People of immense power and influence have always known that for one to maintain power, they must express it explicitly for those who they wish to influence. Ancient Roman emperors were especially aware of this political tactic and employed it in several different methods to create and maintain one of the most influential and longest standing civilizations known to man. Having better knowledge, brute force, and access to resources is not enough to simply have power over others, it must be displayed and used functionally so that those who interact with it better understand the extent at which it operates. There is no greater display of these three sources of power in all Rome than the Circus Maximus. The Circus Maximus was the largest structure…show more content… These exhibits took a great deal of both money and man hours to perform, and the resulting spectacle reflected the access the Emperor had to both. The grandeur of the
Circus itself was a physical representation of the intelligence of Roman architecture, displaying both new advancements in construction techniques as well as beautiful material afforded by the
Emperor himself. The Circus was the perfect place to take people to help them understand the extent of the Roman imperial power. This is exactly why the emperor would hold different events year round in the Circus Maximus; inviting all citizens to understand the advancements and feats of a civilization they were a part of and the power of the man in charge of them all.
The idea of the Circus Maximus was not simply created to be a structural status symbol for the emperor but instead was a structure that evolved around a near permanent festival ground devoted to the display of imperial wealth and power. The Consualia was an ancient roman festival devoted to Consus, the Roman god of the harvest, held by the emperor of Rome twice a year. The Consualia had everything from chariot racing to exotic animal hunting and imperial marches. Smith Philip, "Consualia",…show more content… (2012) p.22. He would march down the raceway before each race, game, or event shrouded in his army carrying statues of gods. The shrine’s composite columns and columned arch revealed new building techniques and displayed to the city of Rome an emperor who understood how to build marvellous structures.
One of the most marvellously crafted structures in the Circus Maximus was the Egyptian obelisk erected by Augustus as a monument to his conquest of Egypt. Penelope,
Circus
Maximus, 3. This permanent fixture on the line around which chariots raced defined the Spina with material for the first time. It was placed by the entrance of the Circus making it the first thing spectators would see upon entry and the first thing for the emperor to walk by in the procession towards the “imperial box seats”. This Egyptian symbolism is the only element in the whole structure that isn’t a classical greek or roman feature. It stands out as an object in the middle of the amphitheatre’s plane permanently marking not only the achievement of an
