Circus Maximus (valley between the Palatine and the Aventine)

The fire of AD 64 broke out in the part of the circus adjoining the Palatine and the Caelian Hill, among shops selling flammable goods (Tacitus, Annals 15. 38).

The fire of AD 64 broke out in the part of the circus adjoining the Palatine and the Caelian Hill, among shops selling flammable goods (Tacitus, Annals 15.38). In the same circus Nero drove a chariot, and Piso’s conspirators planned to kill him during the games of Ceres. It lay in the valley between the Palatine and the Aventine and was the largest arena in Rome; according to Pliny the Elder it held 250,000 spectators (Natural History 36.102).