Thereupon...you chose one of the four chariots by lot and mounted it, laying a tight grip on the hanging reins. Your partner did the same, so did the opposing side. Brightly gleam the colors, white and blue, green and red.....

Servants hands hold mouth and reins and with knotted cords force the twisted manes to hide themselves, and all the while they incite the steeds, eagerly cheering them with encouraging pats, and instilling a rapturous frenzy. There behind the barriers chafe those beasts, pressing against the fastenings, while a vapory blast comes forth between the wooden bars and even before the race the field.....is filled with their panting breath. They push, the bustle, they drag, they struggle, they rage, they jump, they fear and are feared; never are their feet still, but restlessly they lash the hardened timber. At last the herald with loud blare of trumpet calls forth the impatient teams and launches the fleet of chariots into the field....The ground gives way under the wheels and the air is smirched with the dust that rises in their track. The drivers, while they wield the reins, ply the lash; now they stretch forward over the chariots....and so they sweep along, striking the horses' withers and leaving their backs untouched.

As for you, bending double with the very force of the effort you keep a tight rein on your teams and with consumate skill wisely reserve them for the seventh lap. The others are busy with hand and voice, and everywhere the sweat of the drivers and flying steeds falls in drops on to the field. The hoarse roar from applauding partisans stirs the heart, and the contestants, both horses and men, are warmed by the race and chilled by fear. Thus they go once round, then a second time; thus goes the third lap, thus the fourth; but in the fifth turn the foremost man, unable to bear the pressure of his pursuers, swerved his car aside, for he had found, as he gave command to his fleet team, that their strength was exhausted. Now the return of half the sixth course was completed and the crowd was already clamoring for the reward of the prizes; your adversaries, with no fear of any effort from you, were scouring the track in front with never a care, when suddenly you tautened the curbs all together, tautened your chest, planted your feet firmly in front, and chafed the mouths of your swift steeds...fiercely....Hereupon one of the others, clinging to the shortest route round the turning post, was hustled by you, and his team, carried away beyond control by their onward rush, could no more be wheeled round in a harmonious course. As you saw him pass before you in disordre, you got ahead of him by remaining where you were, cunningly reining up. The other adversary, exulting in the public plaudits, ran too far to the right, close to the spectators; then as he turned aslant and all too late after long indifference urged his horses with the whip, you sped straight past your swerving rival. Then the enemy in reckless haste overtook you and, fondly thinking that the first man had already gone ahead, shamelessly made for your wheel with a sidelong dash. His horses were brought down, a multitude of intruding legs entered the wheels and the twelve spokes were crowded, until a crackle came from those crammed spaces and the revolving rim shattered the entangled feet; then he, a fifth victim, flung from his chariot which fell upon him, caused a mountain of mainfold havoc, and blood disfigured his prostrate brow. Thereupon rose a riot of renewed shouting [Consentius had won!]....Next the just emperor ordered silken ribbons to be added to the victors' palms and crowns to the necklets of gold, and true merit to have its reward; while to the vanquished in their sore disgrace he bade rugs of many colored hair to be rewarded.