| Description The group consists of two fragments. To the far left, a vertical row of shops is fronted by a covered portico and a street (the break between the two fragments runs down the middle of this street). To the right of the street, a rectangular space is framed by ten columns arranged in a square. An eleventh column at the top marks one side of a doorway into a room with a staircase. Like the columns, the top and bottom walls of the columned space were carved in outline, recessed, and filled with red paint. Visually highlighted in this manner, they would have stood out on the Plan. At left, these thickened walls become antae protruding into the street. The thin line connecting them may represent a wall separating the building from the street or, more plausibly, a step from the street into the columned space. Above this space and the room with the staircase, and along the street, a covered arcade begins and continues beyond the top edge of the fragment. Two rooms are visible behind this arcade. At right, a single continuous line provides these two rooms with a back wall and also borders the columned space. Two more vertical lines appear to the far right.
Identification: Circus Maximus The arcade and the rooms behind it are representations of the outer ambulatory and ground floor shops of the Palatine side of the Circus Maximus (PM 1960, p. 66). The rest of the Circus is depicted in 7e,
7abcd,
8bde,
8c,
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 Circus had a length of 421 m. and a width of 118 m., 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 ambulatio 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 rectangular columned space integrated into the long side of the Circus in this fragment may have been a monumental entry from the Palatine (PM 1960, p. 66), but it more likely represents the pulvinar added by Augustus (R. Gest. div. Aug. 19). The pulvinar is believed to have been a temple-like structure that housed statues of the gods and occasionally served as the imperial box (LTUR I, p. 273).
The section of the cavea of the Circus visible here to the right of the pulvinar is rendered as in frs. 7abcd and 8c: The outer half of the cavea is shown in ground plan, while the inner half is a schematic rendering of the ranked seating arrangement of the lower (ima) and middle (media) cavea. The two rightmost vertical lines on the fragment represent the praecinctiones, or dividing lines between the ranks (PM 1960, p. 66; Reynolds 1996, pp. 85-86, 101-102). The street to the left and the row of shows fronted by an arcade continue in fr. 8bde.
Significance This fragment is key to our knowledge of the architecture and location of Augustus' pulvinar. |
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