Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
ShareThis
Javascript must be enabled to continue!

Two Questions on the Circus Flaminius

View through CrossRef
Were ludi circenses ever held in the Circus Flaminius as they were in the Circus Maximus?The evidence is as follows.1. Varro LL v 153–4: Locus idem circus maximus dictus, quod circum spectaculis aedificatus ubi ludi fiunt, et quod ibi circum metas fertur pompa et equi currunt…item simili de causa circus Flaminius dicitur, qui circum aedificatus est Flaminium campum, et quod ibi quoque ludis Tauriis equi circum metas currunt.The ludi Taurii were unlike other games in being celebrated only every five years; they were in honour of the di inferi, and therefore could not be held within the walls. It is clear from Varro that they were the only games that took place in the Circus Flaminius, at least in his day: despite the deliberate parallelism of his two explanations, he cannot invoke a pompa at the Flaminius to make it like the Maximus in that respect as well. The parallelism may in fact be misleading, merely Varro's attempt to justify his etymology by finding spurious similarities between circi that were in reality not alike at all. Certainly the fact that he speaks of horses in both cases does not entitle us to infer that the ludi Taurii took the form of chariot-races, like the ludi circenses proper that were held in the Circus Maximus. It is quite possible that they were simply horse-races, and that Varro emphasises the horses rather than the chariots in section 153 in order to achieve a further similarity.
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Title: Two Questions on the Circus Flaminius
Description:
Were ludi circenses ever held in the Circus Flaminius as they were in the Circus Maximus?The evidence is as follows.
1.
Varro LL v 153–4: Locus idem circus maximus dictus, quod circum spectaculis aedificatus ubi ludi fiunt, et quod ibi circum metas fertur pompa et equi currunt…item simili de causa circus Flaminius dicitur, qui circum aedificatus est Flaminium campum, et quod ibi quoque ludis Tauriis equi circum metas currunt.
The ludi Taurii were unlike other games in being celebrated only every five years; they were in honour of the di inferi, and therefore could not be held within the walls.
It is clear from Varro that they were the only games that took place in the Circus Flaminius, at least in his day: despite the deliberate parallelism of his two explanations, he cannot invoke a pompa at the Flaminius to make it like the Maximus in that respect as well.
The parallelism may in fact be misleading, merely Varro's attempt to justify his etymology by finding spurious similarities between circi that were in reality not alike at all.
Certainly the fact that he speaks of horses in both cases does not entitle us to infer that the ludi Taurii took the form of chariot-races, like the ludi circenses proper that were held in the Circus Maximus.
It is quite possible that they were simply horse-races, and that Varro emphasises the horses rather than the chariots in section 153 in order to achieve a further similarity.

Related Results

The Institutionalization of the Bulgarian Circus between 1944 and 1957
The Institutionalization of the Bulgarian Circus between 1944 and 1957
This article analyzes the process of institutionalization of the Bulgarian circus be-tween 1944 and 1957. The appreciation of circus as “an equal member of the large family of soci...
Circus Training for Autistic Children: Difference, Creativity, and Community
Circus Training for Autistic Children: Difference, Creativity, and Community
Circus training can benefit children diagnosed on the autistic spectrum and their families. In 2010, as Head Trainer at Flipside Circus in Brisbane, Kristy Seymour developed a meth...
Copyright in the Contemporary Circus Art
Copyright in the Contemporary Circus Art
The article is dedicated to the research of the problems of obtaining and protecting copyright in the circus industry, the problem of plagiarism in circus art, and the problem of p...
Circus & the Avant-Gardes: Between Science and Art
Circus & the Avant-Gardes: Between Science and Art
This article examines the position of circus within the arts and sciences by exploring the interest of early 20th-century artists in circus phenomena – as a source of inspiration f...
Circus Amok: traditional and contemporary, spectacular and political
Circus Amok: traditional and contemporary, spectacular and political
ABSTRACT Circus Amok: traditional and contemporary, spectacular and political – This article examines Circus Amok, a circus company founded in 1989 in New York City, the United Sta...

Back to Top