> I recently read an article about the Nika riots of Constantinople that annoyed me so much I wrote an entire short story rebutting it. I try not to rip wholesale from history, though, so I decided I wanted to come up with a new kind of race. First, I needed to understand the different kinds of races that happened in history... ## Quick Facts - [Gaius Appuleius Diocles](https://www.sbnation.com/secret-base/22228648/gaius-appuleius-diocles-richest-ever-athlete) survived a 24-year career of chariot racing in Rome, and won 1,462 races. He may have been the richest athlete ever. %% #articleseed/addendum according to [James Dator](https://twitter.com/James_Dator) %% - Mongolian race horses are ridden by 7 to 13 year old girls and boys [without saddles](https://www.viewmongolia.com/mongolian-horse-race.html). - The word "stadium" comes from the Greek _stade_, a unit of measure based off of [the length of a Greek footrace](https://www.britannica.com/technology/stadium#ref100143) (roughly 180m/600ft). - Some [racehorses respond an approaching competitor](https://gizmodo.com/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-competition-1823122780) by putting on a burst of speed, while others fade back to last once another horse starts to beat them. - The chariot racing scene from [Ben-Hur](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frE9rXnaHpE) (1959) is often the only part of that movie people have ever seen. ## Racing Riots In Byzantium during Justinian's rule, chariot racing was highly factional and politically powerful — and evoked a fair amount of localized violence, roughly on order with a college town might see after a big football game. Justinian spent a big chunk of his co-emperor days trying to crack down on faction-related rioting. The [Nika riot in Constantinople](https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/nika.html), which kicked off because a couple of racing fans got arrested for "disturbances" and were going to be hanged; the rioters wanted them released, among other things. %% additional resources: [[Chariot-Racing Hooliganism The Nika Riots of Constantinople by Antigone]] (but link to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm9mscL2qHU)) %% ## Foot Race Male Inca ran [long-distance footraces](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/nqkyhy/what_sports_if_any_did_the_incas_play/) during their puberty rites, which were held in December. The top ten got special clothes and earned bragging rights for life. The bottom ten _also_ had to wear special clothes, to shame them for their failure. Note that ["Inca" here refers to the elite class](https://books.google.com/books?id=J3WZuTINl2QC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=inca+footrace+puberty+rite&ots=b_18kQzoYf&sig=ACfU3U0HEZ5iOa8PQwrG0EliBR2ITXL6PA&hl=en#v=onepage&q=inca%20footrace%20puberty%20rite&f=false), not all the inhabitants of the Andes region. ## Boat Race The annual [boat race between Oxford and Cambridge](https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/oxford-v-cambridge-a-history-of-the-boat-race/) is still very popular, but the history of it centers around boatbuilders and townsmen more than any of the university students. Even after professional watermen were banned from participating (!), boatbuilder Stephen Davis was a critical advisor for the Oxford crews. ## Pancake Race The world's oldest pancake race takes place every year on Shrove Tuesday in the Buckinghamshire town of Olney. Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, i.e. 6 weeks before Easter. It's a tradition begun in 1445 where [women wear aprons and headscarves and carry a frying pan with a pancake](http://olneypancakerace.org/pancake-race-history/) while they run to a Shriving service at the parish church. - - - ICYMI: [[2021-08-02 Conveyances]], touches on how chariot wheels during chariot races were the one exception to the rule that Romans mostly used water to lubricate spinning wheels.