THE ROMAN GAMES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 February 1925, Page 10

THE ROMAN GAMES.

CIRCUS MAXIMUS TO BE j EXCAVATED. (London Times.) “Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympic© C'ollegisse .juvat.” “Games in the sanguinary vocabulary of classical Rome, is a'-word winch usually countries 'the desperate combats of man against man, or of man against beast; and the visitor to the Colosseum, or any of the other ruined amphitheatres of Italy, has probably taken comfort to his soul that he is j not as the other men were. In. point of fact, however, the witnessing of fights to the death was not the sole amusement of the Roman. There were milder forms of sport which he enjoyed before his conquests brought him prisoners of war to kill each other for his pleasure, and, after his adoption or a, technically liumaner religion, confined spectacles of blood to the civil wars

•between sectaries of the Christian faith. These sports—boxing _ in the Greek or Roman fashion, wrestling, and cilia riot-racing —were 'always popular, and the last named aroused such a frenzy of rivalry between the partisans of the different colours that the throne of Byzantium was often shaken by their quarrels. Here, in Rome, the locality where these milder sports where held was even greater and more magnificent than the Colosseum. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says that it could cbntain 400.000 spectators rt a time. Everybody has* heard its name, but'nobody has seen it. because there is nothing left to lie seen. Even an Italian political procession is more amusing and less odorous than a gasworks—and it is the tanks and buildings of the A nglo-Romana “Societa per il Gas’’ which to-day stand upon the site of the* Circus "Maximus. Other modern attractions of the spot are the old Jewish cemetery, where lie beneath a row of nuuirnful cypresses many of the late

inhabitants of the abolished Ghetto; and a promising breed of malarial mosquitoes, who wing their shrill way round the circuit where once thundered the competing quadrigae. They are probably unconscious of their insolence, for all is buried beneath 10ft. of earth. The visitor t° Rome will he certainly unconscious both of the gasometers and the mosquitoes, because when he stands on. the Aventine overlooking the Valle Murica in which the Circus lay his eye is irresistibly ’attracted by the majestic ruins of the Palatine; and when, from the other side, the arrives at the fast terrace of the Palatine, his clamorous hunger, the result of two or three hours clambering among ruins, 1 instinctively directs his gaze to the lunchers in the big restaurant on the Aventine. And yet the day may come when the importunity of his guide, or the desire to. have his money’s worth, will force his weary limbs down into the valley for a further archaeological orgv. For the Fascist Government, looking round for something to do by which it shall be remembered in future ages, has decided to excavate the valley and restore to the light of day what-

ever may remain of the ancient glories ’ of the Circus. .It is a not ignoble conception. EARLIEST PLACE OF AMUSEMENT j [/ivv, in one of iris books which really exist, informs ns that it was in the time of Tarquinius Prisons that the ground in the Valle Murcia was first mapped out “for the Circus, which is now called Maximus.” ft was therefore the earliest place of pub-! ic amusement in the and dates from between 016 and 678 B.C. Tt does not appear at first to have been a verv pretentions affair, though it was always on an immense scale, i Ovid says, for example that the speeta- j tors sat oil the grassy slopes on either j side of the valley, and the scene in j those enrlv times must have been very j like F.nsoni Downs on 'Derby Day. Diir-j ing the Republic a riumber of more i ambitious “caroeres” were built, and the foot of the slopes faced with a few | i'oa'3 of travertine steps. But' the j

upper tiers of scats remained of wood until the time of Julius Caesar, who greatly increased the number of trhvertine benches and enriched the whole with marble. Augustus built a special Imperial box, called the Pu lvi nar ad Circuin Maximum, on. the Palatine, from which he could witness the games, and set up on the Spina (the central island round wlrich ran Uie Hippodrome) the obelisk, which was later transported by Sixtus V . to the Piazza del I'opolo, where it still stands, »>£■* tween its ’ four guardian lions. lli-e Circus continued in use until the tan of the Gothic Kingdom of Theodovic, that is to say, the middle of the sixth century. During the epoch of misery which followed there were neither spec tators to come nor chariots to run, ancl neglect and silence have lieen its portion ever since. But the earth slips quickly into the narrow valley, and since ‘in 1680 Sixtus’s architect found already ‘24 palms of soil” upon the site, ii is probable that many of its glories were buried before they were pillaged. If it were possible to reconstruct a gala day in the time of Trajan, when j. 1. .. f* ~ 11-n 1< i« rn-um i_

the Circus readied its highest magnificence, we should take our humble seat in the Press Box with tablets newly | waxed and a freshly sharpened styus. We should see the long, low Spina, with its sculptured panels, surmounted by a graceful little temple in the centre, and a rank of palm trees, under whose shade sit the white-dad figures of favoured spectators. We should watch the Porta Ponipae at the east did swing open, and the light chariots, each drawn by its four lithe horses, dart into the Circus with a jingle of harness and flutter of the bright draperies of the charioteers. We should mark, and note, the numbers going up on (lie signboards and thrill ns the coat hoi! clangs the signal “They’re off! ’’ The chariots swirl round the Meta, the three columns marking the j turning-point, in a chorus of shrill cries, cracking whins, and drumming hoofs. The favourite overturns info a struggling ruin amid a cloud of dust and flic sound of a long-drawn “Aah” of disappointment from his hackers.

The winner drives out of the Porta Triumphalis, and w© scribble madly the beginning of our powerful article oh ‘the day’s sport. Look over our shoulder. We have headed it: “Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympieo Collegisse juvat.”