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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.
Chariot racing (Ancient Greek: ἁρματοδρομία, harmatodromía; Latin: ludi circenses) was one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sports. In Greece, chariot racing played an essential role in aristocratic funeral games from a very early time. With the institution of formal races and permanent racetracks, chariot ...
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 ...
It is derived from the ancient Greek hippodromos (Greek: ἱππόδρομος), a stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words hippos (ἵππος; "horse") and dromos (δρόμος; "course"). The ancient Roman version, the circus, was similar to the Greek hippodrome.
For this reason, it is sometimes also called Atmeydanı ("Horse Square") in Turkish. Horse racing and chariot racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were common features of Greek cities in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine eras.
However, Roman customs were influenced by the Greeks in a direct way, especially after they conquered mainland Greece in 146 BC. According to one Roman legend Romulus used the stratagem of organizing a chariot race shortly after the founding of Rome to distract the Sabines. While the Sabines were enjoying the spectacle Romulus and his men ...
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 .
Gaius Appuleius Diocles was born in 104 AD in the Roman province of Lusitania, in the Western Iberian peninsula.He made his racing debut in Rome at the age of 18, in 122 AD with the racing stable known as the Whites, but did not win a race until two years later.