Hippodrome of Constantinople Hippodrome of Constantinople The Hippodrome of Constantinople () was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named "Sultanahmet Meydanı" ("Sultan Ahmet Square") in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with a few fragments of the original structure surviving. The word "hippodrome" comes from the Greek "hippos" (), horse, and "dromos" (δρόμος), path or way. For this reason, it is sometimes also called "Atmeydanı" ("Horse Square") in Turkish. Horse racing and chariot racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were common features of Greek cities
Tomb of the Augurs It is here the funerary game of bloodletting, a game performed to appease the soul of the deceased, is shown. A masked figure wearing a pointy hat, a long, black false beard, a black/blue jacket with white tassels, and a red loincloth is shown with the word "phersu" written above. The Etruscan word "phersu", meaning "mask," "masked man," or even possibly "actor," since in Greek and Roman plays the actors always wore masks to show what sort of characters were being impersonated. Scholars debate that the "phersu" painted in this scene is an actor costumed to impersonate an executioner. It