Pompey’s Theatre

Pompey's Theatre, built in Rome around 55 BCE by Pompey the Great, was the first permanent stone theatre in the city. Inspired by Greek models, it featured a portico with 100 columns that served as a community center. The theatre's design, with arched substructures and tiered seating accessed by corridors and entranceways (vomitoria), became a blueprint for subsequent Roman theatres.123

The theatre's orchestra area was often used for seating or spectacles, and the stage (pulpitum) was low, backed by a multi-story stage building (scaenae frons). Notably, the Senate met in Pompey's Theatre on the Ides of March in 44 BCE, the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. Today, parts of the theatre have been incorporated into later structures, including the Palazzo Pio.132