page_title: Biga (chariot)
section_title: Bigae at the races
hierarchical_section_title: Biga (chariot) / Bigae at the races
caption_attribution_description: English: Opus sectile panel. Roman artwork, first half of the 4th century. From the basilica of Junius Bassus on the Esquiline Hill. Français&#160;: Panneau en opus sectile. Œuvre romaine, première moitié du IVe siècle ap. J.-C. Provenance&#160;: basilique de Junius Bassus sur l'Esquilin. Italiano: Pannello parietale in opus sectile. Opera romana, prima metà del IV sec. d.C. Dalla Basilica di Giunio Basso sull'Esquilino.
context_page_description: The biga is the two-horse chariot as used in ancient Rome for sport, transportation, and ceremonies. Other animals may replace horses in art and occasionally for actual ceremonies. The term biga is also used by modern scholars for the similar chariots of other Indo-European cultures, particularly the two-horse chariot of the ancient Greeks and Celts. The driver of a biga is a bigarius.
  Other Latin words that distinguish chariots by the number of animals yoked as a team are quadriga, a four-horse chariot used for racing and associated with the Roman triumph; triga, or three-horse chariot, probably driven for ceremonies more often than racing; and seiugis or seiuga, the six-horse chariot, more rarely raced and requiring a high degree of skill from the driver. The biga and quadriga are the most common types.
  Two-horse chariots are a common icon on Roman coins; see bigatus, a type of denarius so called because it depicted a biga. In the iconography of religion and cosmology, the biga represents the moon, as the quadriga does the sun.
context_section_description: Horse- and chariot-races were part of the ludi, sacred games held during Roman religious festivals, from Archaic times. A magistrate who presented games was entitled to ride in a biga. The sacral meaning of the races, though diminished over time, was preserved by iconography in the Circus Maximus, Rome's main racetrack.
  Inscriptions referring to the bigarius as young suggest that a racing driver had to gain experience with a two-horse team before graduating to a quadriga.
caption: The consul advances in his biga at the pompa circensis[12] (4th century, opus sectile from the Basilica of Junius Bassus)
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