By kind permission of the Department of Antiquities and of Professor Antonino Di Vita, Director of the Italian Mission, and with the financial support of the Society for Libyan Studies, the Oxford Craven Committee and the Cambridge Faculty Board of Classics, the authors spent three weeks in the early summer of 1974 studying the circus at Lepcis Magna. During the sixty years in which Italian archaeologists have been working at Lepcis, parts of the circus have been cleared or excavated on several different occasions. Work was begun in 1924-5 by R. Bartoccini at the monumental arch at the eastern end of the arena and on the seating on the north-east curve. He also uncovered the meta prima and the adjacent east end of the spina. Since 1960 a much larger area has been uncovered successively by E. Vergara-Caffarelli, F. Russo and A. Di Vita, as part of the larger project of clearing and restoring the whole of the amphitheatre-circus complex. Although work in most recent years has concentrated upon the complete clearance and restoration of the amphitheatre (which is cut into the hillside immediately south of the circus), two-thirds of the long south side of the circus has been revealed together with about half of the spina and most of the starting gates (carceres) at the west end.
Acknowledgement-Investigations at the site of the Mura di Santo Stefano near Anguillara began as a study of the standing remains of the Roman period by the two authors of the present paper. Subsequently it became clear that some of the problems involved could only be elucidated by the excavation of selected areas of the site and more extensive researches. As a result a more general publication about the site is envisaged and further work is in progress, including a study of the inscriptions by Miss J. M. Reynolds, and of the classical and medieval settlement of the area by Dr. A. T. Luttrell. Excavations on the site conducted by Dr. D. Whitehouse commenced in September 1977, with financial support from the British Academy, the British Museum, the British School at Rome, and the University of Adelaide.The present authors wish to thank Professor H. Burns, who generously advised on problems connected with the drawings and text of Ligorio and Palladio, and T. F. C. Blagg who produced the drawing of the south wall, and added a number of useful observations. The British Academy, the British Museum, and the University of Adelaide generously made contributions to the expenses incurred in carrying out these researches. IntroductionThe striking but relatively neglected ruins of a substantial building of the Roman period lie just off the Via Clodia approximately thirty km. north of Rome, and about three km. south of the little town of Anguillara on Lake Bracciano. 1 These ruins are now known as the Mura di Santo Stefano, and were once part of a larger complex of buildings, as is clear from the remains of other small structures, and from the surface scatter of pottery, mosaic and marble in a nearby field. The gaunt, towering Roman ruin dominates the surrounding landscape, standing at a height of 232 m. above sea level among bare, rolling hills now, as perhaps in antiquity, used chiefly for the cultivation of cereals and the pasturing of sheep. 2 This conspicuous rectangular block is extraordinarily well preserved, still rising in places to a height of 18 m. (Plate XXXIII a). It is constructed of brick-faced concrete and measures 17-50 by 21 m. at ground level. It incorporated at least three storeys, and was articulated on the east and west facades with three orders of slim brick pilasters corresponding with the three storeys of the interior. On these facades there is an attractive contrast in colour between the predominantly yellow and reddish orange bricks used for facing 1 The Mura di Santo Stefano lie 2 km. NE of the farmhouse Le Crocicchie at Km. 14 on the modern Via Clodia, and about 1J km. NE of the track of the ancient Via Clodia. For divergences between the routes of the ancient and modern roads seej. Ward-Perkins, 'Southern Etruria and the Ager Veientanus', PBSR, xxiii (1955), 58-69, esp. fig. 7. 2 J. Ward-Perkins, PBSR, xxiii (1955), 66, 'on the adjoining ridges are the remains of several smaller sites the agricultural purpose of which is attested by numerous fragments of dolia'. -J J -----J
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