arena of ancient Rome, located between the Palatine and Aventine hills, and the principal amusement place of the city from about 600 bc to the early days of the Roman Empire. It was reconstructed and enlarged by Julius Caesar. In outer dimensions the Circus Maximus was about 610 m (about 2000 ft) long and 190 m (625 ft) wide, and the arena was about 564 m (about 1850 ft) long and 85 m (280 ft) wide. It had three tiers of seats, with room for about 200,000 spectators. The Circus Maximus was the scene of athletic contests and chariot and horse races that were held until the 6th century ad.

The Roman circus was an adaptation of the Greek Hippodrome. The term is also applied to the events that took place in the enclosure. Combats between gladiators, between wild beasts, and between men and wild beasts, usually held in an amphitheater, were also sometimes held in circuses. Tiers of seats surrounded the circus except at the end where the stalls for the horses and chariots were located. In the center of the circus, extending lengthwise almost from end to end, was a low wall, the spina, around which the riders or charioteers rode. The Roman populace often demanded “bread and circuses” from political candidates. The Roman general Pompey the Great is said on one occasion (55 bc) to have sponsored five days of circus games during which 500 lions and 20 elephants were killed. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the Renaissance, the Roman circuses were gradually dismantled for their building stones. Few traces of the circuses remain.