What, if not the scale of urban planning, can emphasize the greatness and prosperity of the state? Great country - great buildings. And this fully applies to the Great Roman Empire, in which, from its very inception, great attention was paid to architectural art, magnificent buildings were erected, which still amaze with their grandiosity and functionality.
One of these amazing objects is the Circus Maximus or the Great Circus - the first and largest arena built in Ancient Rome for sports games and festive spectacles held several centuries before our era by the royal Tarquinius Priscus. In fact, it was a huge area for agricultural work in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills. After the harvest, horse races were organized here, in which up to 12 chariots harnessed by quadriga horses could take part. To cover the distance, the chariot had to rush in a straight line, and then turn around and fly back. The arena itself and the seats for spectators were temporary.
But these competitions were so fond of the Romans that they decided to leave the former field exclusively for equestrian sports competitions, and they built a colorfully painted wooden start. It was in 329 BC. Somewhat later, under the arena, at a depth of 4.5 meters, a sewer tunnel was laid, which eventually began to rise like a ridge between the sports tracks. For better competition conditions, the rules were changed, ordering the chariots to drive not in a straight line, but around the arena, thus forming the first ring hippodrome.
The oldest documents that have survived to this day contain many images and descriptions of the Circus Maximus at different times of its existence. Time passed, emperors changed, changing the appearance of the great stadium. Julius Caesar increased the space of the circus to 600 meters and Circus Maximus was able to accommodate about 250,000 seated spectators and the same number of standing fans. Three towers with stalls for horses and a gate for the entry of competing chariots were connected to the gate for the winner on the opposite side by a long narrow platform laid in the middle of the arena. The platform was decorated with obelisks and sculptured fountains in the form of dolphins in honor of the god Neptune, the patron of games.
The reign of Augustus brought the Circus Maximus a permanent form. The steps closest to the hippodrome were assigned to high-born horsemen and senators, the lower floor was stone, and the other two were wooden, which burned more than once during the times of different rulers. The huge building was repeatedly rebuilt, restored and decorated. The Grand Circus hosted the last horse races in its arena in 549 during the reign of Totila.
In the Middle Ages, the ancient stones of the stadium were dismantled for the construction of buildings, and in the 19th century, part of the legendary valley was taken away for the construction of a gas factory. But, nevertheless, most of the first hippodrome remained intact and some buildings, parts of the stands, fragments of the starting gates, retained an imprint of the history of Ancient Rome. And now, holidays, festivals and rock concerts are held in the arena of the Circus Maximus, surprisingly combining modern musical art with historical architecture from the times of the great Roman Empire.
Italy is filled with the beauty of ruined majestic buildings, many of which are located in its capital. The Circus Maximus in Rome deserves special attention, the ruins of which are located between two hills: the Aventine and the Palatine. It inspires sincere amazement, since its area is really huge.
History of creation
Circo Massimo, as the Romans call it, comes from the Latin name for a place for equestrian competitions. The first word is a circle, and the second is a derivative of a large one.
At first, grain was grown on this area, and sometimes, after it was harvested, amateur competitions on horses and chariots were held. According to some historical data, even the first king of Rome, Romulus, took part in them.
This plot of land measuring 600 × 150 meters began its history of the Circus Maximus in the 6th century BC. e. The fifth king, Tarquinius Priscus, wanted to organize a large-scale stadium at this place - an equestrian competition. At the same time, he completely re-equipped the allotted area, replacing the wooden goats for spectators with covered seats, and installing them around the perimeter of the arena.
Until the 2nd century BC. e. the competitions were held in a straight line, but then a water pipe was laid through the hippodrome, after which, after falling asleep, a hill appeared in the middle of the arena and had to be bypassed. Because of him, the chariots began to go in circles.
The hippodrome occupied most of the building, because it hosted competitions. On one side, gates were provided for the entry of participants in the competition, three towers and stalls for horses participating in the race were installed near them. On the other side of the arena there was a gracefully executed large gate for the entry of victorious victors in serious battles so that they could complete their victory lap.
After the reconstruction of the Circus Maximus under Julius Caesar, its area increased, and there were also more visual places. Even if we compare today's large circuses and stadiums, their size is much smaller than the area of this ancient structure.
Then, for several hundred years, each ruler of Rome made his own adjustments to the architecture of the building, but until 103 it remained wooden. So far, after three strong fires, King Trajan rebuilt it into a stone three-story building. The first floor was made of marble.
The last equestrian mass competition was held in 549.. After him, the circus, like the Roman Empire itself, began to decline. For some time it simply stood unchanged, and then its tiers began to collapse and the locals began to dismantle this huge structure into stones in order to build housing for themselves, and they were also used to build no less grandiose buildings in the Renaissance.
Our days
In the 19th century, a gas plant began to be built on the site of the Circus Maximus, and the lower rows of the ancient structure were discovered at a depth of 6 meters.
Today, tourists can see an oval glade at this place, along the perimeter of which there are marble punishment cells, stone stands and small sections of preserved paved paths. Its ruins are now used as a walking park.
In the ancient Roman arena, you can take a walk and take photos against the backdrop of huge stone ruins, sit in the shade of old trees and play football with local guys. A small section of the huge hippodrome is used for football matches, concerts and social events.
Rome Day is constantly celebrated in the arena of the Circus Maximus.
In 2014, it hosted the legendary rock band the Rolling Stones, who gave the only concert in Italy as part of their world tour. On a small part of the ancient hippodrome, more than 65 thousand fans of the group fit.
How to get there?
The Circus Maximus is located next to Via del Circo Massimo, which can be reached in five minutes on foot if you follow from the Colosseum or the Roman Forum.
From the Palatine hill, near which it is located, a staircase with the name Scalae Caci (Kaka) leads to the circus.
From other places it can be reached by subway. You need to take line B and get to the Circo Massimo station.
Also, tram number 3 and buses number 60, 75, 81, 170 and 160 go to the circus.
Visiting the ruins of the Circus Maximus is worth the same as the Colosseum. At the sight of this grandiose building, it is breathtaking, if you imagine it in all its ancient glory, you can understand what the dawn of the Roman Empire was and the scope of plans to expand its borders was among the rulers of Rome.
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From an early time, various festivities and performances played an important role in the public life of Rome. At first, public performances were also religious ceremonies, invariably part of religious holidays. In the VI century. BC. they began to arrange performances of a secular (not religious) nature, and not priests, but officials, were responsible for their conduct. The venue for such performances was no longer the altar of one or another god, but a circus located in a lowland between the Palatine and Aventine hills.
The earliest Roman civil holiday was the feast of the Roman Games. For several centuries it was the only civil holiday of the Romans. From the 3rd century BC. new representations were established. The plebeian games are of great importance. The largest religious holidays were those associated with the cult of agricultural gods.
At the end of III - beginning of II century. BC. the Apollo Games were also established, games in honor of the Great Mother of the Gods - the Megalen Games, as well as florals - in honor of the goddess Flora. Games lasted from 14 - 15 days (Roman and Plebeian Games) to 6 - 7 days (Floralia). The total duration of all the holidays of these games reached 76 days a year.
Each festival consisted of several branches:
1. a solemn procession led by a magistrate - the organizer of the games, called a pomp;
2. direct circus competitions, chariot races, horse races, etc.
3. stage performances in the theater of plays by Greek and Roman authors.
4. The performances ended with the usual feast, mass refreshments, sometimes for several thousand tables.
Of the 76 holidays, about 50 days were devoted to theatrical performances. Some of the festivities, such as the florals, the Apollo Games, consisted almost entirely of stage days. A large number of stage days in the system of public performances speaks of the significant role of the theater in the public life of Rome in the 2nd - 3rd centuries. BC.
The biggest achievement of authentic Roman culture was the circus. This word means for us cheerful and colorful spectacles. But not in the architecture of the buildings, much less in the nature of their spectacles, called public games, the Roman circus is not like the circus of our days.
In Rome, the largest city of antiquity, there were seven circuses. All of them were arranged in almost the same way. but the most extensive and oldest of them was the so-called Great Circus.
The oldest and most crowded were the games in the Circus Maximus. This was the name of a natural hollow measuring approximately 600 x 150 m between the Aventine and Palatine hills, the slopes of which provided seats for spectators. Horse races were held here. In the first centuries of the Republic, citizens could participate in the competition themselves, and send their horses and slaves there. The wreath, which was awarded to the owner of the winning team, was considered as honorable as a military wreath for valor. At a later time, the excitement of the audience was supported by the rivalry of circus parties (there were two of them under the Republic). Not a single holiday was complete without horse races. Senior officials signaled the start of the race. The Big Circus accommodated up to 150-200 thousand spectators. The ideology of glory had its own forms, addressed to the mass audience. So, the popular spectacle was the so-called triumph - the solemn entry of the victorious commander into Rome and his ritual procession to the temple of Capitoline Jupiter. A victor in a golden embroidered robe, adorned with the attributes of Jupiter, moved around the city in a quadruple chariot. In front of him, booty was paraded, images of captured cities, tablets with the names of conquered countries and peoples, their leaders or kings were led (who, not brought to the temple, were sent to prison, where they were usually killed). Here the lictors with signs of authority walked, and the army followed the chariot, whose victorious exclamations were picked up by the crowd. The soldiers sang their songs, sometimes with rude mockery of the victor (so as not to jinx his happiness). In the temple, he made a thanksgiving sacrifice. The holiday ended with a feast with refreshments for the people. The triumph granted by the Senate was considered a serious event: it facilitated the further career of the commander himself, and his sons - the competition for positions. The funeral of a noble person also turned into a theatrical performance. The funeral procession was attended by "images" (painted masks) of the famous ancestors of the deceased. According to Polybius, they were worn by people of suitable height and build, dressed in accordance with the positions depicted. They accompanied the body in chariots, and in front of them carried the insignia. At the Forum, the procession stopped. The dead man was usually stood upright, "so that he could be seen by everyone," the "ancestors" in masks were seated "in order in ivory chairs." "Really," exclaims Polybius, "is it possible to look with indifference at this collection of images of people glorified for their valor, as if revived, spiritualized?" "In the face of the whole people standing around," a son or other relative makes a speech that resurrects in the memory of those present "deeds of the past," and "the personal sorrow of relatives turns into nationwide sorrow." At the end of the laudatory speech to the deceased, the speaker "turns to the story of the exploits of all the dead present here, starting from the oldest of them. Thus, the memory of the merits of valiant men is constantly renewed, this perpetuates the glory of citizens who have done something worthy, the names of the benefactors of the fatherland become known to the people and are transmitted at the same time - and this is most important - the custom encourages youth to all kinds of trials for the benefit of the state, if only to achieve the glory that accompanies valiant citizens "(translated by F. Mishchenko).
Dionysius of Halicarnassus called such ritual praises, which connected the military exploits of the deceased with his entire moral character, "an ancient invention of the Romans." Cicero, however, complained that "because of these laudatory words, our history is full of errors, since many things are written in them that were not there: fictitious triumphs, many consulates, even fictitious genealogies.". However, even in his time, samples of such eloquence, kept in family archives, found practical application, serving to continue a certain tradition. The famous Roman sculptural portrait, with its interest in individual facial features, the desire for truthfulness and unadornedness, originated from the masks taken out at the funeral. The gradually developing appearance of the city made it possible, as it were, to contemplate the pictures of Roman victories. Monuments of military glory multiplied in its squares and streets: temples dedicated to victories, columns erected in honor of generals, statues of famous Romans. From the 2nd century BC. a specifically Roman type of memorial building appears - a triumphal arch. This was facilitated by the invention of concrete technology by Roman builders, which stimulated the widespread use of arched-vaulted structures and transformed ancient architecture. The arcades play the role of a supporting element in a very characteristic type of Roman structures, which became an essential element in the Roman urban landscape - in the aqueduct (above-ground water supply). The type of arched aqueduct was developed in the 40s of the II century. BC, when its first example was built - the Marcian aqueduct. If earlier performances were held only once a year (at the Roman Games), then at the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd century. three more holidays are established, which are accompanied by stage performances. In addition, performances could also be arranged for funerary games, triumphs, etc. From the beginning of the II century. BC. animal persecution is a custom - in the days of the Republic they were staged in the Circus Maximus. Sometimes these were simply "hunts" for safe animals, but for the sake of the sharpness of the spectacle, the animals were pitted against each other, forced to fight with people. Bloody spectacles became more and more expensive. At the end of the II century. BC. gladiatorial games were first given by magistrates. Their popularity grew very quickly (although until the end of the Republic they, like theatrical performances, were given in temporary wooden structures).
The most diverse events in the state and public life of Rome tended to take on a spectacular appearance, or, in any case, to find one or another reflection in the element of spectacles. The spectacles were designed for the activity of the spectators and, as it were, gathered the crowd of spectators into a single whole, allowing them to influence the public mood. If we compare these moods of the Romans with the agony of the Greeks, one can feel a noticeable difference between the peaceful and humanistic principles in the spectacles of the Greeks and the brutally bloody games of the Romans.
If you dream up, you can imagine how, after the reconstruction of Julius Caesar, the Great Circus accommodated 250,000 seated and the same number of standing spectators, and 12 chariots competed in the arena at the same time! First look at the ancient hippodrome from the side of the ruins, and then climb the Palatine and admire it from above. The entrance is free. You can go down to the arena, where the dividing ridge (back) is still clearly visible.
How the Great Circus was used
The Great Circus (Circo Massimo) - a huge building that served for chariot races - the first hippodrome and stadium of ancient Rome, accommodating up to two hundred thousand spectators. He was a model for all the circuses of the Empire. Today, the Massimo Circus has become a tourist attraction, demonstrating the former power of Ancient Rome.
Construction and reconstruction of the Great Circus
Each Roman ruler made his own changes to the appearance of the Circus Maximus. The first chariot races in the valley between and took place under Tarquinius the Ancient, but for a long time there were no special buildings in this territory. In 329 BC. the first wooden structures of the stadium were built, and the surrounding agricultural land was drained for the first time.
Around 50 BC. Julius Caesar took up the development of the circus. The arena was extended and expanded, drainage channels were made along the perimeter and between the paths, and gates for riders were built on the short side of the oval fence. Tribunes were built for high-ranking spectators, wooden tiers for the townspeople and the plebs. According to Pliny Sr., at that time the circus could accommodate up to 250 thousand people.
big circus was the largest stadium in ancient Rome and could accommodate about 250 thousand people. This amounted to almost a quarter of the population of the capital in those ancient times.
Chariot racing was one of the most popular forms of entertainment for Roman citizens. It is said that even Romulus, the first of the seven kings of Rome, participated in these contests. The Great Circus has a rich history that began in the 6th century BC. e., when the fifth king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, created this arena between the hills of Palatino and Aventine.
The fire of 31 BC e. was the first of three to destroy the wooden structure of the stadium. The Great Circus was reconstructed by Emperor Augustus, who added an imperial box here. It was decorated with an obelisk brought from Heliopolis. Today, this obelisk is located in Piazza del Popolo. Another obelisk was added to the structure as early as the 4th century.
The second fire occurred in the 1st century, during the time of Emperor Nero. It was a truly destructive flame, which at that time destroyed most of the capital, many sights of Rome were damaged www.earth-tour.ru/rim, although later most of them were restored.
The Circus Maximus itself was restored in 103, during the time of Trajan. The Roman Empire was then at the peak of its power and this huge building reflected this status. Now it was a stone structure 3 stories high. The ground floor and stands were built of marble.
The Grand Circus has become a complex arena, 600 meters long and 150 meters wide, where competitions take on a whole new dimension and grandeur, evoking enthusiastic emotions from the public.
The great circus was sometimes used for other events as well, such as religious processions or gladiator fights, but it was mainly used for chariot races. They were extremely popular with the Romans and gathered a huge number of people who supported their favorites. The participants were divided into 4 groups: red, white, green and blue. These groups represented the 4 seasons, respectively, summer, winter, spring and autumn.
The last chariot competition at the Circus Maximus took place in 549 AD, nearly one millennium after the first. Unfortunately, today one can only discern the place where one of the greatest buildings of the ancient world once stood. Most parts of this arena were used as building material for many medieval Renaissance buildings.
