Another Monteleone Chariot?

Okay … so I’m primarily horizontal because of assorted back ailments and really am not up to actually blogging (terrible time of year for me … follow me on twitter if you want to see what I’ll eventually be getting to, among other things) and Chuck Jones posts a very old video of 1903 football game between Chicago and Michigan. That gets me thinking there might be videos of the chariot races that happened in the Rose Bowl for a while around WWI, but what I come across is a segment of Eddie Cantor in Roman Scandals (1933):

About a year ago, I mentioned how one of the chariots in Ben Hur (1925), seems to have been inspired by the Monteleone Chariot (which was at the time, a ‘recent’ find). Now, I don’t know if it’s the Robax Platinum muse inspiring me or what, but I think one of the chariots in Roman Scandals (around the five minute mark) has been similarly inspired (Lucille Ball was apparently in this one too … I think I hear her towards the end of the clip, but don’t see her)…

This Day in Ancient History

ante diem v idus junias

  • Vestalia — festival in honour of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth
  • 53 B.C. — the Roman army under Marcus Licinius Crassus (Dives) suffers a massive defeat at the hand of the Persians under Surenas near Carrhae; Crassus dies as a result of the battle
  • 17 B.C.. — ludi Latini et Graeci honorarii (day 5)
  • 62 A.D. — Nero has his first wife, Octavia, killed while in exile for adultery on Pandateria
  • 68 A.D. — the emperor Nero commits suicide
  • 86 A.D. — ludi Capitolini (day 4)
  • 204 A.D. — ludi Latini et Graeci honorarii (day 6)