DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0154
112
CIRCUS FLAMINIUS
ludi plebeii (Vai. 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. 1 ; pro Sestio 33 ;
post red. in sen. 13, 17 ; Plut. Marcell. 27 ; Liv. xxvii. 21. i). It was
also a market-place (Cic. ad Att. i. 14. i), 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. I : plinthium sive lacunar quod
etiam in circo Flaminio est positum Scopinas Syracusius (dicitur in-
venisse) ). 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 Benedict! 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 (Ill. 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 dis-
covery of private houses and the pavement of an ancient street just east
1 See also JRS 1921, 33-34.
CIRCUS FLAMINIUS
ludi plebeii (Vai. 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. 1 ; pro Sestio 33 ;
post red. in sen. 13, 17 ; Plut. Marcell. 27 ; Liv. xxvii. 21. i). It was
also a market-place (Cic. ad Att. i. 14. i), 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. I : plinthium sive lacunar quod
etiam in circo Flaminio est positum Scopinas Syracusius (dicitur in-
venisse) ). 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 Benedict! 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 (Ill. 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 dis-
covery of private houses and the pavement of an ancient street just east
1 See also JRS 1921, 33-34.