Probably one of the most famous action scenes in film history is the vibrant chariot race by Ben-Hur . It is so spectacular that it can give us an idea of why it was the favorite sport of the Romans , who not only enjoyed watching the races but betting on their favorite charioteers and, sometimes, even ended up fighting in the stands in a true precedent of the worst face of current football.
We know that these competitions were developed according to rules more or less common throughout the empire, but finding a true regulation it is a stroke of fortune that delights archaeologists and historians. This is what has happened in Beyşehir , a district in the Turkish province of Konya, where a tombstone has appeared dating back a couple of millennia and bearing the racing rules inscribed on it that took place at the racetrack.
Because the piece was next to a racetrack, in a funerary monument in memory of Lukuyans , a Roman horseman who bore the nickname of The Warrior and whose epitaph reads as follows:“Lukuyanus the Warrior died before he married” . He is our hero. It is still curious because it seems as if it had been commissioned by her fan club, affected by her death in the middle of her youth before being able to marry, something that in ancient times was considered double misfortune, as explained by Professor Hasán Bahar , from the Department of History at Selçuk Konya University.
Said monument stands on the eastern border of Pisidia , an ancient region stretching from today's Mediterranean city of Antalya to the heart of Anatolia. An area where the Hellenistic civilization first and the Roman later took over from the Hittite, before the Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans also passed through there. All of them reused the racecourse classic for its own type of equestrian activities.
The tombstone found was next to an equine figure carved in the stone that decorated the tomb of Lukuyanos and was known by the locals as the Rock of the horse . Bahar believes that the racecourse, probably built by the Hittites in honor of their mountain gods but reused and renovated by the Romans, not only hosted races but also horse breeding. But what is really interesting is the text of the inscription .
And it is a regulation writtenin Greek which serves to demonstrate the appreciation that there was in the past for the equestrian sport and, above all, fair play that should prevail in its implementation. Thus, one of the rules prevents presenting a horse to competition if it has already won one of the races, as well as another veto the winning animal to repeat on the same day so that the others also have their chance. Those were definitely other times.