Circo Massimo
Tradition has it built by Tarquinio Prisco at the point where the Romans executed the rape of the Sabine women, in 46 BC. Caesar organizes a fake battle with infantrymen, knights and elephants. Augustus, in 10 BC built at the foot of the Palatine Hill
the Imperial Box and I raise the obelisk which is located today in Piazza del Popolo.
It was Trajan who, after the destruction of the fires of Rome (first under Nero and then under Diocletian), restored it in the second century, and subsequently Caracalla enlarged it. After the collapse, which occurred with Diocletian, it was Constantine who made the further restoration.
In 357 Constantius II built a new obelisk there, which is now located in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, and in 549 the last competitions were held under Totila.
The point from which you can see the Circo Massimo in its entirety is Piazzale Romolo e Remo, which is located halfway up Via del Circo Massimo. From this point you have a view not only of the Circus Maximus, but also of the Palatine Hill.
On the Piazzale there is the monument to Giuseppe Mazzini, executed by Ferrari certainly before 1929 (the year of his death), and placed here in 1949 on the occasion of the centenary of the Roman Republic, over twenty years after its realization.
The length of the Circus Maximus is about 600 meters; it could hold about 300 thousand spectators, which found their place in the tiers located in the part of Piazza di Porta Capena, while on the opposite bottom there were the stables of the quadrilles.
The records of Rome. Big numbers, not always enviable, for a big city.
New Phot-O-Matic section. To spend some time looking at photos (also) of Rome.
The administrative, urban, toponymic and imaginative subdivisions of Rome.
Notice for tourists: in Rome you drink for free. Historical fountains and 'big noses'.
Free museums return on the first Sunday of the month.
