CIRCUS FLAMINIUS
* built by C. Flaminius Nepos while
censor in 221 B.C.
It was in the prata Flaminia (q.v.;
Liv. iii. 54. 15), in the
southern part
of the campus Martius (Liv. ep. 20; Fest. 89; Cassiod.
Chron. ad a. 534),
and was named after its builder, although Varro says (
LL
v. 154) that it
took its name from a
CAMPUS FLAMINIUS (q.v.). In it
were celebrated the
ludi plebeii (Val.
Max. i. 7. 4), the Taurii (
Varro v. 154), and other games,
e.g. the ludi saeculares in 158 B.C. (
Liv. xl. 52. 4); and assemblies of the
people were frequently held here (Cic. ad
Att. i. 14. I; pro Sestio 33;
post red. in sen. 13, 17; Plut. Marcell. 27;
Liv. xxvii. 21. 1). It was
also a market-place (Cic. ad
Att. i. 14. 1), and within it part of the ceremony
of the triumph took place (
Liv. xxxix. 5; Plut. Lucull. 37).
1 In 9 B.C.
Augustus delivered the laudatio of Drusus here (Cass.
Dio lv. 2. 2); and
in 2 B.C. water was brought into the circus and thirty-six crocodiles
butchered immediately after the dedication of the forum of Augustus
(ib. 10. 8). If P. Meyer (Straboniana, ii. 20) and A. W. Van Buren
(Ann. Brit. Sch. Athens, 1916-18, 48-50) are correct, Strabo (v. 3. 8)
mentions it between the circus Maximus and the forum Romanum.
Extant literature furnishes no information concerning the construction
of the building, its restorations or its contents, except that contained
in the statement of Vitruvius (ix. 9. 1:
plinthium sive lacunar quod
etiam in circo Flaminio est positum Scopinas Syracusius (dicitur invenisse) ). This circus was so conspicuous a building and so important
a centre that it soon gave its name to the immediate vicinity, and other
buildings were described as
ad circum Flaminium (Plin.
NH xxxiv. 13) or
in circo Flaminio (
Liv. xl. 52. 2; Plin.
NH xxxvi. 26, and very frequently;
cf.
Mart. xii. 74. 2:
accipe de circo pocula Flaminio). In the Regionary
Catalogue it is the official name of
Region IX. It is marked on a fragment
(27) of the Marble Plan (cf. FUR 21-22). Money changers appear to have
had their stations in its arcades (
CIL vi. 9713). In the Einsiedeln Itinerary
(1. 2; 2.2; 8. 3) the name is wrongly applied to the Stadium, though
some think the Ordo Benedicti has the name correctly (Mon.
L. i. 521;
cf.
BC 1901, 57, 58), while others think the circus is the basilica Iovis.
At the close of the twelfth century a considerable part of the circus,
called castellum aureum, was still standing (a bull of Celestin III of 1192
mentioning the churches of S. Lorenzo and S. Maria in Castello aureo or
de castro aureo (Domnae Rosae; Bullar.
Vat. i. 74; Caetani-Lovatelli,
Passeggiate nella Roma antica,
Rome 1909, 108-128; HCh 284-285, 331) ).
Its ruins were described by Biondo (Roma instaurata iii. 109) in the
fifteenth century, but almost entirely removed in the sixteenth to make
room for the Mattei palace, and the whole site then gradually covered by
modern buildings. Some remains of the curved end lie in and beneath
the Palazzo Caetani in the Piazza Paganica (III. 14) and of the long sides
in various cellars, especially those of the Palazzo Longhi Mattei Paganica.
The construction is of concrete faced with opus reticulatum, but the pillars
are built of large squared blocks of tufa and travertine. None of these
remains can belong to the original date of erection.
The major axis of the circus ran almost due east and west. On the
east (the carceres end) the limits of the circus seem to be set by the discovery of private houses and the pavement of an ancient street just east
of the Piazza Margana (Bull. d.
Inst. 1870, 48 ff.; cf. Fulvius, Antiquitates urbis p. l(x)v; LR 453;
LS ii. 64-66). If so, the length of the
circus was about 260 metres, and its width about 10O.
The few remains (cf. Canina, Edifizi iv. pls. 186, 187) and drawings
of the sixteenth century architects (LR 454-456; HJ 551, n. 122;
JRS
1919, 187) show that this circus was built on the general plan adopted in
later structures of a similar character, and that its lower story opened
outwards through a series of travertine arcades, between which were
Doric half-columns. In the Middle Ages the arcades on the north side
were converted into dark shops, and gave the name to the street on that
side, the Via delle Botteghe oscure; cf. the churches of S. Lucia de
calcarario or de apothecis obscuris (HCh 300-301; cf. 306, and v.
DOMUS
ANICIORUM, 2) and of S. Salvator in Pensulis (ib. 449) ;
2 and the memory
of the rope makers who plied their trade in the arena is preserved in the
Via dei Funari and the churches of S. Nicola and S. Caterina dei Funari
(HCh 399; Arm. 551-568). See HJ 548-551;
RE vi. 2580-2581;
Marchetti-Longhi in Mem. L 5. xvi. 621-770.
