Circus Maximus

From the gladiators to The Rolling Stones. Circus Maximus is getting one of the most famous archaeological site in the world.
Today we can only see an huge green elliptical expanse, but in the past it was an ancient stadium for Roman chariots racing and public games sponsored by Emperors.
The site was 600 m in length and 200 m in width, accommodating up to 300,000 spectators.
According to the legend, the valley housed the mythical episode of the "Rape of the Sabine women”, in Italian “Ratto delle Sabine” (e.d.: in this context the word rape is wrong, it is better using the word kidnapping), described by Tito Livio.
Romolus, the founder of the city, decided to populate it kidnapping the wives of Sabini people, which were settled in the centre of

Italy

; so Romans organized a ceremony in honour of Conso, a god of wheat, inviting them and abducting their women.
The husbands declared war to Rome, but the women, who had reached civil rights and goods, forced them to accept the peace deal.
In VII B.C. Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome coming from the Etruria (a central region of Italy which included part of Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria), created the archaeological site, ordering to reclaim a valley called “Murcia" valley.
According to Livio, the word "Murcia" came from a Roman Genius which had a temple between Aventine and Palatine hills where Circus Maximus was built.
In the II B.C. Julius Caesar planned a masonry structure and few years ago Emperor Augustus moved there the Ramses III Egypztian obelisk, which today is in piazza del Popolo.
In the following centuries Costanzo II transferred there also the obelisk of Tutmes III, now settled in piazza San Giovanni in Laterano (C’è Roma e Roma wrote a post about it).
The area changed thanks various Emperors such as Tiberius, Nero, Titus, Domitian and Trajan.
The last two gave to the Circus the actual look.
In the Middle Ages Circus Maximus became a rural and fortified area of Frangipane, a Roman patrician family.
There is a little tower who belongs to that period and it is called "Torre della Moletta" because of its proximity to a mill, which used the water of river Saint John, diverted from Aniene river.
According to the tradition, in 1223 this tower houses Saint Francis of Assisi, friend of Iacopa dei Normanni (a member of Frangipane family).
These buildings were destroyed in 1943, under the fascist dictatorship, and today we can only guess its original project.