Ludi Ceriales 2764 Aoife of the Silures

Owner: L. Iulia Aquila

Driver: Aoife of the Silures winner of last year's Ludi Magna Romani 2763
Chariot: Vita Brevis (her mentor, Petronius Gnipho’s chariot)
Factio:   Albata

Tactics Quarter and Semifinals: Favors a steady pace but Aoife has a long memory will use what is as her command and will not hesitate to push a rival into the walls of the circus. She will wield the whip if necessary.

Tactics Finals: Similar to the Quarters and Semifinals, but may incorporate high pace for the win in the final laps.

Aoife is from western Britain, now known as Wales, from the tribe of  the Silures.  The Silures are big on horses, and also on war chariots.    Aoife grew up as a royal woman of the Silures and trained for warfare from a very young age.  She came to Rome with a military  tribune she'd gotten involved with in Britannia, who she's  subsequently parted ways with.  She befriended her chariot’s  owner Marinus’ other driver, Petronius Gnipho, who has been her mentor and unofficial uncle for many years now.  Gnipho is an old sailor who drove in the circus as a young man and later came back to the circus after several years of sailing grain boats back and forth between Ostia and Alexandria. When Aoife started driving for Marinus she was pretty wild.  She'd go all out right out of the gate every time.  Gnipho realized this was her warrior training, and she'd learned to drive chariots with the idea that she had to overwhelm an enemy with shock and terror to gain a tactical advantage.  Gnipho taught her to think in terms of the circus, and to hold her horses back for the final laps. Physically she's quite pretty.  She has dark auburn hair and brown eyes, and she's about 5'6" tall, making her a tall woman among her people.  The Silures are dark people in general, running to dark hair and eyes.  Her hands and forearms are scarred from years of handling the reins added to years of tribal warfare. She's quick with a knife.  Other drivers who've thought to take advantage of her have been known to lose body parts.  She likes her horses more than she likes most people, and she'll go out of her way to hurt anybody who tries to hurt her horses.

The chariot, Vita Brevis: The body is lacquered black with sheaths of bronzed grain on each side and a matte black trim on the felly so glare will not impede the driver’s vision. The temo is lacquered black as well with matte black trim accents but there is a back strip of a bright shining bronze metal where the charioteer will step into the chariot itself.  This chariot has a dense oak axle and the body is of tightly woven wicker with a few special reinforcements added to strengthen it and adjustments made to lighten it for speed.  The side part of the canthus is likewise painted with burnished bronze matching the reinforced metal of the business part that appears to be of a golden bronze - but the eight spokes are layered in the most gleaming bronze color and in the center of spokes is a depiction of a head of a beautiful fury.

The horses chosen sport bloodlines of champions from Hispania and are a matched set of gleaming black color with equally black manes and tails. Their names are Rabinus, Maris, Duilius and Vicator.

http://aoife-of-the-silures.blogspot.com/