Pompa circensis

Wearing purple tunics, they wielded swords and short spears in weapon dances similar to the Cretan pyrrhics.

[11] The magistrate who presided over the games rode in a two-horse chariot (biga) and wore the traditional attire of the triumphing general (triumphator).

[12] It had been the view of Theodor Mommsen that the pompa circensis was simply a repurposing of the triumphal procession, to which the presenting of games had originally been attached.

[15] The pompa circensis underwent a significant change during the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, when his image and chariot were added to the procession.

During the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, other members of the imperial family were represented by images and sellae (special "seats" or thrones; see curule chair).

[17] The priesthood of the Arval Brothers carried out a sacrifice when these ludi circenses were held in conjunction with various celebrations of Imperial cult.

The route was expanded to pass along the Campus Martius in the time of Domitian, who had built a grand temple to the divinized Vespasian and Titus there.