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Stadium of Domitian
	Arcade of the Stadium of Domitian
	Stadium of Domitian Shown within Augustan Rome
	Click on the map for a fullscreen view
Location	Regio IX Circus Flaminius
Coordinates	41°53′56″N 12°28′23″E / 41.89889°N 12.47306°E
Type	Stadium
History
Builder	Domitian
Founded	AD 80

The Stadium of Domitian (Italian: Stadio di Domiziano), also known as the Circus Agonalis, was located to the north of the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy. The Stadium was commissioned around AD 80 by Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus as a gift to the people of Rome and was used almost entirely for athletic contests. In Christian tradition, Agnes of Rome was martyred there.

History

Construction and design

The Stadium of Domitian was dedicated in AD 86, as part of an Imperial building programme at the Field of Mars, following the damage or destruction of most of its buildings by fire in AD 79. It was Rome's first permanent venue for competitive athletics, erected for Domitian's celebration of the Capitoline Games. It was patterned after Greek stadia and seated approximately 30,000.^[1] The substructures and support frames were made of brick and concrete – a robust, fire-retardant and relatively cheap material – clad in marble. Stylistically, the Stadium facades would have resembled those of the Colosseum; the floor plan was a scaled down version of the Circus Maximus, having a similarly semi-circular end. Colini (1943) estimates the total stadium length as approximately 275 metres, and the total width as 106 metres,^[2] while later sources give the height of its outer perimeter benches as 30 m (100 ft) above ground level and its inner perimeter benches as 4.5 m (15 ft) above the arena floor.^[3] This arrangement offered a clear view of the track from most seats. The typically Greek layout gave the Stadium its Latinised Greek name, in agones (the place or site of the competitions). The flattened end was sealed by two vertically staggered entrance galleries and the perimeter was arcaded beneath the seating levels, with travertine pilasters between its cavea (enclosures). The formation of a continuous arena trackway by a raised "spina" or strip has been conjectured.^[4]

The Stadium of Domitian was the northernmost of a series of public buildings on Campus Martius. To its south stood the smaller and more intimate Odeon of Domitian, used for recitals, songs and orations. The southernmost end of the Campus was dominated by the Theater of Pompey, restored by Domitian during the same rebuilding program.^[5]

Uses

The Stadium was used almost entirely for athletic contests. For "a few years", following fire damage to the Colosseum in AD 217, it was used for gladiator shows.^[6] According to the Historia Augusta's garish account of Emperor Elagabalus, the arcades were used as brothels^[7] and the emperor Severus Alexander funded his restoration of the Stadium partly with tax-revenue from the latter.^[8] In Christian martyr-legend, St Agnes was put to death there during the reign of the emperor Diocletian, in or near one of its arcades. With the economic and political crises of the later Imperial and post-Imperial eras, the Stadium seems to have fallen out of its former use; the arcades provided living quarters for the poor and the arena a meeting place. It may have been densely populated: "With the decline of the city after the barbarian invasions, the rapidly dwindling population gradually abandoned the surrounding hills and was concentrated in the campus Martius, which contained the main part of Rome until the new developments in the nineteenth century."^[9] Substantial portions of the structure survived into the Renaissance era, when they were mined and robbed for building materials.

Legacy

The Piazza Navona sits over the interior arena of the Stadium. The sweep of buildings that embrace the Piazza incorporates the Stadium's original lower arcades. They include the most recent rebuilding of the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, first founded in the ninth century at the traditional place of St. Agnes' martyrdom.^[10]

Notes

^ Lee, Hugh M., "Greek Sports in Rome", pp. 533-542, in A Companion to Sport and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity, Editor(s):Paul Christesen, Donald G. Kyle, :8 November 2013, Wiley Online Books, Print ISBN 9781444339529 Online ISBN 9781118609965 doi:10.1002/9781118609965
^ Bernard, Jean-François et Rossetto, Paola Ciancio, "Le stade de Domitien: situation topographique, étude architecturale et réflexions concernant la localisation de l’église Sainte-Agnès", Le culte de sainte Agnès à place Navone entre Antiquité et Moyen Âge, Open Edition Journals, 126-1, 2014, section 20, citing Colini, A. M., Stadium Domitiani, 1943, Roma, pp. 71-72.[1]
^ A slightly higher estimate for seating numbers, and a lower estimate for arena length (200-250 meters) are in Richardson, L., A new topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. pp. 366 - 7, showing reconstructed ground plan: convenience link
^ Arena seating and length estimates from Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby): A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929, p.496: Bill Thayer's website link
^ Platner, Ibid, Campus Martius: Bill Thayer's website link
^ Cassius Dio, Roman History, (epitome), 78, 25.2: link This ruinous Colosseum fire was caused by lightning – one of many divine signs to anticipate the death of the emperor Macrinus.
^ Historia Augusta, "The Life of Elagabalus", 26.3
^ Richardson, L., A new topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. pp. 366 - 7 has "numerous brothels... and probably shops and workshops as well," like the Circus Maximus.
^ Platner 1929, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, "Campus Martius p.94. via: Lacus Curtius
^ Mariano Armellini, Le Chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX, pubblicato Dalla Tipografia Vaticana, 1891: (Italian only; Bill Thayer's website link)