ANCIENT CHARIOT. 28^ 



ties of difplaying it j and was fo regulated as to re- 

 quire the beft horfes, the higheft finiOied manege, and 

 the moft perfed: Ikill in driving. To complete the 

 noble competitors in this moft difficult manoeuvre of 

 the wheeling, the courfe was always fo laid out, that 

 the race depended chiefly on the performing this dif- 

 ficult evolution. He that will read with the eye of 

 fcience old Neftor's advice to his fon in the Iliad, Book 

 XXIII. v. 306, will need no other explication of this 

 matter. 



. The courfe was generally of that length that the 

 race was finifticd by going once round ; although 

 fometimes, in the more confined circus, the chariot 

 went four times round, making feven wheelings, rec- 

 koning thofe round both termini taken together. The 

 route of the race was from the right wheeling to the 

 left, round the extreme meta or terminus and then re- 

 turning back to the fame ground, fo as that the meta 

 or terminus from which they fet out fliould be upon 

 their right -, and, if the courfe confifted of more rounds 

 than one, then wheeling to the right round this meta, 

 and fo alternately in a line, making the Arabic figure 

 of 8. Now four rounds thus performed will make 

 juft feven wheelings. I am confcious that this opinion 

 is new ; but being pcrfuaded that I am grounded both 

 in the nature of the thing, and by fufiicient authority, 

 as will be feen prefently, I venture to give it out. 



According to the opinion commonly received of the 

 chariot race, that the competitors ftarted from the 



Vol. I. P p right 



