Hippodrome
As Hippodrome (Greek ἱππόδρομος hippodromos " racecourse " ) refers to a racecourse for horse and chariot races, as it was used in ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire.
In ancient Rome, the name Hippodromus was used for a garden form, while usually Circus called the racecourse there.
In the early modern period the name hippodrome was taken up for large buildings and carnival tents where acrobatics was paraded on horseback ( Vaulting ) in front of audiences and music.
The word " hippodrome " derives from the ancient Greek words ἵππος hippos "horse" and δρόμος dromos " running, race, place of the race " from. Hippodromos and hippodromus are masculine in Ancient Greek or Latin; in standard German the neuter has largely prevailed.
The Hippodrome at the Greeks
The basic form of the Hippodrome consisted of an open field, on the two signs were erected, which were called terma (plural termai ). These two characters were to circumnavigate by horsemen or charioteers. If in the modern literature, the racetrack often called " elliptical" or is called "oval ", this curve is probably meant as the most favorable results from the orbit of termai necessarily. The outer shape was irrelevant for the actual race track, they usually consisted of a rectangle whose one narrow side was replaced by a semicircle. On the field itself was no place for a plantation or other use; therefore all the facilities were located on the edge of the field.
An archetype of this system appears in Homer's Iliad. In a flat area, for a chariot race racecourse improvised (XXIII 257 et seq.)
" Significantly enough, the characters of the target; you will not miss it: Dominated by Klafterlänge a scrawny stake in height, Calibration or Ficht wood that is not rotted in the rain, And two white stones are rammed at the sides, There, at the turn of the path, where the highway for around swings. [ ... ] Now it intended as the target of divine Achilles fast. Blowing your team of horses so close that you give it streifest, But even bend you over the chair festgeflochtetenen Slightly to the left and drive out with Scourge and acclamation Law, the horse and let the reins go with your hands to him. But the left-hand horse should be pushing close to the column itself, So the hub of the wheel well crafted the surface Almost touched; but against the stone to avoid bounce, That you will not hurt the horses you and the car shatter. . . "
" Straight line they stood; since pointed to the sign Achilles Far in the flat field and sat as a guard next to it Phoinix, the divine old man, the comrade of his father, About the race to watch and only to report the truth. "
There are not too few archaeological evidence of hippodromes; the most important information comes from written sources. The different systems seem to have differed greatly in their size and technical equipment. Even the most famous Greek hippodrome, the Olympia is not obtained. The termai there were two pillars, the side length of the field was about two stages ( = 384.5 m).
List of known Greek Hippodrome
The Roman Hippodrome
In ancient Rome was a racecourse in Latin Circus. When the characteristic difference to the Greek hippodrome the spina is considered a long wall that was to circumnavigate by the participants of the race and replaced the termai or, depending on the design, combined with each other. The earliest racecourse in Byzantium is not from Greek but from Roman times and is according to Roman usage a circus ( the Greek-speaking Roman sources from the east, however, usually referred to each racecourse, including a circus, as the Hippodrome ). The few surviving sources indicate that under a hippodromus understand a garden in the Latin -speaking world, which followed in its plan to that of the Greek hippodrome.
The only surviving structure in the Roman West, which is recognized by a written source with some certainty as hippodromus, part of the Domus Augustana on the Palatine in Rome (often referred to as a stadium ). The typical floor plan is varied here: The arc of the southwestern narrow side is semicircular, and the limitation of the system is formed by a continuous portico. Additions, by the horses could have been made into, are missing; so it can not have been a real racecourse.
Pliny the Younger describes in his letters (V, 6, 32-40 ) detail one called " Hippodrome " garden (here with " hippodrome " translated), which belonged to his country seat near the present-day Città di Castello and do not get is. Also this system is designed as a rectangle whose one side is replaced by a bending.
" [ The hippodrome ] is open in the middle and lends itself immediately upon entering the eyes in their whole extent; they do is bordered by plane trees [ ... ]. This straight boundary Rain [ ... ] turns against his end in a semi-circle, a [ ... ]. He is here bordered by cypress trees [ ... ]; on the inner rows of trees [ ... ] it receives pure daylight. Therefore, he can thrive here even roses and swapped shady coolness with wohtuendem sunshine. At the end of this colorful, varied curvature it is again straight [ ... ] "