Chronology of the sport in ancient Rome

Chronology of the sport

the ancient Greek sport - Chronology of the sport in ancient Rome - Chronology of the sport to the Early middle ages (Ve-XIIe centuries)

----

Monarchy (753 av. J. - C. - 509 av. J. - C.)

-600 . Tarquin Old the (Etruscan king de Rome from -616 to -578) sets up according to many historians Circus Maximus in the Vallée of Murcia, high place of the Roman sport where the famous horse-races are held. The races of tanks are without dispute possible “the” sport king of Antiquity. The coachmen (Auriges) are genuine stars as well as the horses, moreover. Let us announce that other sports (Lutte, Boxe, Athlétisme) were also practiced in Étrurie as confirm it the archaeological vestiges.

Republic (509 av. J. - C. - 27 av. J. - C.)

6 July 13rd -212. In Rome, first edition of the Jeux Appolinaires which become annual into -208.
12 April 19th -202. First edition of the Roman plays dedicated to Cérès.
-200 . At the time of the Second Punic War, multiplication of Ludi (days devoted to the sporting events) in Rome.
4 April 10th -191. The Roman plays of the Ludi Megalenses become annual.
-186 . First athletic contests with the Greek mode organized in Rome. The nudity of the participants is perceived like exotic, typically Greek more precisely. In Rome, the port of the loincloth is obligatory for the sportsmen, the more so as the platforms are opened to the women, which is not the case in Greece.
April 28th/May 3rd -173. First edition of the Roman annual plays of the Floral Ludi .
-146 . The Romans take part from now on in the Olympic Games.
-105 . Practiced since the Etruscan time, the combat of Gladiateur S are integrated into the Roman public plays by Marius. These engagements sometimes mortals were very codified and of nothing resembles the caricatures presented by Hollywood films in particular. However, the Romans themselves wondered very early about the interest and the legitimacy of such a sport-spectacle. The gladiature indeed required the renouncement of the rights related to the Roman citizenship; it is almost a heresy for a Romain! The play was worth however the candle for some of it, because the glory and fortune collected in the arêne were considerable. Attention not to confuse the combat of gladiators with the true spectacles containing wild animals and other reconstitutions of battles. The historians study from now on with a new eye Roman gladiature from a “sporting” point of view more slicing thus clearly with a historiography known as traditional under the total empise of the very hostile Christian texts to this practice. The Greeks also adopt this martial sport, but the gladiature is not practiced everywhere in the Empire, in Egypt and in the Middle East in particular or have is satisfied with the races of tanks, the sport king of Antiquity.
October 26th /1er November -80. The Olympic Games are truncated by the organization in Rome of plays to the Greek mode wanted by the consul Sylla. The Greek professional athletes indeed prefer to go to run the seal to Rome where Sylla did not haggle over the amounts of the premiums in order to propose a better spectacle. The sports known as “Greek”, primarily the athletics, are a certain success in Rome, but will not manage to export itself elsewhere in the Empire.
6 July 13rd -33. In Rome, the municipal official Clutched finance of sumptuous the Appolinaires Plays which marked the memory of the Romans a long time.

Worsen (27 av. J. - C. - 476)

-4 . The future Tibère emperor is Olympic champion of race of tanks (quadriga).
14 - 37. Reign of the Tibère Roman Emperor who seeks to make economies and refuses to finance the sporting events…
27. Catastrophe of Fidènes. Benefitting from the austerity policy of Tibère, certain opportunist set up of the tests which always do not profit from the best security conditions. The collapse of an amphitheater built with haste with Fidènes, a few kilometres from Rome, marks the Romans deeply… Tacite which reports the tragedy in its Annales , quotes the figure of 50.000 dead and wounded! Following this catastrophe, the legislation on the organization of sporting spectacles was very severely regulated in the Empire.
37 . With counter-current of the reign of Tibère, the Roman Emperor Caligula (37-41) multiplies the number of the races of tanks and other tests sporting in Rome. He takes part itself in the tests and prefers of much the frequentation of the sporting world to that of the policy. Caligula remains in the collective memory like the prototype of the insane emperor; but he was especially nutcase of sport… Caligula, as a good Romain, was an enthusiast to support races of tanks, “the” Roman sport par excellence; it also privileged the gladiature which, consequently, had the appearance of a great Roman sport, with the image of boxing.
40. The Martial poet evokes four plays of ball practiced by the Romans: crushed paganica, crushed trigonalis, follis and harpastum .
67 . Néron, authenticates impassioned sports not hesitating to take share itself with the races of tanks, is crowned Olympic champion of the race of quadriga. This victory in fact is bought by the Roman Emperor who is the only participant in the test… with an attachment of 10 horses!! This victory (very) discussed was thereafter striped besides prize lists.
86 . Construction in Rome of the Stage of Domitien, enclosure of 30.000 places reserved for the “Greek” competitions.
100 . The Roman intellectual Pline the Young person (v. 61-v. 113) described in one of its famous letters the sporting madness which strikes the Romans: “Rome is very whole with the circus”. Attention at the end “circus” which indicates the hippodrome exclusively; the “circus games” are races of tanks. The streets are often deserted (the races take place on average a day on three) and a service of a special nature is set up for a long time already in order to avoid the plundering of the emptied districts their inhabitants. Hostile text with the sport (it is certainly what is worth us to have which it still today), it proves of an incredible richness:

“They was the circus games, kind of spectacle which does not allure me with any degree. In it nothing, nothing of varied again, only it is sufficiently to have seen once. As, I am astonished as so many thousands of men are unceasingly taken again, like large children, desire to see horses launched to the race, coachmen upright on the tanks. So still one was interested either in the speed of the horses, or with the skill of the coachmen, this taste could be explained; but it is the dress which one applauds, it is the dress that one likes. ”

This “dress”, it is in fact the color of the stable: the Greens and the Blue ones are most famous in front of the White and the Reds. These stables function like the contemporary clubs, transfers, fan-clubs and derivative products included! Let us note that Pline the Young person is an exception including in the intellectual world. Circus maximus could accommodate at least 150.000 spectators, while several hundreds of thousands of people massed out of the enclosure in order to follow the race without seeing it! All the Roman company was there, of the emperor to simple plebeian, while passing through the intellectuals and the women. Some emperors tried well to exclude the women from the platforms, but all these attempts failed. The Roman woman was differently less flexible than her counterpart Greek.

146 . Death of famous the aurige Roman Gaius Appuleius Diocles (104-146). In 24 years of career, this “Hispanus lusitanus” takes part in 4257 races for 1462 victories. Put aside Dioclès, let us quote here Publius Aelius Gutta Calpurnianus (1127 victories), Flavius Scorpus (2048), Marcus Aurelius Liber (3000) and Pompeius Muscosus (3559 victories). Flavius Scorpus counts more than 2000 victories when it finds death at 26 years in race; it is consequently the object of an authentic worship in Rome and in all the empire.
180. Pollux de Naucratis mentions the play of ball of Episkuros. This sport of gréco-Roman team seems the ancestor of Rugby.
200 . Tertullien (v. 155-v. 222), first of the Christian authors in Latin language, condemns the sport: “Where there is pleasure, there are passion, it is the passion which gives to the pleasure its savor. Where there is passion, there is competition, there are also fury, anger, bitterness, resentment and other passions which result from this incompatible with morals (…) It is not enough to abstain from thus acting. One should not join those which do it (…) It is unworthy of you to look at what occurs in a stage. ” These criticisms Christian women do not disturb really the amateurs of sport of the Lower Empire. This period is indeed marked by the multiplication of the competitions and the whole of the Empire from now on is touched by this sporting passion. The large hippodrome of Carthage can accommodate 60.000 spectators, that of Antioche, 80.000, while a myriad of circuses (hippodromes) and stages of all sizes make sport one of the pillars of the romanity.
203 - 223. The Roman Emperor Septime Sévère makes build a hippodrome with Byzance.
330 . After work, the hippodrome of Byzance can from now on accommodate more than 100.000 spectators.
354 . After the multiplication of the Ludi to Rome, 109 days from now on are devoted each year to the plays, including 62 for the only races of tanks; 20 to 24 races took place per day. This calendar was that of the town of Rome, but each city of the Empire had its own sporting calendar. Thus, in the most moved back provinces, races and competitions were with the program with the hope to send to one day a champion to occur in Rome. To occur in the capital was already a dedication; to impose itself on it was the objective of all the sportsmen.
399 . Under the Christian pressure, closing of the schools of gladiators in Rome. This Roman “sport-spectacle” is honni by the Christians who do not manage however to prohibit the practice of it, even in Rome.

Random links: