Theater of Pompey

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Reconstruction of the theater
Theater of Pompey (reconstruction drawing)

The Theater of Pompey was the first permanent stone theater in ancient Rome . It was founded by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus after his triple triumph in 61 BC. And during his second consulate in 55 BC. It was inaugurated with a magnificent festival at which 600 lions, 410 panthers, a rhinoceros and 18 elephants were on display. It was also called "Pompeian Theater", "Marble Theater" and "Great Theater". The portico (colonnade) adjoining the theater was also the scene of a different kind of drama: Here Gaius Iulius Caesar was conspired by conspirators on March 15, 44 BC. Murdered BC.

The facility of the theater

The theater was on the Marsfeld , northwest of the Circus Flaminius . It held around 17,500 spectators and stretched a little south of today's church of Sant'Andrea della Valle , roughly on the site where the church of Santa Maria de Crypta pincta, Piazza Grottapinta and Piazza Satiri are today. Connected to it was the portico of Pompey, which reached as far as the Republican Forum at what is now Largo di Torre Argentina .

The outer facade of the semicircular auditorium (cavea) consisted of three rows of arches , which were decorated with columns . The lower row consisted of Doric , the middle of Ionic and the upper of Corinthian columns. Remains of 24 arches made of Peperino have been found in the lower arcades , in front of which there were columns made of red granite . The diameter of the theater was 150-160 meters, the length of the stage 95 meters. According to Pliny the Elder , the cavea held 40,000 spectators. However, this number must not be accepted uncritically; modern calculations assume that no more than 17,500 spectators could attend the theater performances.

The building had a special meeting room for the Senate (the so-called curia Pompeia ), and Senate meetings were often held here. This was because certain senators were not allowed to enter the Pomerium , the sacred zone of Rome. Pompey's Theater on Campus Martius was outside the Pomerium.

The history of the theater

Floor plan of the Theater of Pompey on a fragment of the Forma Urbis

With regard to the building plan, Pompey was strongly inspired by the theater in Mytilene . Inside he furnished his theater with statues depicting the 14 peoples he had subjugated. He feared conflict with the Senate because he was building a permanent theater. To avoid this, he had a temple of Venus Victrix built on the upper edge of the grandstand. The tiers seemed like steps that led to the temple. Then he had the entire building complex dedicated to the temple and not the theater. There were also altars for three other deities, namely for Honos ( honor ), Virtus ( virtue ) and Felicitas ( luck ). The building was the first permanent stone theater in Rome. Until then, the Roman Senate had known how to prevent such permanent theaters from being built. It was only with the buildings of around 13 BC. The theaters of Balbus and Marcellus , which were completed in the 3rd century BC , had other stone theaters in Rome.

Augustus left the theater at great expense in 32 BC. Renovate. He also had the statue of Pompey, in front of which Caesar was murdered, removed from the Iulia Curia and placed in the theater. The building burned down in AD 21. Since no one from Pompey's family was able to restore it, Emperor Tiberius did so . Since the work could not be completed in his time, the completion is attributed to his successor Caligula .

When Tiridates , the king of Armenia , visited Rome in AD 66 , Nero had the stage and the outside of the theater gilded for this one occasion and purple awnings stretched over the auditorium ( cavea ). In 80 the grandstand burned down, but it was repaired relatively quickly. The theater burned down again in AD 247 and again under the rule of Carinus , after which it was renovated by Diocletian and Maximian . The emperors Arcadius and Honorius also had repairs carried out. The last time it was repaired by Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus on Theodoric's orders between 507 and 511. The renovation work must have continued to beautify the building, as Cassius Dio and Ammianus Marcellinus mention it as one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Directly outside the southeast side of the stage was the portico Porticus Pompei , under which the audience could shelter when it started to rain.

After the destructive Gothic Wars of 535–554 , a theater of this size was no longer needed because the Roman population had shrunk significantly. The theater's marble was used as a building material for other buildings. Due to the proximity to the Tiber , the building was flooded regularly, which caused further damage. Nevertheless, its foundations were preserved until the 9th century. In the 11th century the ruins were converted into two churches and other houses. Nevertheless, the layout of the old theater was still recognizable. Around 1150, the influential Orsini family bought the site and turned it into a fortress. In the late Middle Ages, the Campo de 'Fiori was built and what remained of the theater served as a quarry for the construction of new buildings in Rome.

The current state of the theater

The shape of the theater can still be seen today in the floor plan of the district. The exact dimensions of the theater can be seen from the foundations of the cavea made of opus reticulatum . The church of Santa Maria de Crypta pincta is built into one of the arches and derives its name from it. The foundations of the Temple of Venus were discovered under the Palazzo Pio , and the Scaena (stage) under the Piazza dei Satiri. The Piazza Grottapinta derives its name and shape from the Grotta , the choir moat.

gallery

  • City plan of modern Rome

  • Urban floor plan of modern Rome with the floor plan of the theater

  • Theater (center) in the city model of the Museo della Civiltà Romana

  • The houses in Via di Grotta Pinta were built in the ancient cavea

  • The death of Caesar in the curia Pompeia, by Jean-Léon Gérôme

literature

Web links

Commons : Theater of Pompey  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pierre Gros : Theatrum Pompei . In: Eva Margareta Steinby (Ed.): Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae , Volume 5, Quasar, Rom 2001, p. 35.
  2. ↑ Titus Livius : Periochae Omnium librorum fragmenta Oxyrhynchi reperta Iulii Obsequentis prodigiorum liber ; Ed .: O. Rossbach, Leipzig 1910, p. 116.
  3. ↑ Pliny , Naturalis historia 36, 115
  4. ^ A b R. C. Beacham: The Roman Theater and ist Audience , Cambridge, London 1991 p. 160
  5. ^ Jon Albers: Campus Martius. The urban development of the Field of Mars from the Republic to the Middle Imperial Period. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-89500-921-1 , p. 276 ff.

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 43 "  N , 12 ° 28 ′ 25"  E