A chariot is a four-wheeled horse-drawn
carriage
A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...
. It is a sort of shortened
coach, cut off in front of the door, with the front seat omitted and the front wall constructed with a window, and lighter than a full coach. A chariot seats two people on a single seat facing forward, though it might have a small fold-down seat in the front for a child. It would either be driven by a
coachman
A coachman is a person who drives a Coach (carriage), coach or carriage, or similar horse-drawn vehicle. A coachman has also been called a coachee, coachy, whip, or hackman.
The coachman's first concern is to remain in full control of the hors ...
, or the high driver's seat removed and guided by
postilion riders. It was popular from the late 17th century to the late 19th century, but was eventually replaced by the smaller
brougham and other
coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...
carriages. The origin of the word is obscured because ''chariot'' and the similar words ''char'', ''chair'', ''chare'', ''charet'', and ''charette'', were liberally used interchangeably to indicate many two- and four-wheeled vehicles.
The
ancient Greek and Roman chariots were war and hunting vehicles which are not related to the carriage type of chariot.
A
state chariot, also called a ''gala chariot'' or ''dress chariot'', is an elaborately decorated chariot for ceremonial occasions.
A post chariot was a privately owned version of the hired
post chaise—a vehicle for travelling over longer distances, from
post to post.
[ Giacomo Casanova - Reisewagen im 18. Jahrhundert (Travelling Carriages in the 18th century).]
The unrelated chariotee was a name given to a
phaeton-style carriage in the southern US.
References
Carriages
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