The Roman Theatre

As you’ve probably guessed from its distinctive oval shape, you’re standing in front of Merida’s ancient Roman circus. It’s one of the best-preserved and largest circuses in the Roman Empire, just after Rome’s Circus Maximus. In fact, it’s the largest built on the Iberian Peninsula, 440 metres long and 115 metres wide, with seating for up to 30,000 people. That’s nearly the city’s entire population back then! Picture the stands packed with spectators, all around the arena, cheering and shouting. The seating was divided into three levels: the ima, media, and summa cavea, lower, middle, and upper stands. The Augusta Emerita circus was built outside the city walls, on the southern side of the main road that linked Corduba to Toletum, modern-day Córdoba and Toledo. Historians believe it was built in the early 1st century, during the reign of Tiberius, and used until the 6th century, as shown by the discovery of a charioteer’s tomb from that time. Circuses and other forms of Roman entertainment began to decline after Christianity became officially recognised in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. By the early 4th century, charioteers (known as aurigae), and actors were banned. Interestingly, there’s a local inscription suggesting that in an effort to keep the Merida circus alive, it was filled with water for mock naval battles, or naumachiae, but many historians doubt that ever happened. The site was later looted for its stone, making it harder to know exactly how grand it once was, but you can still get a sense of its impressive scale. At the western end is the porta pompae, the grand gate used by the parade that kicked off the games. Down the center of the track runs the spina, or spine: a long raised platform that stretched over two-thirds of the arena, often decorated with statues and obelisks. On either end of the spina stood columns topped with giant stone eggs on one side and dolphins on the other. As chariots raced around it, completing each of their seven laps, an egg and a dolphin would be removed to help the crowd keep track of the race. If you’d like to explore more, including the inside of the circus and its interpretation center, entry is included in the combined ticket for Merida’s archaeological sites. Or you can grab a simple, low-cost individual ticket instead.