HIPPODROME (Lat. hippudroul us, front 1:7764poiroc, race-course. from hippos, horse (ImMoc, dromos. enure, front • v, dromein. to run). The Greek name for the place set apart for horse and chariot races. The seem to have varied at different places. In construction and all important points of arrangement it was the counterpart of the Roman circus (q.v.). The dimension; Iat I pin 1 have recently come to light in a Greek MS. in Constantinople. The total eireuit was eight stadia (about .95 mile). but the length of the actual race-course was only six. It is also said that pairs of colt, made three circuits, pairs of grown horses or four made eight rounds, and the four-hor-e chariots twelve. A- this would make the latter race cover about eight and a half mile, some modern scholars believe that not the circuit. but merely the length of the hippodrome. is meant. and that therefore the length of the contest- should be reduced one-half. A race of over eight mile, must have been at contest of endurance rather than of -peed. The breadth at 4 43'1111/1a was about 350 feet. At tilympia ale starting was effected by mean, of the sis, a system of stalls arranged along the two sides of a triangle, the apex of which was to the right of the centre line, and ap parently arranged that the distances from the turning-point to the angles at the base of the triangle were equal. The start was effeeted by
setting free the chariot: on the extreme right and left. and when they came abreast of the next two. by setting them free also. and so on till all were in motion. The number of starters scent, at times to have been very large. as I'indar speaks of 41 chariot. as competing at the Pyth ian games. and Aleibiades alone sent seven chariots to Olympia. The golden age of the hippodrome was during the Byzantine Empire. The blue and green factions in the hippodrome carried their animosity into all department- of the public service, and the Nika riots in Con -tantinople threatened to dethrone Justinian. The site of the great hippodrome at Con-tanti nople i, called _ktotteldan ttlie horselike, ) by the 'l urk-. and the line of the central barrier is marked by the ubeli-k of Theodosius. the bronze serpent- that supported the Plata•an tri pod., and the column erected by ( onstantine Lehndorff, ippod mows (Berlin. 1S7G : Pollack, Bippodroonico I Leipzig, P.0.10) Wernicke and Selii;Ile, in nlahrhurh des urchao loyisrhe o 1 '1st Huts, ix. Ps94) and xii. lib.. Is07i : and especially the elaborate article by A. .Nlartin. "Ilippodrumos" in Haremberg and Saglio. hirhvnnuirr (Its untiquit,s ( Pa ris. I s97 )