Roman circuses

A Roman circus was a large open-air venue built mainly for chariot racing, and with the theatre and the amphitheatre one of the main places of entertainment in the Roman world. Despite the name, which means “circle”, it was long and narrow: two straight stretches of track divided by a median strip, the spina, decorated with columns, statues and obelisks, with a turning post at each end. One end was rounded, and at the other stood the starting gates, the carceres, from which the chariots raced anticlockwise around the spina. Seating rose along both long sides and around the curved end.

Many circuses began as a simple track in a field and passed through generations of wooden stands before they were rebuilt in stone. Most were built in the four centuries between 200 BC and AD 200. Their size varied a great deal: the track at Gerasa in Jordan is 245 m long, that of the Circus Maximus in Rome 621 m. Many now lie under later buildings, and the seating in particular has often been destroyed. In Rome itself the original track of the Circus Maximus now lies about six metres below the ground of the public park that fills its valley.

So a circus is usually a place to understand by its scale rather than by its standing walls. Entries of this type aim to tell you what of the stands, the gates or the spina can actually be seen, what is open ground and what lies under later buildings, and whether any part of it is ticketed.