西元前329年开始建造永久性的木造隔间,表面经过粉刷显得相当明亮[4],前面则有一个匝口,每一个匝口与中央竞技场的距离相当。理论上,竞技场可以容纳25组四马双轮战车并排使用。到了共和国时代晚期至帝国时代早期,马克西穆斯竞技场拥有12个隔间,而12组四马双轮战车可以同时在场上奔驰。人们可以对每个隔间进行投注,而不同的组别也用颜色区别出来[5]。至少从西元前174年开始,人们使用卡斯特与巴勒克斯(Castor and Pollux)蛋雕像来预测马匹的骑士。西元前33年,巨大的铜制海豚形计数器被设置在竞技场中[6]。
This is a modern recalculation of the seating capacity at the Circus, a substantial downward revision of Pliny the Elder's estimate of 250,000. For discussion see Humphrey, p. 216.
In the earliest exercise of the right, a curule chair would have been brought to the spot; its permanent positioning there is unlikely. See Humphrey, p. 61.
Humphrey, p. 171; the gates probably used the same animal-sinew torsion springing as the Roman ballista; Ibid, pp. 137 - 138: opposing teams of Reds and Whites are prominent in late Republican literature, and Greens and Blues in the Imperial era. Some Roman authors held that team-racing in multiple colours dated back to the regal era. Ibid, p. 175 for allocation of stalls by lottery.
Pliny the Elder's figure of 250,000 circus seats is unreliable; it ignores the necessary interruptions of seating rows by many access stairways and corridors. It might represent a per foot run seating estimate, or include those watching from the nearby heights, outside the building proper. In late Imperial regionary catalogues, seating estimates for the Circus become even wilder; one gives an impossible 450,000 seats. Discussion is in Humphrey, p. 126.
Humphrey, pp. 80, 102, 126 - 9. Some repairs were unforeseen and extensive, such as those carried out in Diocletian's reign, after the collapse of a substantial section of seating, which killed some 13,000 people.
Bowersock, G., Green, P., Grabar, O., Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World, Harvard University Press, 1999, p. 674; citing Procopius, The Gothic Wars, 3. 37. 4.[1] (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆) For the last known beast-hunt at the Circus, see Humphrey, p. 131. Humphrey describes the last known Circus event (549) as "games".
Partner, Peter, Renaissance Rome, 1500-1559: a portrait of a society, University of Claifornia Press, 1976, pp.4, 166.googlebooks preview (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)