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On this page: Circitores – Circuitores – Circumlitio – Circumluvio – Circus – Primitivab Vix

CIRCINUS.

PRIMITIVAB VIX-AWN'XVW MENS-1'DIE-XXIV LVIRIV&HELWS

and likewise the inscription lioc, monumentum leredes non sequitur ; in order that it might not pass oyer to the heredes and "be sold by them at

any time. (ilex. Sat. i. 8. 12, 13 ; Orelli, Insert®. No. 4379, 4557, &c.)

2. A boundaiy-stone set up by the Agrimensores to mark the divisions of lands. (Scriptores Rei Agr. p. 88, ed. Goesius.)

3. A military entrenchment made of the trunks of trees and palisades. (Caes. B. G. vii. 73.) CIRCENSES LUDI. [Cmcus.] CI'RCINUS ((Jfag^r^s), a compass. The com­pass used by statuaries, architects, masons, and carpenters, is often represented on the tombs of such artificers, together with the other instruments of their profession or trade. The annexed wood­cut is copied from a tomb found at Rome. (Grater, Corp. Inscrip. t. i. part ii. p. 644.) It exhibits two kinds of compasses: viz. the common kind used

for drawing circles and measuring distances, and one with curved legs, probably intended to mea­sure the thickness of columns, cylindrical pieces of wood, or similar objects. The common kind is described by the scholiast on Aristophanes (Nub. 178), who compares its form to that of the letter A. [See cut under norm a.] The mythologists sup-

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CIRCUS.

posed this instrument to have been invented by Pcrdix, who was the nephew of Daedalus, and through envy thrown by him over the precipice of the Athenian acropolis. (Ovid, Met. viii. 241— 251.) Compasses of various forms were discovered in a statuary's house at Pompeii. [J. Y.I

CIRCITORES. [castra.]

CIRCUMLITIO. [PicTURA.]

CIRCUMLUVIO. [alluvio.i

CIRCUITORES. [castra.]

CIRCUS (nnrofyo/ios), a place for chariot-races and horse-races, and in which the Roman races (Circenses Ludi} took place. When Ta*-quinius Priscus had taken the town of Apiolae from the Latins, as related in the early Roman legends, he commemorated his success by an ex­hibition of races and pugilistic contests in the Murcian valley, between the Palatine and Aven-tine hills ; around which a number of temporary platforms were erected by the patres and equites, called spectacula, fori, or fontli, from their resem­blance to the deck of a ship; each one raising a stage for himself, upon which he stood to view the games. (Liv. i. 35 ; Festus. s. v. Forum; Dionys. iii. p. 192, &c.) This course, with its surrounding scaffoldings, was termed circus; either because the spectators stood round to see the shows, or because the procession and races went round in a circuit. (Varr. De Ling. Lal. v. 153, 154, ed. Miiller.) Previously, however, to the death of Tarquin, a permanent building was constructed for the pur­pose, with regular tiers of seats in the form of a theatre. (Compare Liv. and Dionys. II. cc.) To this the name of Circus Maximiis was subsequently given, as a distinction from the Flaminian and other similar buildings, which it surpassed in ex­tent and splendour ; and hence, like the Campus Martins, it is often spoken of as the Circus, without any distinguishing epithet.

Of the Circus Maximus scarcely a vestige now remains, beyond the palpable evidence of the site it occupied, and a few masses of rubble-work in a circular form, which may be seen under the walls of some houses in the Via de1 Ccrcki, and which retain traces of having supported the stone seats (Dionys. I. c.} for the spectators. This loss is for­tunately supplied by the remains of a small circus on the Via Appia, commonly called the Circus of Caracalla, the ground-plan of which, together with much of the superstructure, remains in a state of considerable preservation. The ground-plan of the circus in question is represented in the annexed woodcut; and may be safely taken as a model of all others, since it agrees in every main feature, both of general outline and individual parts, with the description of the Circus Maximus given by Dionysius (iii. p. 192).

Around the double lines (A, A) were arranged the seats (gradus, sedilla., subscllici), as in a theatre, termed collectively the cavca; the lowest of which were separated from the ground by & podium, and the whole divided longitudinally by praecinctiones, and diagonally into cunei, with their voinitoria attached to each. Towards the extremity of the upper branch of the cavea, the general outline is broken by an outwork (B), which was probably the pulvinar^ or station for the emperor, as it is placed in the best situation for seeing both the commencement and end of the course, and in the most prominent part of the circus. (Suet. Claud. 4."l In the opposite branch, is observed another in-