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)