Chariot-racing was one of the oldest of Greek sports, and is described in the _Iliad_ as one of the contests held at the funeral of Patroklos. At that time the two-horse war-chariot was used in the race, and a special type of racing-car does not seem to have existed. [Illustration: FIG. 62.--ROMAN RACING-CHARIOT TURNING THE POST (NO. 179). L. 16 in.] The introduction of chariot-races in the great athletic contests was a concession to the wealthy inhabitants of prosperous cities. To enter a chariot with a team of four horses, which was now the usual number for the great race at Olympia, demanded almost as large a proportionate expenditure as to run a horse for the Derby to-day. Rich men in Greece Proper found rivals in the tyrants of Sicily and Cyrene, who ruled over cities with large revenues and districts providing good opportunities for successful horse-breeding. At Olympia four-horse chariots raced for the first time in 680 B.C., chariots with two horses not until 408. Between those dates a race for horsemen was started, and won on the first occasion by a native of Thessaly, which, owing to its rich plains, was celebrated in antiquity for a magnificent breed of horses. A winner in the horse-race is depicted on the vase No. =178= (exhibited in Case 107), about to receive a wreath and a tripod as his prizes, while a herald proclaims: "The horse of Dysneiketos wins." The race of four-horse chariots was, perhaps, the greatest event in the Olympian Games, and certainly the most exciting to the spectators, as accidents were frequent, especially at the turn. Consummate skill was necessary to double the post as close and as fast as possible. Readers of Sophokles' _Electra_ will remember the account given by the messenger of the alleged death of Orestes in a collision of chariots turning the post.[37] The Romans probably derived their custom of chariot-racing from the Greeks, as also the plan which, with some alterations in detail, they adopted for their _circus_. In the early days of Rome the marshy valley between the Palatine and Aventine Hills was the place chosen for the games, and remained so through the succeeding centuries, during which the course was gradually surrounded with an immense building; this in the fourth century after Christ held not far short of 180,000 people. [Illustration: FIG. 63.--IVORY STATUETTE OF A CHARIOTEER (NO. 180). 5:8.]