Talk:Stadium of Domitian

points of fact

 * The Theater of Pompey was built before the Stadium of Domitian, or else how could Julius Caesar have been killed there?
 * Domitian did not built the stadium for blood sports, but for Greek-style athletic games; gladiatorial combat was a later use. See (for a start) John Humphrey, Roman Circuses, here. See also Richardson's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome here.
 * Agon is a Greek word; Latin did borrow it, but the Oxford Latin Dictionary says Agonalis as an adjective refers to the Agonalia festival (for which see a little on the eytmological problems, and a more modern source here). The overblown rhetoric about "orgy of ambition" and "bloodlust" says more about the writers than the Romans. Cynwolfe (talk) 13:07, 22 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I can't desist. I'm stripping out egregious errors and irrelevance. The lede will have to be re-written from scratch. Haploidavey (talk) 14:07, 22 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I did a quick look around but can't find out why it was called the Circus Agonalis. Cynwolfe (talk) 15:28, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm assuming that the modern place name Agone mentioned in the article remembers the Circus Agonalis, but that may not be true. Are you going to throw in a couple of sentences about what events were held at the stadium, and how these changed over the years? St. Agnes was martyred there, it seems. Cynwolfe (talk) 15:32, 22 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Re: your last, I just did exactly that. Agonalis seems difficult to track down, and I suspect it's not going to get any easier, what with Agnes, agony and the H.A. Haploidavey (talk) 16:25, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Agone & agonalis
This from the wikipedia article on Sant'Agnese in Agone, but uncited;

"Origin of name and legends

Despite the cu­rious as­so­nance, the name of this church is un­re­la­ted to the agony of the mar­tyr: in agone was the an­ci­ent name of piazza Na­vona (»piazza in agone«), and meant ins­tead (from Greek) »in the site of the competitions«, be­cause piazza Na­vona was an an­ci­ent sta­dium on the Greek model (with one flat end) for foo­tra­ces. From »in agone«, the po­pu­lar use and pro­nun­cia­tion chan­ged the name into »Navona«, but other roads around kept the ori­gi­nal name (like the Corsia Agonale, a short road that con­nects with the Palazzo Madama."

This must have come from somewhere. Haploidavey (talk) 16:43, 22 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Seems to fit. The point also being that agon in Greek or Latin was "contest, a competition, game," so Circus Agonalis doesn't mean "Arena of Agony" or any other B-movie "bloodlust" title. Cynwolfe (talk) 18:56, 22 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Pretty much what I've put. I've not tagged for citation, but perhaps should? Haploidavey (talk) 18:58, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Seating capacity
I've changed the estimates to fit the source: for details, see the footnote next to Circus Maximus. but here's a summary. The loci given in Discriptio XIIII Regionum Urbis Romae (the Curiosum and Notitia) almost certainly refer to the per foot run of seating. This number halved - more or less, though I can't be bothered to figure it precisely - gives an allowance of almost two feet per person; probably over-generous but anyway, they're Platner's calculations (or Ashby's). I suppose one must allow for the occasional portly Roman. Haploidavey (talk) 20:43, 22 March 2010 (UTC)