Crescens (charioteer)

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Crescens was a Roman charioteer from the “blues” circus team .

He is known from an inscription that was placed in Rome in his honor . The stone was found near Domitian's stadium, in today's Piazza Navona , and was first published in 1878. Today it is on display in the Capitoline Museums . At first, the research assumed that it was a classic honorary inscription set up during the charioteer's lifetime. This is suggested above all by the fact that the inscription was found directly at a stadium for chariot races, i.e. at the presumed place of activity of the crescent. In the meantime, however, it is considered likely that the stone was nevertheless a grave inscription . This is supported by the fact that his age, namely 22 years, is given.

According to the inscription, Crescens was Moor . Since he is only mentioned in the text with a single name and not the three-part name form of the Roman citizens , it should have been a slave . His first victory with the team of four is dated in the inscription on November 8, 115, when he won the 24th (and thus probably last) chariot race of the day at the memorial service on the birthday of the deified emperor Nerva . Crescens took part in 686 chariot races up to August 1, 124, the commemoration of the birthday of the likewise deified Emperor Claudius . From the age information at the beginning of the inscription, it can therefore be calculated back that he was 13 years old at his first race in November 115. His young death age could indicate that he did not die of natural causes, that is, that he may have died in a competition.

As is usual with such inscriptions in honor of charioteers, there are other statistics on the successes of the athlete in question: He has achieved 47 victories, of which 19 in individual races, 23 in two-man races and five in three-way races. This means the number of teams that each circus party sent to the start in the relevant race. In addition, the victories are differentiated according to their sporting course: Crescens has "sent ahead" of his victories, eight "occupied" and 38 "wrested" ("praemis {s} (it) I occup (avit) VIII eripuit XXXVIII"). In one case he had given his opponents a head start (“sent them ahead”) and then still achieved victory; in eight cases, however, he was in the lead for the entire race. In the remaining 38 victories, Crescens only managed to overtake the other teams towards the end of the race and thus "snatch" victory from them. In addition to these 47 victories, there were 130 events in which he finished second and 111 races in which he finished third. At the end of the inscription, the total prize money that he had earned in the course of his career is estimated at 1,558,346 sesterces .

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literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CIL VI, 10050 = Inscriptiones Latinae selectae , No. 5285 .
  2. ↑ Ersilia Caetani-Lovatelli: La iscrizione di Crescente auriga circense. In: Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Volume 6, number 3, 1878, pp. 164-176 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ Anne Kolb, Joachim Fugmann: Death in Rome. Grave inscriptions as a mirror of Roman life. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3483-9 , p. 180.
  4. ^ Anne Kolb, Joachim Fugmann: Death in Rome. Grave inscriptions as a mirror of Roman life. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3483-9 , p. 181.
  5. ^ Gerhard Horsmann: The charioteers of the Roman imperial era. Investigations into their social position. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07234-9 , p. 194.
  6. ↑ On these categories see for example Anne Kolb, Joachim Fugmann: Tod in Rom. Grave inscriptions as a mirror of Roman life. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3483-9 , p. 184.
personal data
SURNAME Crescens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman charioteer
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century