itions from ancient days, when chariots were chiefly
used for battle and only once in a while for racing.

"For battle purposes chariots, of course, were built for speed and quick
turning, but after that, to avoid upsets. When a man was going to drive a
pair of half-wild stallions across trackless country, over gullies and
boulders, through bushes, up and down hill, often along a gravelly
hillside, he saw to it that his chariot would keep right side up no matter
how it bounced and tilted and swerved. He made sure that his axle was
long, his wheels far apart, and their spokes short, so that his chariot-
bed was as low as possible. He was right.

"But, after fighting from chariots was wholly a thing of the past in Italy
and chariots were used, as they are used, for racing only, why cling to
provisions for obsolete uses?

"A good general thinks of winning victories, not, like the fools I have
disgracing me along the Rhine, of avoiding defeats. So a good charioteer
ought to think, not of avoiding upsets, but of winning races. Yet all
charioteers appear to want their vehicles as low built as possible, with
short spoked wheels, wide apart on the ends of a long axle. That makes
them feel safer on a short turn, and, so help me Hercules, I hardly blame
them, anyhow. Besides, they all want to spraddle their legs apart and set
their feet wide, so as to stand firm on the chariot bed, so they want the
chariot body made as wide as possible.

"Now I don't need to plant my feet far apart when I drive. I believe I
could drive on one foot and keep my balance. So I hold a broad chariot
body is worse than unnecessary. More than that I maintain that the lower
the axle is set, the less the team's strength goes into attaining speed.
The lower the axle is set, the more sharply the pole slopes upward from
the axle to the yoke-ring; the less of the team's energy goes into pulling
the chariot along, the more of it is wasted, so to speak, on lifting the
chariot into the air at every leap forward. The higher the axle is set,
the nearer the pole is to being level, the less power is wasted on that
upward pull and the more is utilized on the forward pull and goes to
produce speed.

"Then again, I maintain that the farther apart the wheels are set the more
one drags against the other, not only at the turns, where anyone can see
the outer wheel drag on the inner, but at every swerve of the team on the
straightaway. All such dragging reduces speed an