Circus Maximus

Overshadowing Bolt, Dhoni, Sharapova and even the pre-divorce Tiger Woods – said to be the first $1bn sportsman – was the star of the Circus Maximus.

Diocles the Roman charioteer runs rings round Usain Bolt's £21m deal Luke Gosset 2010

If the Circus Maximus could hold a quarter of the population of Rome, we can assume there was a need for that much seating -- that a substantial fraction of the Roman population were spectators at the various and frequent spectacles.

Dan Agin: The Roots of Anti-Liberalism: Part II 2009

But now, after the centuries of neglect and years of debate and campaigning, Circus Maximus is finally to get some attention.

Restoring the Circus Maximus at eternallycool.net 2008

But now, after the centuries of neglect and years of debate and campaigning, Circus Maximus is finally to get some attention.

2008 April 03 archive at eternallycool.net 2008

The crowd was huge, overflowing the gymnasium, said to hold a hundred thousand—though, being familiar with the Circus Maximus, I doubt it.

Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

The crowd was huge, overflowing the gymnasium, said to hold a hundred thousand—though, being familiar with the Circus Maximus, I doubt it.

Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007

Everyone had a good view down the course — though we noticed with smirks that it was much smaller than the Circus Maximus.

See Delphi and Die Davis, Lindsey 2005

A small fire broke out just north of the Circus Maximus, a kind of street bazaar of relaxed morals, with numerous food stands, bookmakers, and naughtier amenities -- the kind of place where small fires regularly broke out.

Television: Who Burned Rome? 2002

Ever since that night, on the anniversary day a solemn cavalcade wound its way around the Circus Maximus.

Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993

But the biggest funeral procession Rome had ever seen got under way from the house overlooking the Circus Maximus, wended its way down through the Velabrum to the Forum Romanum, where Lucullus-a powerful and famous speaker-gave the eulogy from the top of the rostra, standing alongside the cunning bier on which the frankincense and cinnamon Sulla sat upright behind his spicy lictor and the horrible wizened old corpse lay below in a special compartment.

Fortune's Favorites McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1993