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The Circus Maximus (Latin for "largest circus"; Italian: Circo Massimo) is an ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium and mass entertainment venue in Rome, Italy.In the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome and its later Empire.
The starting gates are to the left, and a conjectured start-line cuts across the track, to the right of the nearest meta. The Romans probably borrowed chariot technology and racing track design from the Etruscans, who in turn had borrowed them from the Greeks. Rome's public entertainments were also influenced directly by Greek examples.
Floorplan of Circus Maximus. This design is typical of Roman circuses. The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running along the length of about two thirds the track, joined at one end with a semicircular section and at the other end with an undivided section of track closed ...
View of the Palatine Hill from across the Circus Maximus A schematic map of Rome showing the seven hills and the Servian Wall. The Palatine Hill (/ ˈ p æ l ə t aɪ n /; Classical Latin: Palatium; [1] Neo-Latin: Collis/Mons Palatinus; Italian: Palatino [palaˈtiːno]), which relative to the seven hills of Rome is the centremost, is one of the most ancient parts of the city; it has been ...
The track was lined with other bronze statues of famous horses and chariot drivers, none of which survive. In his book De Ceremoniis (book II,15, 589), the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus described the decorations in the hippodrome at the occasion of the visit of Saracen or Arab visitors, mentioning the purple hangings and rare tapestries ...
The place is considered to be one of the largest and best preserved Roman hippodromes of its type in the Roman world. [5] Its seating section is surmounting a gallery. The start boxes and parts of the median strip (spina) with an obelisk on it are visible. Each end of the course is marked by stone turning posts .
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At its simplest, the Roman race-course took the form of two posts; each called a discrimen or a meta, round which the runners, whether on foot, on horses or in chariots, raced. The normal arrangement was more formalised as two straights, separated by a spina but very close to each other and with a very tight turn at each turning point.