Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

2B4 CIRCUS. CIRCUS.
i
A
(crdu~tioni Ao h,111 I!, A ---
terrupltion to the uniform line of seats (C), be- running lengthways down the course, which,
tokening also, from its construction, a place of from its resemblance to the position of the dorsal
distinction; whicll might have been assigned to bone ill the human frame, was termed spimna. (Casthe person at whose expense the gamles were given siodor. Var. E1p. iii. 51.) It is represented in the
(edilor spectaculorusnz). wood-cut subjoined. taken from an ancient basIn the centre of the area was a low wall (D) relief.
7 - -
At each extremity of the spinsa were placed, spine. Their use was to enable the spectators to
Ilupon a base (E, E), three wooden cylinders, of a count the number of rounds which had been run;
conical shape, like cypress trees (Osetaesqle im)itate for which purpose they are said to have been first
cupressus, Ovid, Mlet. x. 106; coinpare Plin. i. NT. introduced by Agrippa (Dion Cass. xlix. p. 600),
xvi. 60), which were called Ovctace the goals. though Livy (xli. 27) speaks of them long' before.
Their situation is distinctly seen in the preceding They are, therefore, seven in number, such being
woodcut, but their form is more fully developed in the numliber of the circuits made in each race; and
the one amnexed, copied from a marble in the as each round was run, one of the ora was put uip
British MIvuseum. (Cassiodor. Va?. Ep. iii. 51) or taken down, according to Varro (De Re Reust. i. 2. ~ 11). An egg
was adopted for this purpose, in honour of Castor
and Pollux. (Tertull. De Spectac. c. 8.) At the
other extremity of the spina were two similar
columns (G), represented also in the woodcut,
over the second chariot, sustaining seven dolphins,
termecd delp)hdinae, or delphiczas'rum coluisnae (Juv.
L~5;~i-~ /=1Q Sat. vi. 590), which do not appear to have been
| f/dttl]i~}lt A = < intended to be removed, but only placed there as
corresponding ornaments to the ovra e; and the
I figure of the dolphin was selected in honour of
TD' — X=t- ~. Neptune. (Tertull. 1. c.) Some writers suppose
the columns which supported the ova and celpdhisace
_SC' c 1 n ~k-' i S to be the plCalae or fidalce, which Juvenal meno-, tions (1. c.). But the pl)alae were not columns,
btst towers, erected as circumstances required, between the metae anlld eszripus, or extreme circuit of
the area, when sham-fights were represented in the
circus. (CoImpare Festus, s. v. PPalae; Serv. ad
Visy. Aen. ix. 705.) Besides these, the sp2ina was
decorated with many other objects, such as obe_- ~.:..~.,,s~ * In the Lyons mosaic, subsequently noticed in
the text, the delpdhinae are represented as fountains
Tlhe most remarkable object upon the spieza were spouting water; but in a bas-relief of the Palazzo
two columns (F) supporting, seven conical balls, Barberini (Fabretti, Syntacys. de Columnlz. Trajasni,
which, from their resemblance to eggs, were called p. 144), a ladder is placed against the columns
ovaZ. (VaIr. De Re Rust. i. 2. ~ 1; Liv. xli. 27.) which support the dolphins, apparently for the purThese are seen in the woodcut representing the pose of ascending to take them up and down.