Tzykanisterion

The tzykanisterion (Greek: τζυκανιστήριον) was a stadium for playing the tzykanion (τζυκάνιον, the Greek name for Chovgan, from Middle Persian čaukān, čōkān), a kind of polo adopted by the Byzantines from Sassanid Persia.

[1] According to John Kinnamos (263.17–264.11), the tzykanion was played by two teams on horseback, equipped with long sticks topped by nets, with which they tried to push an apple-sized leather ball into the opposite team's goal.

[2] The sport was very popular among the Byzantine nobility: Emperor Basil I (r. 867–886) excelled at it; his son, Emperor Alexander (r. 912–913), died from exhaustion while playing, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) was injured while playing with Tatikios, and John I of Trebizond (r. 1235–1238) died from an injury during a game.

[4] Aside from Constantinople and Trebizond, other Byzantine cities also featured tzykanisteria, most notably Lacedaemonia, Ephesus, and Athens, something which modern scholars interpret as an indication of a thriving urban aristocracy.

[5] These were also used as places of public tortures and executions, as it is historically recorded for the tzykanisteria of Constantinople and Ephesus.