(Image shows the Circus Maximus as it appears today. To the right of the image, you can see part of the Palatine)
The Circus Maximus was an arena of ancient Rome, located between the Palatine and Aventine hills, and was the principal amusement place of the city
from about 600 BC to the early days of the Roman Empire. It was later reconstructed and enlarged by Julius
Caesar. In outer dimensions the Circus Maximus was about 610 m (about 2000 ft) long and 190 m (625 ft)
wide, and the arena was about 564 m (about 1850 ft) long and 85 m (280 ft) wide. It had three levels of
seats, and could hold about 200,000 spectators. The Circus Maximus was the scene of many athletic
contests and chariot and horse races that were held until the 6th century AD. The Roman circus was an
adaptation of the Greek Hippodrome. Combats between gladiators, between wild beasts, and between men
and wild beasts, which were usually held in an amphitheater, were also
sometimes held in circuses. The entire arena was surrounded with sears except at the end where the stalls
for the horses and chariots were located. In the center of the circus, extending lengthwise almost from end
to end, was a low wall, the spina, around which the riders or charioteers rode. The Roman populace often
demanded �bread and circuses� from political candidates. The Roman general Pompey the Great is said on
one occasion (55 BC) to have sponsored five days of circus games during which 500 lions and 20 elephants
were killed. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the Renaissance, the Roman circuses were
gradually dismantled for their building stones. Few traces of the circuses remain.
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