at Rome; and which were sometime afterwards added to Mr Townley's collection. The bas-relief exhibits a chariot-race, having something of the Greek character in design. The charioteer, wearing a helmet and what Suetonius calls the ‘quadrigarian’ dress,[1] stands in a two-wheeled curriculus or car, drawn by four horses, which are galloping towards the metæ or pillars, round which the competitors were obliged to turn in these contests of the circus. The upper part of his body appears to be swathed in his robe, and the reins, four in number, two in the left and two in the right hand, according to the fashion of the times, encircle his waist.[2]
The bits are the simple snaffle, and not the curb, which we know the Romans introduced; and Combe,[3] who has made these terra-cottas his particular study, says the instructions of Nestor,[4] that in turning round the goal, the right-hand horse should be urged on with a loose rein, are exactly followed in this instance. The reverse, however, appears to be the case. At the base of the metæ, there may have happened an accident; but this part is rather disfigured; while turning the goal the back of a horseman is seen, with what seems to be reins round his body, and who may only be keeping the course clear. On
- ↑ Suetonius, Vita Calig. cap. 19. ‘Per hunc pontem ultro eitroque commeavit, biduo continenti. Primo dei phalerato equo—Postridie quadrigario habitu, curriculoque bijugi famosorum equorum, præ se ferens Darium puerum ex Parthorum obsidibus; comitante prætorianorum agmine, et in essedis cohorte amicorum.’
Lampridius (Vit. Commodi, cap. 2) has also ‘Aurigæ habitu currus rexit.’ - ↑ Statius, Theb., lib. vi. 104.
- ↑ Description of the Ancient Terra-cottas in the British Museum.
- ↑ Iliad, 335—341.
