DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0161
CIRCUS MAXIMUS
119
the same from each to the starting line {alba linea, Cassiod. Var. iii. 51.7)
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 \vhich 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
119
the same from each to the starting line {alba linea, Cassiod. Var. iii. 51.7)
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 \vhich 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