This painting was one of four views of ancient Roman life commissioned around 1638 for the Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid. Two of the other works depict a Roman circus and a Roman gymnasium respectively, while the third, now lost, was recorded in 1701 as The baths of Diocletian with a fleet of galleys, which may be a misidentification of a view of a sea-battle stadium, or naumachia. The paintings are