Our walk starts from the Circus Maximum, the largest entertainment building ever built in Rome, capable of hosting up to 300.000 spectators gathering here in order to attend chariot and bigas races. In the Middle ages plundered of the covering marbles, today is only partially preserved. Going North, we arrive to the church of St. Mary in Cosmedin, that has in its porch the famous Mouth of Truth. From here we move to tha Arch of Janus, so called because of its four passages structure and located at one of the crossroads at the borders of the Forum boarium. A little further we see the church of St. Giorgio in Velabro, which included the Arcus Argentariorum, built by the money-changers and the local merchants in honor of emperor Septimius Severus and his wife Julia Domna. Closer to the Tiber river we have the temples dedicated to god Portunus and to Hercules, still completely standing, and the remains of other three temples, later inglobated in the church of St. Nicholas in Prison. In front of it there’s the St. Omobono area, where archaeological excavations brought back to light the ruins of two temples dating from the republican and archaic period, dedicated to Fortuna and Mater Matuta. Our walk will end in front of the ruins of the temple of Apollo Sosiano and the great theatre built by Augustus in honor of his nephew Marcello.
