On the east side of the Palatine, built by Domitian, and only partly
excavated. Used for races both for men and women. "Young girls ran
races in the Stadium, at which Domitian presided in his sandals,
dressed in a purple robe made after the Grecian fashion, and wearing
upon his head a golden crown bearing the effigies of Jupiter, Juno,
and Minerva; with the flamen of Jupiter and the college of priests
sitting at his side in the same dress, excepting only that their
crowns had also his own image on them" (Suetonius).
The work of excavating the Stadium is not yet completed. It appears
that the portico surrounding it originally consisted of cipollino
columns, with composite capitals. This was rebuilt in the third
century in two tiers, supported with half-columns of brick, coated
with slabs of marble, having Ionic bases and Doric capitals. A brick
stamp informs us that the Imperial tribune was built in the third
consulship of Ursus Servianus, under Hadrian, 134. At the edge of the
foot-course, below the portico, was a marble channel to carry off the
rain-water. Traces of the spina still remain. The Stadium seems to
have been altered into a hippodrome in the time of Diocletian by
building elliptical walls upon its surface. The following stamp was
found on some of the bricks,--A.D. 500 OFFS R. F. MARCI HIPPODROME
THEODORIC REGNANTE DN THEODERICO FELIX ROMA,--evidently some of the
repairs ordered by the great king during his six months' visit to
Rome.