"Tarquinius also built the great circus which lies between the
Aventine and Palatine Hills. He was the first who erected covered
seats round it; for till then the spectators stood on scaffolds
supported by poles. And he divided the places between the thirty
curiæ. He assigned to each curia a particular part, so that every
spectator was seated in the place that belonged to him. This work also
became in time one of the most beautiful and most admirable structures
in Rome. The circus is 3½ stadia in length, and 400 feet in breadth.
Round the two greater sides, and one of the lesser, runs a canal, 10
feet deep and as many broad, to receive the water; behind the canal,
porticoes are erected three stories high, of which the lowest has
stone seats, as in the theatres, raised a little above the level of
the ground, and the two upper porticoes have wooden seats. The two
larger porticoes are connected into one, and joined together by means
of the lesser, and, meeting, form a semicircular figure; so that all
three constitute one amphitheatral portico of 8 stadia, capable of
receiving one hundred and fifty thousand persons. The other lesser
side is left uncovered, and contains several arched starting-places
for the horses, which are all opened at one signal. On the outside of
the circus runs another portico of one story, which has shops in it,
and habitations over them. In this portico are entrances and ascents
for the spectators at every shop, contrived in such a manner that so
many thousand persons may go in and out without any molestation"
(Dionysius, iii. 69).
This description is evidently of the building as it stood in the days
of Augustus. Founded by Tarquin, it was extended by Cæsar, and kept in
repair and embellished by Augustus, Claudius, Domitian, Trajan,
Constantine, and Theodoric. (See Suetonius, "Cæsar," xxxix.; Pliny,
xxxv. 24, xxxvi. 15; Livy, vii. 20, i. 35.)
The valley in which it stood was originally called the Murzian Valley.
Here Romulus gave the games when the Romans ran off with the Sabine
women. The stream of the Almo runs through it: this branch of the Almo
was taken from the main stream, about six miles from Rome, and made to
pass through the Circus to supply with water the canal made by Cæsar
which separated the spectators from the arena.
Remains of the curve can be seen at the Cœlian end, and some
fragments of seats exist under the Palatine.
_Crossing the site of the Circus, on our right, standing back, is the_