'NASCAR on speed': Chariot racing might return to Rome's Circus Maximus
Ben-Hur Redux? An Italian entrepreneur is hoping to bring back ancient Roman chariot racing -- and modern Roman pride.
It's a situation that keeps Franco Calo up at night. Across Europe and the world, chariot racing, perhaps the most Roman of all sporting events, is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. Events are held in cities from Bulgaria to Germany to France. There is even a hippodrome in Brazil. But in Calo's native Rome? So far, the 27th generation Roman points out ruefully, there is nothing. That, though, is something Calo is setting about to change. He is pushing for the Italian capital to reclaim chariot racing and establish an event of its own.
"Rome is the only large Italian city without a unique historical manifestation, such as Siena's Palio horse races or Venice's Regata Storica," Calo told SPIEGEL ONLINE. He is slightly more pointed on his Web site Vadis al Maximo: Do Romans, he asks his readers, really want "to come in third behind the Gauls (the French) and the Huns (the Germans), when it comes to Romanness?" It is time, he says, for chariot racing to come home to Rome -- and more specifically to the Circus Maximus, the site of Rome's earliest and largest circus and host to innumerable chariot races through the ages.
"I spent five years in Los Angeles," Calo says. "In America, I had the chance to witness the phenomenon of the great spectacle."
Most challenging of all, however, is getting permission from the city to stage the event in the first place. But Calo will also have to obtain permission from cultural heritage officials, who have been presented with an impact assessment and are currently reviewing the proposal.
Jeremy Hartnett, a professor at Rome's Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies and an expert on ancient Roman urban society, for his part, is skeptical that they will be cooperative. "I can't imagine they'd let him do this," Hartnett told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "One thing we know for sure about Roman chariot racing is that it was extremely dangerous. It was like NASCAR on speed."
(Excerpts / Josh Ward, Spiegel)
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What do you think about Calo's proposal? Should he be allowed to reintrocuce the dangerous sport to its ancient home and would you be interested in watching a chariot race?
It's a situation that keeps Franco Calo up at night. Across Europe and the world, chariot racing, perhaps the most Roman of all sporting events, is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. Events are held in cities from Bulgaria to Germany to France. There is even a hippodrome in Brazil. But in Calo's native Rome? So far, the 27th generation Roman points out ruefully, there is nothing. That, though, is something Calo is setting about to change. He is pushing for the Italian capital to reclaim chariot racing and establish an event of its own.
"Rome is the only large Italian city without a unique historical manifestation, such as Siena's Palio horse races or Venice's Regata Storica," Calo told SPIEGEL ONLINE. He is slightly more pointed on his Web site Vadis al Maximo: Do Romans, he asks his readers, really want "to come in third behind the Gauls (the French) and the Huns (the Germans), when it comes to Romanness?" It is time, he says, for chariot racing to come home to Rome -- and more specifically to the Circus Maximus, the site of Rome's earliest and largest circus and host to innumerable chariot races through the ages.
"I spent five years in Los Angeles," Calo says. "In America, I had the chance to witness the phenomenon of the great spectacle."
Most challenging of all, however, is getting permission from the city to stage the event in the first place. But Calo will also have to obtain permission from cultural heritage officials, who have been presented with an impact assessment and are currently reviewing the proposal.
Jeremy Hartnett, a professor at Rome's Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies and an expert on ancient Roman urban society, for his part, is skeptical that they will be cooperative. "I can't imagine they'd let him do this," Hartnett told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "One thing we know for sure about Roman chariot racing is that it was extremely dangerous. It was like NASCAR on speed."
(Excerpts / Josh Ward, Spiegel)
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What do you think about Calo's proposal? Should he be allowed to reintrocuce the dangerous sport to its ancient home and would you be interested in watching a chariot race?
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- JanaPokana
- added this
- added July 17, 2008
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Seeing as this is what the Circus Maximus looks like now, and knowing Rome's dislike of new building projects I think he has as much chance as Mussolini did of resurrecting a new empire... but man, it'd be cool (not the new empire bit)
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That sounds pretty damn cool...
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- Dmitri_Molotov
- 12 months ago
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Sweet! i'm there!
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- rabidlemur
- 12 months ago
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we have "Medieval Times " in the US , and i can't see why Rome shouldn't have something like it .
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circusmaximus.us
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