Circus Flaminius
About
Open consecrated ground in the southern Campus Martius, laid out by censor Gaius Flaminius in 221 BCE; unlike the Circus Maximus it was never a fully enclosed monumental racetrack, functioning more as a public square used for games, assemblies, and triumphal musters, surrounded over time by temples and porticoes (e.g. Porticus Octaviae). Still an active open space in 117 CE. Its exact perimeter is not archaeologically fixed, so the point is an approximate centroid.
What happened here
Two hundred thousand people can watch, and on race days most of them do. Four stables — Red, White, Blue, Green — supply the teams, and supporters wear the colour, bet on it, and brawl about it. Seven laps, twelve chariots, the tightest turns at either end of the central barrier where the crashes happen. Between races there are acrobats, and the barrier itself carries obelisks, statues and the lap-counting eggs and dolphins that are tipped one by one. Seating is mixed, unlike the theatre, which makes the circus the best place in the city to meet someone. Drivers start as slaves and the successful ones die rich and famous. The track is watered and raked constantly; the smell is horse, dust and food.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →