"I, who my life in wakeful studies wore, Bergamo's son, named Angelo, here lie. The empyreal robe and crimson hat I bore, Rome gave. Thou giv'st me, Christ, th' empyreal sky. Awaiting Thee, long toil I could endure: So with Thee be my rest now, sweet, secure." Through this church, also, we may enter some of the subterraneous chambers of the Palace of the Cæsars. The valley near this, between the Palatine and the Aventine, was the site of the _Circus Maximus_, of which the last vestiges were destroyed in the time of Paul V. Its ground plan can, however, be identified, with the assistance of the small circus of Maxentius on the Via Appia, which still partially exists. It was intended for chariot-races and horse-races, and is said to have been first instituted by Tarquinius Priscus after his conquest of the Latin town of Apiolæ. It was a vast oblong, ending in a semicircle, and surrounded by three rows of seats, termed collectively _cavea_. In the centre of the area was the low wall called the _spina_, at each end of which were the _metæ_, or goals. Between the metæ were columns supporting the _ova_, egg-shaped balls, and _Delphinæ_, or dolphins, each seven in number, one of which was put up for each circuit made in the race. At the extremity of the Circus were the stalls for the horses and chariots called _Carceres_. This, the square end of the Circus, was termed _oppidum_, from its external resemblance to a town, with walls and towers. In the Circus Maximus, which was used for hunting wild beasts, Julius Cæsar made a canal, called _Euripus_,[79] ten feet wide, between the seats and the racecourse, to protect the spectators. The _Ludi Circenses_ were first established by Romulus, to attract his Sabine neighbours, in order that he might supply his city with wives. The games were generally at the expense of the ædiles, and their cost was so great, that Cæsar was obliged to sell his Tiburtine villa, to defray those given during his ædileship. Perhaps the most magnificent games known were those in the reign of Carinus (Imp. A.D. 283), when the Circus was transformed into an artificial forest, in which hundreds of wild beasts and birds were slaughtered. At one time this Circus was capable of containing 385,000 persons. At the western extremity of the Circus Maximus stood the Temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera (said to have been vowed by the Dictator Albus Postumius, at the battle of the Lake Regillus), dedicated by the Consul Sp. Cassius, B.C. 492. "Quand le père de Cassius l'eut immolé de ses propres mains à l'avidité patricienne, il fit don du pécule de son fils--un fils n'avait que son pécule comme un esclave--à ce même temple de Cérès que Spurius Cassius avait consacré, et par une féroce ironie, mit au bas de la statue faite avec cet argent, et qu'il dédiait à la déesse: 'Don de la famille Cassia.'