CIRCUS MAXIMUS
the first and largest circus in Rome, which was gradually
built up in the
VALLIS MURCIA (q.v.), between the Palatine and Aventine
hills. This valley was admirably adapted for the purpose, being 600
metres long and 150 wide. Here the first recorded games were held (Ov.
Ars
Am. i. 103-108; cf.
Trist. ii. 283;
Fast. ii. 391-392;
iv. 391, 680),
horse races in honour of
CONSUS (q.v.) ascribed to Romulus, at which
occurred the rape of the Sabine women (Varro,
LL vi. 20; Plut. Rom. 14).
To the Tarquins tradition ascribed the beginnings of the circus and the
assignment of definite places or curiae to senate and knights where they
could erect wooden platforms on supports (fori), from which to view the
games, either to Priscus (
Liv. i. 35. 8;
Dionys. iii. 68. 1) or Superbus (
Liv.
i. 56. 2;
Dionys. iv. 44. 1; de vir. ill. 8 ;
1 cf. Chron. 145), but the first
definite statement is that of Livy for 329 B.C. (viii. 20. 1:
carceres eo
anno in circo primum statuti), which makes it plain that there had been
nothing permanent before that date. These carceres were probably of
wood, for a century later they were painted (Enn. ap. Cic. de div. i. 108:
omnes avidi spectant ad carceris oras quam mox emittat pictis e
faucibus currus). For further mention of the fori publici, see
Liv.
xxix. 37 (204 B.C.); CIL i 2. 809 (first century B.C.).
It is probable that after the carceres the next permanent part of the
circus to be constructed was the spina (see below), and that on it were
placed those statues of which we have record, one of Pollentia (
Liv.
xxxix. 7. 8 (189 B.C.):
malus in circo instabilis in signum Pollentiae
procidit atque id deiecit), and others (
Liv. xl. 2. I:
signa alia in circo
maximo cum columnis quibus superstabant evertit). It is also possible
that the arch of Stertinius (see
FORNIX STERTINII) with its gilded statues,
erected in 196 B.C. (
Liv. xxxiii. 27. 4), may have stood in the line of the
spina, but the temple of
IUVENTAS (q.v.) of 191 (
Liv. xxxvi. 36. 5) was on
one side. A permanent spina presupposes the covering over of the
stream, which flowed through the circus. This came from the valley
between the Caelian and Esquiline, passing through the (marshy ?)
depression which later on Nero converted into the stagnum of the domus
Aurea and then traversed the valley between the Caelian and Palatine.
It was converted into a cloaca, and discharged into the Tiber about
100 metres below the Cloaca Maxima, where its mouth may still be seen
(LF 30, 35; cf. our Ill. 5). In KH iv. it is wrongly connected with the
mediaeval Marrana Mariana (see
AQUA IULIA).
In 174 B.C. the censors, Q. Fulvius Flaccus and A. Postumius Albinus,
added considerably to the equipment of the circus, but owing to the
fragmentary condition of the text in Livy (xli. 27. 6), nothing can be made
out with certainty except that they restored the carceres, and set up ova,
or sets of seven large eggs of wood, with which to record the number of
laps run in the races for the benefit of the spectators-an arrangement
that became permanent (Varro,
RR i. 2. II; Cassiod.
Var. iii. 51. 10).
In 55 B.C., at the dedication of the temple of Venus Victrix, Pompeius
caused twenty elephants to fight in the circus, and they broke down the
iron railing with which he had intended to protect the spectators (Plin.
NH viii. 20, 21). More effective protection was afforded by the moat or
euripus which Caesar constructed in 46 B.C. between the arena and the
seats (Plin. loc. cit.; Suet. Caes. 39:
circensibus spatio circi ab utraque
parte producto et in gyrum euripo addito... venationes editae...
quingenis peditibus elephantis vicenis tricenis equitibus hinc et inde
commissis. nam quo laxius dimicaretur, sublatae metae inque earum
locum bina castra exadversum constituta erant). This passage seems to
mean that Caesar lengthened the circus and removed the goals temporarily,
but does not justify the conclusion (HJ 123) that up to this time there
had been no permanent section of the spina. In 33 B.C. Agrippa placed
on the spina seven dolphins, probably of bronze, which served with the
ova to indicate the laps of the races (Cass.
Dio xlix. 43. 2).
How extensive and how permanent the circus had become before the
Augustan period, it is impossible to say. In 31 B.C. a fire destroyed
a considerable part of it (Cass. Dio 1. 10. 3). Augustus himself records
only the construction or restoration of the pulvinar ad circum maximum
(Mon.
Anc. iv. 4), a sort of box on the Palatine side of the circus from
which the imperial family could view the games, but Cassiodorus attributes
to him much more (
Var. iii. 51. 4:
mundi dominus ad potentiam suam
opus extollens mirandam etiam Romanis fabricam in vallem Murciam
tetendit Augustus). Pliny, on the other hand, speaks very distinctly of
the existing circus as the work of the dictator Caesar (
NH xxxvi. 102:
nec ut circum maximum a Caesare dictatore exstructum longitudine
stadiorum trium latitudine unius sed cum aedificiis iugerum quaternum
ad sedem CCL inter magna opera dicamus). At any rate, our definite
information about the monument, whether due to Caesar or Augustus,
begins with the Augustan period, and subsequent changes probably did
not affect materially its general plan. Besides building the pulvinar,
Augustus set up on the spina the obelisk from Heliopolis (Plin.
NH
xxxvi. 71;
Ammian. xvii. 4. 12), which is now in the Piazza del Popolo
(see
OBELISCUS AUGUSTI).
According to Dionysius's description (iii. 68), written in 7 B.C., the
circus was then one of the most wonderful monuments in Rome, three
and one-half stadia (621 metres) long and four plethra (118 metres) wide,
a euripus or water channel, ten feet wide and ten feet deep, surrounding
the arena except at the carceres end. The seats rose in three sections,
the lower story being built of stone, and the two upper of wood. The
short side, opposite the carceres, was crescent-shaped, and the total
seating capacity was 150,000. The carceres, or chariot stalls, were
without roof, and closed by a rope barrier which could be dropped before
them all at once. Around the outside of the building was a one-storied
arcade containing shops (
ἐργαστήρια) and
οἰκήσεις, perhaps a sort of
pergola (
Mitt. 1887, 220) above them. Through this colonnade were
entrances to the lower section of seats and stairways to the upper,
arranged alternately to facilitate ingress and egress.
The chambers in the outer arcade, which Dionysius mentions, were
occupied in large part by questionable characters, cooks (Cic. pro Mil. 65),
astrologers (Cic. de div. i. 132; Iuv. 6. 588; Hor.
Sat. i. 6. 113-4) and
prostitutes (Iuv. 3. 65; Priap. 27: Anth.
Lat. i. 190; Hist. Aug. Elag. 26;
Cyprian. de spect. 5). Augustus and succeeding emperors also watched
the games from the imperial residences on the Palatine, or the houses
of their friends, as well as from the pulvinar (Suet. Aug. 45; Claud. 4;
cf.
CIL vi. 9822, and perhaps Fest. 364). That the circus was faced with
marble on the inside, and presumably on the outside also, is to be inferred
from Ovid (Ars
Am. i. 103-104:
tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela
theatro nec fuerant liquido pulpita rubra croco; cf. Calp. Ecl. 7. 69-aet.
Neronis). Augustus is said to have assigned separate seats to the
senators and knights (Cass.
Dio lv. 22. 4), but apparently not in any fixed
section, for Claudius did this for the senators (Cass.
Dio lx. 7. 3-4; Suet.
Claud. 21), and Nero for the knights (Suet. Nero II; Tac.
Ann. xv. 32;
Plin.
HN viii. 21; cf. Calp. Ecl. 7. 26-29).
In 36 A.D. part of the circus on the Aventine side was burned (Tac.
Ann.
vi. 45; Cass.
Dio lviii. 26. 5). This is called
pars circi inter ultores
in a fragmentary chronicle of Ostia (
BC 1916, 211-212), where ultores
probably refers to certain di ultores whose shrines were in this part of
the circus.
2 The damage was probably repaired at once, for Caligula
celebrated the ludi circenses, evidently with considerable pomp (Suet.
Cal. 18:
minio et chrysocolla constrato circo; cf. Plin.
NH xxxvi. 162:
invenere et alium usum in ramentis squamaque circum maximum ludis
circensibus sternendi ut sit in commendatione candor).
Claudius built carceres of marble instead of the tufa, of which they had
previously been constructed, and gilded goals, probably of bronze, in
place of the earlier wooden metae (Suet. Claud. 21). Nero removed the
euripus to make room for additional seats for the equites (Plin.
NH viii.
21), and protected the spectators from the wild beasts by a continuous
round bar of wood, covered with ivory, which revolved and therefore
gave no hold to the animals (Calp. Ecl. 7. 49-53). At some later time
the name euripus was given to basins of water on the spina, or in its line,
and then to the spina itself. Into these basins flowed streams of water
from the mouths of the dolphins (Tert. de spect. 8:
delphines Neptuno
vomunt; Cassiod.
Var. iii. 51. 8:
euripus maris vitrei reddit imaginem
unde illuc delphini aequorei aquas influunt; cf. the mosaics of Barcelona
and Lyons, DS i. figs. 1520, 1523; for euripus used of the whole spina,
Tert. loc. cit.
ea (i.e. Magna mater) praesidet euripo; adv. Hermog. 31 :
statua super euripum; Anth. Lat. 3. 5-6; Sid. Apoll. Carm. 23. 360;
RE vi. 1284; Lydus, de mens. i. 12).
In 64 A.D. the great fire of Nero broke out in the tabernae on the
Palatine side of the circus (Tac.
Ann. xv. 38), and must have destroyed
a considerable part of this side at least. It is probable that in this, as
in other fires, it was only the upper structure of wood that was burned.
Nero evidently rebuilt the circus, for it was in use in 68 when he returned
from Greece and passed through it in triumphal procession (Suet. Nero 25;
Cass.
Dio lxii. 20. 4, 21. 1). Of the circus during the reign of Vespasian
Pliny (
NH xxxvi. 102) says that it was three stadia long, one wide, covered
four iugera of land, and seated 250,000 persons. He calls the circus, the
basilica Aemilia, and the temple of Peace the three most beautiful buildings
in the world. The text of this passage is, however, corrupt, and the
figures are open to question (see below). Again, in the reign of Domitian,
both the long sides were injured by fire (Suet. Dom. 5:
naumachia e
cuius postea lapide maximus circus deustis utrisque lateribus extructus
est), but to what extent is not known. The restoration was carried out
by Trajan with stone from Domitian's naumachia; he increased its
seating capacity sufficiently by adding two stadia to the length of the
cavea (
Pausan. v. 12. 6; Cass.
Dio lxviii. 7. 2). A passage in Pliny's
Panegyric (51) seems to mean that Trajan removed a sort of private
box (cubiculum), from which Domitian, while invisible to the people,
had viewed the games, and sat himself exposed to the gaze of the spec-
tators. His enlargement of the circus was probably on the Palatine
side, where an addition two stadia long could have been built on the
north side of the street that bounded the north side of the circus, and
could be connected by arches with the cavea. Whether Pliny's further
statement-
populo cui locorum quinque milia adiecisti-refers to the
seats in this addition, is very doubtful (cf. a similar statement in
CIL
vi. 955; Mommsen, Staatsrecht, iii. 446). It was under Trajan that
the circus seems to have reached its greatest size and magnificence.
During the reign of Antoninus Pius there was a ruina circi (Hist. Aug.
Pius 9), doubtless the same catastrophe which is mentioned in Chron. 146:
circensibus Apollinaribus partectorum columna ruit et oppressit homines
MCXII. What the partecta were, is not known, but a similar accident is
recorded under Diocletian (ib. 148: partectorum podius ruit et oppressit
homines XIII). Caracalla is said to have enlarged the ianuae circi (ib. 147),
presumably some of the arches of the lower arcade. Constantine restored
the circus magnificently (Aur. Vict. Caes. 40. 27:
a quo etiam post circus
maximus excultus mirifice; Nazar. Paneg. 35:
circo ipso maximo
sublimis porticus et rutilantes auro columnae tantum inusitati ornatus
dedere), and prepared to bring an obelisk from Heliopolis, which, however,
was actually done by Constantius in 357 (Amm.
Marc. xvii. 4. 12-16).
This was set on the spina and was the highest in Rome (now in the Piazza
del Laterano; see
OBELISCUS CONSTANTII). References to the circus
and its games in literature after Constantius are numerous (e.g. Amm.
Marc. xxviii. 4. 29; Symmach. passim), but give practically no informa-
tion about the building except the section of the letter of Theodoric,
contained in Cassiodorus,
Varia iii. 51. In addition to what has been
already quoted from that letter, we learn that the spina was decorated
with reliefs representing Roman generals in triumphal procession over
the bodies of their captives, a scene that recurs on a diptych of the consul
Lampadius of the fifth-sixth century
(DS i. fig. 1532).
Additional information about the circus is furnished by fragments
of the Marble Plan (38-40, 124, 153, 370; BC 1899, pl. i. n. 7; cf. HJ 135 n. 63 and pl. iii; also DAP 2. xi. 107-110), reliefs on sarcophagi,
coins, mosaics, and smaller works of art (for lists and descriptions see
Ann. d.
Inst. 1863, 137-149;
1870, 232-261; Abhandl. d. Berl.
Akad.
1873, 67-71;
RE iii. 2579-2580; HJ 138-139; DS i. figs. 1515-1534).
Modern excavations have brought to light comparatively few remains
of the structure, mainly foundations of some parts of the east end, and
of both the long sides, especially that on the north. The lines of the
paved streets around the building have also been found, so that the exact
site, the orientation, and the principal dimensions of the circus in its final
shape, can be determined with considerable accuracy (
NS 1876, 101,
138-139, 184;
1877, 8, 110, 204;
1888, 191, 226-227;
Mitt. 1892, 295;
1893, 289;
BC 1888, 171;
1908, 241-253; Me1. 1908, 229-231;
1909,
132-135;
CRA 1908, 327-328). The ruins under S. Anastasia (HJ 134
n. 616; ZA 269-274) form no part of the circus proper, but belong to
buildings on the lower slopes of the Palatine. Only the arched chambers
on the right of the church belong to the circus.
The length of the arena was 568 metres, and its width increased from
75 metres at the carceres to 84 at the beginning of the spina and 87 at its
east end. The length of the spina was 344 metres, and the total length
of the circus 600. The width of the cavea proper was 27 metres, but
this was much increased by the additions built over the streets on the
north and south sides. The extreme width thus secured on the Palatine
side was about 80 metres, and the maximum width of the circus about 200
(M61. 1908, 229-231;
BC 1908, 248-249).
The exterior had three stories with arches and engaged columns, like
the Colosseum, but all covered with marble. The cavea was divided
into three bands or zones of seats, separated by corridors. The upper
and perhaps the middle zone were probably made of wood. The arrangement of approaches and stairways was also probably somewhat like that
of the Colosseum. The west end contained the carceres or stalls for
the chariots (Varro,
LL. v. 153), set on a curve so that the distance was
the same from each to the starting line (alba linea, Cassiod.
Var. iii. 5 . 7)
drawn across the arena which marked the start and finish. The carceres,
twelve in number (ib. 4), were closed by rope barriers supported by small
hermae (hermulae), which were dropped simultaneously at the start.
This fact probably explains the use of the name Duodecim portae (Obseq.
70; Not. Reg. XI) for this end of the building. Above the middle of
the carceres was the box of the magistrate presiding over the games,
from which he gave the signal for the start with a mappa (Cassiod. Var.
loc. cit.; Suet. Nero 22). At each end of the carceres were towers and
battlements suggesting a walled town, and this part of the circus was
sometimes called oppidum (Varro, cit.; Fest. 184). The east end of the
circus was curved, with a gateway in the centre through which the
procession seems to have usually entered at the beginning of the games.
In 81 A.D. this gateway was replaced by a triple arch, erected by the
senate in honour of Titus and his capture of Jerusalem (
CIL vi. 944).
It is represented on the Marble Plan (fr. 38). A podium, or raised
platform, surrounded the arena. On this were the chairs of high officials,
and from it the cavea rose gradually. On the spina were the two obelisks,
the eggs and dolphins (see above), and at each end the metae or goals,
three cones of gilt bronze (Cassiod.
Var. iii. 51. 7). The altar of
CONSUS
(q.v.) was near the east end of the spina, and other shrines seem to be
represented on the reliefs. Tertullian (de spect. 8)) gives a list of various
divinities who were worshipped in the circus -- CASTOR AND POLLUX, SOL, MAGNA MATER, NEPTUNE, VENUS MURCIA (qq.v.), and some minor
deities. Their shrines were either on the spina or in the cavea (HJ 140).
The seating capacity of the circus has given rise to much discussion.
Dionysius' statement (iii. 68) that the Augustan building held 150,000
spectators, and Pliny's (xxxvi. 102) that in his time it held 250,000, have
both been questioned; and that of the Notitia that in the fourth century
it had 385,000 loca has been interpreted to mean that number of running
feet of seats, which would accommodate about 200,000 spectators. This
seems reasonable, but there is no doubt that the capacity of the building
was greatly increased after the time of Augustus and on this basis
Dionysius' figure would seem too high. Estimates of the final capacity
vary from a maximum of 385,000 to a minimum of 140,000, but no
certainty has been reached (
BC 1894, 321-324; Richter 178; HJ 137;
RE iii. 2578).
Throughout the republic the circus was used for gladiatorial combats
and fights with wild beasts, as well as for races; but after the building of
the amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus, and still more after the erection
of the Colosseum, the first species of entertainment was largely, although
not entirely removed from the circus. The last recorded games took place
under Totila in 550 A.D. (Procop. b.
Goth. iii. 37), and in that century
the destruction of the circus began. The form of the circus was still
clearly recognisable in the sixteenth century (DuP 107-112). At present
a small portion of the seats at the curved end, on the N.E. side, are still
visible, and traces were found further N.W. in making a drain in 1873-4
along the Via dei Cerchi
(Mora in Messaggero, 25th March, 1924). The
name de gradellis, applied to churches of S. Gregorio and S. Maria (HCh
258, 336 sqq.) does not refer to the circus (
LS i. 90) but probably to the
steps that descended to the mills in the Tiber. See in general HJ 120-
144;
RE iii. 2572-2581;
Gilb. ii. 454-456;
iii. 313-319;
DS ii. 1187-
1201; ZA 265-269.