The Greeks were the most enlightened of the ancients, and their taste in the arts has never been even rivalled. What they did, therefore, on this occasion, could not be considered as in bad taste; and, when we remember that the celebration of these pastimes outlived the laws, customs, and liberty of their country, we need not say more in their vindication. The honours of victory were not even confined to the brave and skilful man who won the race: even the horses were crowned amidst the applauses of the spectators; and in one race, where forty chariots were broken, the victorious one was preserved in the temple of Apollo. Such being the havoc among the competitors, it is not wonderful that Ovid should say, that the honour of contending for the Olympic prize was almost equal to the winning of it. Sophocles modestly speaks of ten starting at the same time in the race; but Pindar, availing himself, perhaps, of poetic licence, makes the number forty. Four horses driven abreast was the usual number. The length[72] of the course on which they ran did not exceed an English mile, and as they had to make twenty-two turnings round the two pillars--generally, we may suppose, at full speed--it is not difficult to imagine what dreadful accidents must have happened. [72] The Circus Maximus at Rome, in which the Romans exhibited their chariot-races, was an oval building of one thousand eight hundred feet in length, and four hundred in breadth. Nothing indeed but the form of chariot used could have ensured safety to any one. From the representations on ancient coins, it appears to have been very low, and only on two wheels, somewhat resembling our curricle. It had of course no springs; and, as there was no seat for the charioteer, much of his skill consisted in preserving his balance, and keeping upon his legs. According to Pausanias, the following was the method of starting:--The chariots entered the course according to order, previously settled by lot, and drew up in a line. They started at a signal given, and to him who passed the pillar at the top of the course twelve times, and that at the bottom ten times, in the neatest manner, without touching it, or overturning his chariot, was the reward given.--As, however, it was the aim of every one who started to make for this pillar, as to a centre, we can easily imagine the confusion there must have been in forty, twenty, or even ten chariots, all rushing to one given point, amidst the clanging of trumpets, &c. The following translation of a description of a chariot-race, from the Electra of Sophocles, is worthy of a place.