Nigel B. Crowther is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. He is also a sometime Supervising Professor, International Olympic Academy, Olympia, Greece.
He has published widely in numerous scholarly journals on sports in the ancient world but is best known as the author of Sport in Ancient Times and Athletika.
Nigel Crowther is a frequent contributor to television, including an award-winning 2004 documentary Let the Games Begin, which screened in Canada, USA, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Austria. He is also regularly interviewed on issues relating to the Olympic Games for radio, and contributes to newspapers in Canada and the USA, including the Chicago Sun-Times, New York Times, and Wall Street Week.
He has lectured widely around the world, including in Canada, Britain, USA, Austria, Greece, the Middle East, Hong Kong, and Beijing.
He is a passionate sports fan, especially of soccer, and former weight lifting champion.
Jamie Hobbis heads down to Colchester to meet with the Colchester Archaeological Trust's Howard Brooks who takes Jamie on an adventure of the first Roman town in Britain. Showing the guardrooms of the Balkerne Gate which acted as the security entrance for the city, he describes how Queen Boudica destroyed the town. Howard also takes Jamie to the Roman wall of Colchester, and explains its material composition before taking him to a Roman Christian church where he talks about the importance of religion and Christianity on the empire and Britain at this time.
Jamie spots a Roman looking church, but Howard explains that it is actually a Saxon church, and was constructed using Roman building materials. Jamie also learns about the town's Roman theatre, a part of which can be viewed inside a vacated home.
Best-selling author Caroline Lawrence has added her name to a growing list of celebrities supporting the fight to save Colchester's Roman Circus.
Lawrence, the author of the ‘Roman Mysteries’ series of children’s books, joins other high-profile people backing the appeal, including authors Ronald Blythe, Guy de la Bedoyere and Adam Hart-Davis, Time Team presenter Tony Robinson, architectural historian and TV presenter Dan Cruickshank, broadcaster Peter Snow, and former MP and cabinet minister Tony Benn.
Caroline Lawrence, author of the ‘Roman Mysteries’ series of children’s books, will bring a multimedia presentation Colchester on February 19 to raise money for a public appeal aimed at rescuing the Sergeant’s Mess, a Victorian building that has the gates to the Roman Circus – the UK’s only Roman chariot racecourse – beneath it. The building could be sold to developers if £200,000 is not raised by the end of February. The kitty currently stands at £170,000 following a £30,000 donation from council.
The presentation will take place from 2pm on Friday, February 19 at the Colchester Arts Centre. Everyone attending will take home a free signed copy of one of Lawrence’s books.
This relief has an auriga on a chariot drawn by two horses
The man is wearing a short sleeveless tunic and armour that protects the torso. He turns in triumph, holding Louron and Lapalme, trophies of the victor. A second chariot follows the first. The relief could have been used to decorate a mausoleum as the theme of the victor was often used as a symbol for funerals and burials.
e dans le tour du triomphe.He spent his reins around the torso as is the custom in the lap of triumph.
Little remains of the Circus Maximus today, many of its stones having been removed to build more modern buildings nearby. But it was once an almighty spectacle: the first and biggest public hippodrome of its kind, with a capacity of a whopping 250,000. That means that, in its peak years, the Circus Maximus could have taken in a quarter of Rome's entire population.
The Roman people craved entertainment on a massive scale, and this place would have hosted some feasome contests, principally chariot races, such as the one famously depicted at the end of the film Ben-Hur. Only the racing track (overgrown with grass) and the spina remain today, and nearly all of the seats have been pulled up and removed. Yet the space still sometimes hosts huge public events such as pop concerts.
