Ancient Roman architecture varying purposes and differed in design and construction. Along with theatres and amphitheatres, Circuses were one of the main entertainment sites of the time. Circuses were venues for chariot races, horse races, and performances that commemorated important events of the empire were performed there. For events that involved re-enactments of naval battles, the circus was flooded with water. The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running along the length of about two thirds the track, joined at one end with
Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way in the Rocky Mountains" that was part of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Issue, and reprinted a century later. A Currier and Ives print from 1868 uses the same title and theme for a very different print, showing a railroad crossing a new settlement as the train goes west. A and a stereograph by Alexander Gardner, both of an 1867 end-of-track frontier construction train, were titled "Westward The Course of Empire Takes Its Way". David Foster Wallace named one of his short stories "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" in his 1989 collection "Girl with Curious Hair". Early revisions of