Their hats are oddly reminicent of Jockey's caps!

[Nathan Ross]

The hats do look like modern jockey caps, but I still believe these men are charioteers: 1. They wear the bindings around the torso, as seen on other depictions of chariot drivers, used for the long reins (see the second image above) - you don't need these if you're sitting on the horse! 2. they carry long whips - again not needed (or wanted) for a horse rider, 3. the horses have no saddles, or even saddle-cloths, and 4.they wear the traditional colours of the four chariot teams (red, white, green and blue). Perhaps these were also used by horseback riders, but I think on balance these are almost certainly aurigae.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I would go with your logic. Still, the one on the bottom is wearing a helmet of some type I think as opposed to beads.
Maybe it is one of those scale decorated helmets, like the one found in fragments at Dura ?

[ParthianBow]

I'm afraid I can't shed any more light on the matter. Great images, though, Nathan. Where are they from (i.e. locations), and where did you get the pictures from - a textbook?
Thanks.

[Nathan Ross]

Where are they from (i.e. locations), and where did you get the pictures from - a textbook?

The pictures are from a few places on the net - just do an image search under Charioteers and you'll find quite a few mosaics, reliefs and statues.

The four standing figures at the top are from the National Museum of Rome (Baths of Diocletian), originally found in a cubiculum of the 3rd-century Villa of the Severi, at Baccanae 16 miles north of Rome on the Via Cassia:

[url:23ovgiff]http://www.utexas.edu/courses/ancientfilmCC304/lecture29/detail.php?linenum=4[/url]

The second image is from a terracotta plaque in the British Museum:

[url:23ovgiff]http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/charioteer.html[/url]

and the third is from a 3rd-century mosaic in the Madrid Archaeological Museum:

[url:23ovgiff]http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/circus_sources.html[/url]

- Nathan

[ParthianBow]

Excellent, thanks, Nathan! 8) I will make sure to take in the Baths of Diocletian next time I'm in Rome (I didn't have time last visit).

[Epictetus]

Could those protusions on the helmet be some sort of protection for the ear or shoulder? In just about every image that protusion is on the side holding the whip. Maybe after a couple charioteers lost an ear swinging that whip around they developed that thing. :wink:

[PhilusEstilius]

Nathan.

I've just been looking at the lower picture of the charioteer and where I have mentioned slmply horsemen there is in the Ludi Apollinares which was established in BC 212 also horse men who wore winged helmets.

The British Museum have over 300 different types of horse men coins of the moneyer Calpurnia and many also carry Whips, however the charioteer you show is wearing a winged helmet.

[Nathan Ross]

David's 'ear protector' idea is quite ingenious - although I'm inclined to think that the arrangement of horses, whips and headgear in the top mosaics has more to do with balancing the composition than factual accuracy. Also, a protector to guard against the whip would possibly snag or catch the whip itself, which wouldn't be a good thing...

Brian - I think you're right about the winged helmet in the lower picture. Definitely an elborate and decorated helmet of some kind anyway. That still leaves the 'hats' in the top picture though, which clearly don't have two wings. I wondered whether those protruding bits might actually be the ends of a scarf or turban tied around the head, perhaps worn beneath the hat?

- Nathan

[john m roberts]

Roman gear often retained once-functional features in atrophied form and occasionally functionless features got enlarged, probably to make them more visible to distant spectators. This was just the way charioteers were supposed to look, just as modern Spanish bullfighters wear a stylized costume based on early 18th century clothing, complete with a miniature fake hair queue, bacause that's the way bullfighters have always looked, when it would make much more sense for them to dress like gymnasts. The more traditional and ritualized the activity, the more important these deliberate atavisms become. We needn't assume that because it's there, that it's functional.