Pompa circensis
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In ancient Rome, the pompa circensis was the procession that preceded the official games held in the circus as part of religious festivals and other occasions.
The presiding magistrate at the pompa circensis rode in a two-horse chariot; behind him are the young nobiles who led the parade on horseback (4th-century opus sectile from the Basilica of Junius Bassus)
A late 16th-century etching, from a book by the antiquarian Onofrio Panvinio published posthumously, reimagining the pompa circensis within the Circus Maximus but conflating it with a triumphal procession, labeling the elements of the parade in Latin
Chariot racing
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Chariot racing was one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sports. In Greece, chariot racing played an essential role in aristocratic funeral games from a very early time. With the
Modern depiction (1876) by Jean Léon Gérôme of a chariot race in Rome's Circus Maximus, as if seen from the starting gate. The Palatine Hill and imperial palace are to the left.
Chariot racing on a black-figure hydria from Attica, ca. 510 BC
The Charioteer of Delphi, an anonymous charioteer who probably drove in the Pythian Games for Polyzalus, tyrant of Gela, in Sicily (480–470BC)
A plan of the Circus Maximus. The starting gates are to the left, and a conjectured start-line cuts across the track, to the right of the nearest meta.