ABSTRACT
The circuses have failed to withstand the ravages of time. We have seen that even at the Circus Maximus, of which a few tiers still exist in modern Rome, the use of wood, at least as an auxiliary building material, made the structure vulnerable. In the provinces where they had become common this impermanence was the rule for, if one excepts the large cities, the chariot races, because of their high cost, were outstanding events and not daily bread as at Rome. Thus there was no need of monumental buildings erected at great cost, standing empty at some distance from the town. It was there that they were usually built, preferably on the sloping bank of a river—there may possibly have been a circus of this kind in Paris on the site of the former Halle aux vins— that is, where advantage was not taken of the undulating ground to reduce construction costs, something which made it even less likely that the structure would last for any length of time. Circuses, all the same, were far less common than theatres or amphitheatres, precisely because of the high cost of the races.
