Villa of Maxentius: The Circus and the Tomb of Romulus
Why is it significant?
Through the gate, a long, flat field stretches away from you, edged by low walls, with two broken brick towers marking where the starting gates once stood and a line of rubble running down the middle.
Key Facts
| Place | Villa of Maxentius: The Circus and the Tomb of Romulus |
|---|---|
| Address | Via Appia Antica 153, 00179 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.85510, 12.51850 |
| Part of Walk | Queen of Roads: Rome's Appian Way from the Baths of Caracalla to the Catacombs |
| Generated | Generated |
Through the gate, a long, flat field stretches away from you, edged by low walls, with two broken brick towers marking where the starting gates once stood and a line of rubble running down the middle. You are looking along a chariot-racing track more than five hundred metres long, the best-preserved Roman circus anywhere.
It was built in the early fourth century by Maxentius, the emperor who held Rome itself while rivals fought over the rest of the empire. Beside it stood his palace and, by the road, a great round mausoleum for his son Valerius Romulus, who died as a boy in 309. The name was no accident. Maxentius wanted Romans to think of the city's founder, and of himself as the man who would restore Rome to the centre of the world.
It didn't work. In 312 Constantine marched on Rome. Maxentius rode out to meet him at the Milvian Bridge, was defeated, and drowned in the Tiber. The winner wrote the history: Maxentius became a tyrant, his monuments in the Forum were rededicated to Constantine, and his brand-new circus may never have seen more than a handful of races.
Down the centre of the track ran the spina, and on it stood an obelisk carved with hieroglyphs in Rome for the emperor Domitian, then moved here by Maxentius. It lay broken in this field for centuries, until in 1651 Gian Lorenzo Bernini raised it above his Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona. So every visitor admiring that famous square is admiring a souvenir from this quiet meadow.
Look back towards the road at the mausoleum of Romulus, half hidden behind a farmhouse built against it centuries later. A dome for a dead prince, a barn for the living. Now return to the Appia and walk on uphill. Ahead, the road is crowned by a huge round tower: the most famous tomb on the Queen of Roads.