BIGA, in Antiquity, a chariot drawn by two horses abreast. Races of chariots with two horses were introduced into the Olympic games in the 93d Olympiad; but the invention was much more ancient, as we learn that the heroes in the Iliad fought in chariots of that kind. The moon, the night, and the morning, are by mythologists supposed to be carried in biga, but the sun in quadriga. Statues in biga were at first only allowed to the gods, but were afterwards conceded to conquerors in the Grecian games. Under the Roman emperors, however, statues in biga were decreed and granted to great and well-deserving men, as a kind of half triumph, and erected in most public places of the city; and figures of biga were also struck on their coins. The drivers of biga were called bigarii; and a marble bust of one Florus, a bigarius, is still seen at Rome.