Circus Gaii et Neronis
About
Begun under Caligula on his family's estate on the Vatican Hill and finished under Claudius, this circus is separate from the Circus Maximus across the river, best known as the site of Nero's persecution of Christians after the fire of 64 CE. Its spina carried an Egyptian obelisk from Heliopolis, the same one standing today in St Peter's Square since 1586. Still active in 117 CE, it later gave its ground to the basilica of St Peter's.
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.
In ancient writing
- Tacitus, Annals 15.44
Describes Nero's persecution of Christians after the Great Fire of 64 CE, including executions staged as spectacles in the circus on the Vatican hill where Nero's family had an estate (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.74, separately describes the obelisk erected there by Gaius and Nero).
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 →