HORSE RACING AS A FORM OF SPECTACULAR CULTURE OF ANCIENT ROME

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to introduce into the cultural discourse analytically processed and generalized information about the genesis and evolution of horse racing as a mass form of the spectacular culture of Ancient Rome, the specifics and functional features of the mass spectacles of Antiquity. The methodological basis was the methods of critical analysis of cultural, historical and literary sources, concrete-historical analysis and interdisciplinary synthesis, induction and deduction. Problematic and chronological, systemic and structural, comparative and descriptive methods, the method of social and phenomenological analysis were used from concrete and scientific methods. Scientific novelty.

The article analyzes the genesis and evolution of horse racing as a mass form of the spectacular culture of Ancient Rome. Using ancient literary reflection, through the prism of the works of culturologists, philosophers, historians, poets, writers of Ancient Rome Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, annals of Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Cassius Dio, ethic works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, letters of Gaius Pliny the Younger, poetry pages of Publius Ovidius Naso, epigrams of Marcus Valerius Martialis and others. The author revealed the essence and content of horse racing as a mass form of spectacle in Ancient Rome, statistics and features of entertainment events and tools of the rule of the Roman emperors. The author described the moral aspects of horse racing in the context of the spectacular culture of Ancient Rome. Conclusions. The place of the spectacular culture of Ancient Rome in the system of cultural knowledge and cultural traditions of their social universe is revealed. The transformation of horse racing as a social and humanitarian experience of ancient society, a political tool of governance in Ancient Rome are studied. The role of mass spectacles of Antiquity for modern cultural practices is established.