| Description: The bottom of this piece is part of a slab edge. Three streets join in the center. One traverses the fragment vertically, another breaks off from this street to the right, and a third curves up and off to the left from the bottom. Tabernae line the right sides of the first and the second street. In the lower right corner, the back wall of these rooms delineates the upper left corner of a large open space. The lower left corner of the fragment is broken off in a smooth curve, following the line of the third street. A dashed line, marking an arcade, follows the curve of this edge and delineates the left side of the curved street. In the upper left corner, a cluster of multi-storey rooms opens onto the curved street, onto the vertical street, and onto a large open space at the top of the fragment. The topmost of these rooms is larger than the others and continues beyond the edge of the fragment to the left.
Identification: Circus Maximus: The curved, dashed line in this fragment is a section of the sphendone, or semicircular E end, of the Circus Maximus (PM 1960, p. 66). The rest of the Circus is depicted in frs. 7abcd,
8bde,
8c,
8fg,
8h, and 9. Situated in the valley between the Palatine and the Aventine Hills, the circus Maximus played a central role in Rome's earliest history. Sources attribute its conception to the Etruscan kings and relate it to the rise of the ludi Romani (LTUR I, p. 272). For centuries, the Circus was nothing but an open space with wooden partitions and seating; more permanent walls were not constructed until the 2nd c. BCE. Julius Caesar is credited with giving the Circus the shape and enormous size it was to retain for centuries: According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus (3.68.1-4), the building was 421 m. long and 118 m. wide, and the cavea of the Circus held 150,000 spectators (LTUR I, p. 273). The Circus was destroyed by fire several times and it collapsed occasionally, but it underwent several reconstructions by various emperors and remained in use until the 6th c. In Medieval times, the area was mainly used for agriculture, and in the following centuries it was gradually encroached upon by various forms of construction until it was cleared at the beginning of the 20th c. (LTUR I, pp. 274-75).
Evidence gathered from excavations, written sources, coins, and standing remains reveals the architecture of the Circus in the imperial period: Raised above the surrounding area, the building measured 600 m. in length and 140 m. in width. The long sides of the structure were not precisely parallel; one side, facing the Aventine, was slightly inclined, as is usual for Roman circuses (LTUR I, pp. 275-76). The exterior facade was divided into three sections, the bottom section being as tall as the two above combined. The walls of the two upper sections were solid but decorated with pilasters and windows. The bottom section was perforated by arches that led to a covered walkway that surrounded the entire building. Behind the covered passageway, radial walls created a series of rooms, every third of which served a different purpose. One room led directly to the lowest seating area, the next room contained stairs that gave access to the corridors and seating areas above, and the third room functioned as a shop (LTUR I, p. 275). The seating area, the cavea, was divided into three sections: the ima, media, and summa cavea. The start gates, the carceres, occupied the N end of the Circus; these were placed on a curve and on a slightly oblique angle in relation to the central axis of the building. The arena itself was divided along the central axis by a spina or a euripus (LTUR I, p. 276, with references and reconstruction in fig. 158). Nothing remains of this divider, but numerous representations on coins and other sources suggest it was decorated with a variety of features: Tricuspid metae marked the two ends of the divider and flanked an array of statues, columns, altars, and small temples. Here was also placed the device, consisting of sculpted dolphins, that counted the completed rounds.
The bottom left corner of this fragment broke in a line that exactly followed the inner wall of the covered walkway. A close look at the color photograph reveals traces of the dashed line that denoted this inner wall. As in frs. 7a and b, then, the facade of the Circus is here rendered with a dashed line. The curved street followed the semicircular outline of the Circus, and the long, straight street ran along the entire right side of the building; both streets provided space around and access to the entertainment structure. The third street must have been a major access road to the Circus from the south. At the lower right corner of the fragment the street-front tabernae with the large open space behind, represent a common arrangement of space on the Plan. D. Reynolds argues that doors, not always shown on the Plan, may have led from the tabernae to the courtyards behind, providing welcome access to an open space in which to relax in the crowded city (Reynolds 1996, pp. 163-164; cf. figs. 3.14 and 3.15). On the other hand, some of these open spaces are likely to have been used for markets, manufacturing spaces, animal pens, or dumping grounds, among other things.
Significance This fragment provides rare insight into how a major gathering place and entertainment center fit into the surrounding urban fabric. The capacity of the Circus Maximus may have been 150,000 (Dion. Hal. 3.68.1-4) or even 250,000 (Pliny, Natural History, 36.24.102); tens of thousands of people moved through the adjacent streets on festival days to get into and out of the Circus. This fragment shows some of the streets that provided access to the Circus and the open spaces and passageways that helped people circulate around it. The shops and open spaces nearby may well have taken advantage of their location and served those crowds. |
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