Many folks get this
circus mixed up with the
Circus Maximus where the Palatine overlooks the great space in
Rome. This spot today of course is located at the
Vatican where St. Peters
Basilica is now. There are very few remains and there was some excavations in the 1950's and early 70's , but to further investigate , St Peters would need to be disturbed. We know the obelisk (
still exists)
LINK was moved to its current location in 1586. I find it amazing we do not have that much information on this site? It is also ironic , where the first Christians were persecuted; sits the Papal power house?
Model of
Circus of
Caligula and
Nero - 2ND IMAGE BELOW
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Joe Geranio
Nothing has survived as famous for Caligula's building project as the "Gaianum" on the Ager Vaticanus, the
circus had an east -west configuration and the obelisk that is extant
had the original
inscription:
DIVO CAESARI DIVI IUL II F.
AUGUSTO, TI CAESARI DIVI
AUGUSTI F.
AUGUSTO, SACRUM= Sacred to the divine
Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Julius,
The Globe thought to have originally been on the top of the
Caligula Obelisk from the Ager vaticanus? Bronze globe with spire, thought to be the globe added to the pinnacle of either the
Vatican obelisk or to the obelisk of Psametik II, when erected on the Campus
Martius by
Augustus, 10-9 BCE. [
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Gaianum: an open space in Region XIV (
Reg. Cat.; Hemerol. Filoc. ad V Kal. April.,
CIL I2 p314), south of the naumachia Vaticana and east of the via Triumphalis, where
Caligula was fond of having
horse races (Cass. Dio LIX.14). From inscriptions found in the vicinity (
CIL VI.10052‑4, 10057‑8, 10067, 33937, 33953; BC 1902, 177‑185) it appears to have been surrounded by
statues of successful charioteers (HJ 662; DAP 2.viii.355‑60; BC 1896, 248‑9). [
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From Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient
Rome,
rev. Thomas Ashby.
Oxford: 1929, p. 247.
An open space in Region XIV (
Reg. Cat.; Hemerol. Filoc. ad V Kal. April.,
CIL I2 p314), south of the naumachia Vaticana and east of the via Triumphalis, where
Caligula was fond of having
horse races (Cass. Dio LIX.14). From inscriptions found in the vicinity (
CIL VI.10052-4, 10057-8, 10067, 33937, 33953; BC 1902, 177-185) it appears to have been surrounded by
statues of successful charioteers (HJ 662; DAP 2.viii.355-60; BC 1896, 248-9). public domain [
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CIRCUS GAI ET NERONIS:
built by
Caligula as a private course for
chariot racing in the HORTI AGRIPPINAE (q.v.). It was called
circus Gai et Neronis (Plin. NH xxxvi. 74) and
circus Vaticanus (ib.
xvi. 200), and was a favourite place for the sports and orgies of
Claudius and
Nero (
cf. Suet. Claud. 21; Tac. Ann. xiv. 14 (?); Suet.
Nero 53 (?)). On the spina
Caligula erected an obelisk (
OBELISCUS VATICANUS (q.v.) ) from
Heliopolis (Plin. NH
xvi. 201; xxxvi. 74;
CIL vi. 882 =3 1911).
In the fourth century the
north side of the
circus was destroyed to make room for the first
basilica of St.
Peter, and the south wall and the two southernmost rows of columns of the
church were built on the three parallel
north walls of the
circus (see plan in Lanciani, Pagan and
Christian Rome 129). In the fifth century two mausolea were erected on
part of the spina, one of them being the tomb of the wife of the Emperor
Honorius (see Lanciani, op. cit. 198-205; Mel. 1902,388). One of these was destroyed about 1520 (see SEPULCRUM MARIAE), but the other stood until the eighteenth century (DuP 38; Cerrati, cit.). For the mediaeval name
Palatium Neronianum, see HCh 259 (S. Gregorii de Palatio). Some remains of the
circus were visible in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and in the seventeenth, when the new
church of St.
Peter was being built, the ruins were described by G. Grimaldi, whose notes are extant in several MS. copies (see Hulsen, Il Circo di Nerone al Vaticano, in Miscellanea Ceriani,
Milan 1910, 256-278, and also Tiberii Alpharani De Basilicae Vaticanae Structura, published by M. Cerrati, Studi e Testi fasc. 26 (1914) xxxiv.- xxxvii.). Cerrati points out that the reason of the collapse of the old
basilica was that its walls were built, not on the centre of the walls of the
circus, but slightly to one
side. The
axis of the
circus ran east and
west, and the carceres were at the east end, toward the
Tiber, flanked by two towers placed unsymmetrically. According to Grimaldi, the
circus was 90 metres wide and 161 long, but the length is probably underestimated (HJ 657-8; LR 551-554; RE iii. 2581-2); while Cerrati determines the width as 500, not 400, palms (i.e. 111.50 metres). public domain- A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient
Rome. Samuel Ball Platner.
Thomas Ashby.
London: Humphrey Milford.
Oxford University Press. 1929.
CIRCUS CAII, ET NERONIS
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TACITUS ANNALS, 14:14
He
had long
had a fancy for driving a four-horse
chariot, and a no less degrading taste for singing to the harp, in a theatrical fashion, when he was at dinner. This he would remind people was a royal custom, and
had been the practice of ancient chiefs; it was celebrated too in the praises of poets and was meant to show honour to the gods. Songs indeed, he said, were sacred to
Apollo, and it was in the dress of a singer that that great and prophetic deity was seen in
Roman temples as well as in Greek cities. He could no longer be restrained, when Seneca and Burrus thought it best to concede one point that he might not persist in both. A space was enclosed in the
Vatican valley where he might manage
his horses, without the spectacle being public. Soon he actually invited all the people of
Rome, who extolled him in their praises, like a mob which craves for amusements and rejoices when a prince draws them the same way. However, the public exposure of
his shame acted on him as an incentive instead of sickening him, as
men expected. Imagining that he mitigated the scandal by disgracing many others, he brought on the stage descendants of noble families, who sold themselves because they were paupers. As they have ended their days, I think it due to their ancestors not to hand down their names. And indeed the infamy is
his who gave them wealth to reward their degradation rather than to deter them from degrading themselves. He prevailed too on some well- known
Roman knights, by immense presents, to offer their services in the
amphitheatre; only pay from one who is able to command, carries with it the force of compulsion. Vaticana Vallis: used once, by
Tacitus, for the site of the
circus Gai et Neronis (Ann. XIV.14: clausumque valle Vaticana spatium in quo equos regeret, haud promiscuo spectaculo), or, if not for its exact site, for the entrance to the depression of the modern Vicolo del Gelsomino, just south-west of the
area occupied by the
circus proper.
Circus of Gaius and
NeroThis
circus was built circa A.D. 40. Both Gaius (
Caligula) and
Nero participated in the races held here. Several of
Christian martyrdoms are said to have occurred here, and it is the present location of St. Peter's
Basilica. The obelisk brought to
Rome by
Caligula to adorn the
circus now stands in the middle of St. Peter's Square.
Gaianum
From Samuel Ball Platner, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient
Rome,
rev. Thomas Ashby.
Oxford: 1929, p. 247.
An open space in Region XIV (
Reg. Cat.; Hemerol. Filoc. ad V Kal. April.,
CIL I2 p314), south of the naumachia Vaticana and east of the via Triumphalis, where
Caligula was fond of having
horse races (Cass. Dio LIX.14). From inscriptions found in the vicinity (
CIL VI.10052-4, 10057-8, 10067, 33937, 33953; BC 1902, 177-185) it appears to have been surrounded by
statues of successful charioteers (HJ 662; DAP 2.viii.355-60; BC 1896, 248-9).
Ancient
Library Sources (from
Peter Aicher,
Rome Alive: A Source Guide to the Ancient City,
vol. 1, Bolchazy-Carducci: 2004) [Works cited]
66. The Fire of AD 64. Commentary.
Although Nero's famous fire started in the Campus
Martius and spread over most of downtown
Rome, the Colosseum-basin is a fitting place to include ancient descriptions of it, not only because Nero's signature
work in
Rome, the famous Golden House (the Domus Aurea) was built around the basin, but because the fire gave
Nero greater
liberty in its creation.
In addition to a famous passage about Crassus' profiteering that testifies to the frequency of fires in
Rome [66.1], I have also included here a few sources that indicate the possible impact that Nero's fire may have
had on the
Christian topography of
Rome. The first known persecution of Christians in
Rome was a result of the fire.
Tacitus reports that
Nero blamed the fire on the Christians to deflect the suspicion that he started it, and he
had many of them executed, some of them used as torches in mockery of the crime they were charged with, others by crucifixion.
Tacitus further tells us that some of the executions took place in Nero's
circus in the
Vatican fields, a racetrack (apparently begun by Gaius
Caligula; see 94.2) that stretched all along the left
side of the present
Basilica of St.
Peter. Alongside this racetrack was a street lined by tombs, and it is possible that Simon
Peter was not only one of the Christians killed in this persecution, but that he was killed in Nero's
circus and buried in this cemetery. Early Christians, at any rate, believed
his bones rested here [67.3] and built a shrine above them in the C2, followed, under
Constantine, by the large
basilica that was the forerunner of the current St. Peter's.
The ruins of Nero's
circus are no longer visible, but the obelisk located at its center
still stands, transported by Pope Sixtus V in 1586 a short distance to the piazza in front of the new St. Peter's
Basilica. The ancient cemetery,
complete with street and mausoleums that are preserved deep underground among the massive foundations of the present
basilica, is one of the more astounding sites in
Rome and can be visited with advance reservations.
67. The
Circus of Gaius and
Nero and
Christian Persecutions. Sources.
67.1.
Nero had a space in the
Vatican valley enclosed where he might practice
his chariot-racing. At first he raced in private, but soon he was inviting the public in to cheer him on.
Tacitus, Annals 14.14.4
67.2.
[After the fire, various rituals were performed to appease the gods.] But neither the emperor's expense and
generosity nor the appeasement of the gods could avert the suspicion that
Nero ordered the fire. To quell this rumor
Nero falsely accused others—“Christians,” as they were commonly called, already hated for their scandalous conduct—and he subjected them to the most elaborate tortures. (Their founder was a
man named
Christ, who was executed in Tiberius's reign by the orders of the
Roman governor
Pontius Pilate. The deadly cult was thus suppressed for the moment, but then burst forth anew, not only in
Judaea, the source of this evil, but throughout
Rome as well, where all things shocking and disgraceful gravitate and thrive.)
First some Christians were arrested who confessed to the crime, and by their evidence a host of others were convicted, not so much for the crime of arson as for their hatred of humankind. Mockery attended their death: dressed in the hides of
animals they were torn apart by dogs, nailed on crosses, or were themselves set on fire after dark and used as torches.
Nero opened
his gardens to this spectacle and made a show of their executions in
his circus, dressed as a charioteer and mingling with the people, or riding on a
chariot. As a result of
his behavior, people felt pity for these Christians, not because they didn't think them guilty and deserving of novel punishments, but because it seemed that they were being slaughtered not for the public welfare but to satisfy the savagery of one
man.
Tacitus, Annals 15.44
67.3.
It is recorded that the Apostles Paul and
Peter were killed under
Nero in
Rome itself, the former by decapitation and the latter by crucifixion. That this occurred in
Rome is corroborated by the existence of cemeteries there in their names, and by no less an authority than
Caius, a
church historian who wrote when Zephyrinus was
Bishop of
Rome [c. AD 210].…
Discussing the location of the relics of the apostles in question,
Caius reports: “I am able to point out the burial monuments of these apostles: if you care to go out to the
Vatican field or the road to
Ostia, you will find the monuments of the founders of our
Church.”
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical
History 2.25.5-7
Circus of Gaius and NeroGaianum: an open space in Region XIV (
Reg. Cat.; Hemerol. Filoc. ad V Kal. April.,
CIL I2 p314), south of the naumachia Vaticana and east of the via Triumphalis, where
Caligula was fond of having
horse races (Cass. Dio LIX.14). From inscriptions found in the vicinity (
CIL VI.10052‑4, 10057‑8, 10067, 33937, 33953; BC 1902, 177‑185) it appears to have been surrounded by
statues of successful charioteers (HJ 662; DAP 2.viii.355‑60; BC 1896, 248‑9).
3RD PHOTO FRAGMENTS FROM CIRCUS OF GAI AND NERONE -
CIL VI 10053 =
CIL VI 10054 =
CIL VI 33937 =
CIL VI 37834 = AE 1903, 161
http://en.wikipedia.org...5TH PHOTO GLOBE FROM CALIGULAN PERIOD THAT WAS ON TOP OF OBELISK THAT RESIDES IN THE
VATICAN MUSEUM
THIS LINK THE CALIGULAN OBELISK THAT
STILL RESIDES AT THE
VATICAN THAT WAS ONCE ON RACE COURSE[
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neal1960/2599633781/REGARDING BRONZE GLOBE OR BALL- THAT WAS ON TOP OF SPINA, NOW THE
CHRISTIAN CROSS RESIDES ATOP SPINA
Obeliscus Vaticanus: * the obelisk from
Heliopolis erected by
Caligula on the spina of the
circus Gai et Neronis (
CIL VI.882; Plin. NH
XVI.201; XXXVI.74, where the reading is uncertain,
cf. BC 1897, 226), and now standing in front of S. Peter's.
