Circus of Nero

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Circus of Nero

Not to be confused with the older and larger Circus Maximus
Circus Maximus

The Circus Maximus is an ancient hippodrome and mass entertainment venue located in Rome. Situated in the valley between the Aventine Hill and Palatine Hill hills, it was the first and largest circus in ancient Rome....
.

The Circus of Nero or Circus of Caligula was a circus

Circus (building)

The Roman Circus was a large open-air venue used for public events in the ancient Roman Empire. Along with Roman theatre s and amphitheatres, Circuses were one of the main entertainment sites of the time....
in ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
.

as begun by Caligula

Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , more commonly known by his nickname Caligula , was the third Roman Emperor, reigning from 16 March 37 until his assassination on 24 January 41....
on the property of his mother Agrippina

Agrippina the elder

Vipsania Agrippina or most commonly known as Agrippina Major was a distinguished and prominent Roman Princess that lived between the 1st century BC and 1st century....
on the Ager Vaticanus (today's rione

Rione

Rione is the name given to a ward in several Italian cities, the best-known of which is rioni of Rome. Unlike a quartiere, a rione is usually an official administrative subdivision....
of Borgo

Borgo (rione of Rome)

Borgo , is the 14th historic district of Rome. It lies on the west bank of the Tiber, and has a trapezoidal shape. Its Coat of Arms shows a lion , lying in front of three mounts and a star....
), and finished by Nero

Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty....
. The circus building's alignment is on the same axis as both new and old

Old Saint Peter's Basilica

Old Saint Peter's Basilica was the building that once stood on the spot where the Basilica of Saint Peter stands today in Rome. The name Old Saint Peter's Basilica has been used since the construction of the current basilica to distinguish the two buildings....
St Peter's to the left as you look at the western front from the piazza

Piazza

When the Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford developed the first privately-ventured public square built in London, Covent Garden, his architect Inigo Jones surrounded it with arcade s, in the Italian fashion....
.

Via Cornelia

Via Cornelia

Via Cornelia is an ancient Roman Road that supposedly ran east west along the northern wall of the Circus of Nero on land now covered by the southern wall of St....
ran parallel with the north side of the Circus, and its course can be traced with precision, for pagan tombs have been discovered at various times along its edges.

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Encyclopedia

The Circus of Nero or Circus of Caligula was a circus

Circus (building)

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
.

Construction

It was begun by Caligula

Caligula

Agrippina the elder

Rione

Borgo (rione of Rome)

Nero

Old Saint Peter's Basilica

Piazza

Nearby Roman cemetery

The Via Cornelia

Via Cornelia

Pope Alexander VII

Pope Alexander VII , born Fabio Chigi, was Pope from April 7, 1655, until his death....
was building the left wing of Bernini's colonnade and the lefthand fountain, a tomb was discovered with a bas-relief above the door representing a marriage-scene ("vi era un bellissimo bassorilievo di un matrimonio antico"). Others were soon found. The best discovery, that of pagan tombs exactly on the line of St Peter's tomb, was made in the presence of Grimaldi, November 9, 1616:

" "On that day, I entered a square sepulchral room the ceiling of which was ornamented with designs in painted stucco. There was a medallion in the centre, with a figure in high relief. The door opened on the Via Cornelia, which was on the same level. This tomb is located under the seventh step in front of the middle door of the church. I am told that the sarcophagus now used as a fountain, in the court of the Swiss Guards, was discovered at the time of Gregory XIII in the same place, and that it contained the body of a pagan."

Place of martyrdrom

The circus was the site of the first organized, state-sponsored martyrdoms of Christians in 65

Year 65 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar....
. Tradition holds that two years later, Saint Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter was a leader of the early Christianity church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles....
and many other Christians shared their fate. The circumstances were described in detail by Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
in a well-known passage of the Annals
Annals (Tacitus)

The Annals is a history book by Tacitus covering the reign of the four Roman Emperors succeeding to Caesar Augustus. The parts of the work that survived from antiquity cover the reigns of Tiberius and Nero....
, (xv.44).

The site for crucifixions in the Circus would have been along the spina
Spina

Spina was an Etruscan civilization port city on the Adriatic Sea at the ancient mouth of the Po River, south of the lagoon which would become the site of Venice....
("spine"), as suggested by early Acts of Peter describing the spot of his martyrdom as inter duas metas ("between the two meta
Meta

Meta , is a prefix used in English language in order to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter....
e or turning-posts", which would have been equidistant between the two ends of the circus). This identification is likely to be genuine given the trauma of the event for the Christian community. An obelisk found at the centre of this circus's spina was re-erected in St Peter's Square in the 16th century by the architect Domenico Fontana

Domenico Fontana

Domenico Fontana was a Switzerland-born Italy architect of the late Renaissance.He was born at Melide, Switzerland on the Lake Lugano and died at Naples....
. The obelisk was originally brought to Rome by Caligula.

The traditional location of Saint Peter's tomb

Saint Peter's tomb

Saint Peter's tomb is a site believed by Christians to be the burial place of Saint Peter, beneath the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome....
is in this area, in the cemetery mentioned above and on a site suggested by the basilica (see below).

Constantine's basilica

A basilica (Old St. Peter's) was erected by Constantine over the site, using some of the existing structure of the Circus of Nero. The basilica was sited so that its apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault . In Romanesque architecture, Byzantine architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the term is applied to the semi-circular or polygonal section of the sanctuary at the liturgical east end beyond the altar....
was centred on Peter's tomb (now beneath the high altar of "New St Peter's").

External links

Circus of Nero, plan superposed with the Basilicas, showing the tomb of Peter, and text by Rodolfo Lanciani describing the largely inadvertent archaeology