Note 292 — LIFE OF POMPEIUS.

Drumann (Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 53) observes that "Plutarch does not say that Pompeius built his house near his theatre, but that he built it in addition to his theatre and at the same time, as Donatus had perceived, De Urbe Roma, 3, 8, in Græv. Thes. T. 3, p. 695." But Drumann is probably mistaken. There is no great propriety in the word ἐφόλκιον unless the house was near the theatre, and the word παρετεκτήνατο rather implies 'proximity,' than 'in addition to.'

This was the first permanent theatre that Rome had. It was built partly on the model of that of Mitylene and it was opened in the year B.C. 55. This magnificent theatre, which would accommodate 40,000 people, stood in the Campus Martius. It was built of stone with the exception of the scena, and ornamented with statues, which were placed there under the direction of Atticus, who was a man of taste. Augustus embellished the theatre, and he removed thither the statue of Pompeius, which up to that time had stood in the Curia where Cæsar was murdered. The scena was burnt down in the time of Tiberius, who began to rebuild it; but it was not finished till the reign of Claudius. Nero gilded the interior. The scena was again burnt in the beginning of the reign of Titus, who restored it again. The scena was again burnt in the reign of Philippus and a third time restored. (Drumann, Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 521; Dion Cassius 39. c. 88, and the notes of Reimarus.)