"Pompey also built that magnificent theatre, which is standing at this
day, at whose dedication five hundred lions were killed in five days,
and eighteen elephants having fought against armed men, part of them
died upon the place, and the rest soon after" (Dion Cassius, "Cæsar").
Plutarch relates the same. The same author, in his "Life of Nero,"
speaking of the reception of Tiridates, says: "There was a great
assembly in the Theatre of Pompey by order of the senate. Not only the
scene, but all the inside of the theatre, and everybody that came into
it, were covered with gold, which made that day be named Golden Day.
The covering which was spread over it to defend the spectators from
the heat of the sun, was of rich stuff, the colour of purple,
representing the heavens, in the midst of which was Nero driving a
chariot." (See Pliny, xxxiii. 16.) "Tiberius undertook to restore the
Theatre of Pompey" (Suetonius, "Tiberius," xlvii.). "Tiberius
undertook to rebuild the Theatre of Pompey, which was accidentally
burned, because none of the family was equal to the charge; still,
however, to be called by the name of Pompey" (Tacitus, "Ann." iii.
72). "Caligula completed it" (Suetonius, "Caligula," xxi.). It was
burned; and again rebuilt by Caracalla, as we learn from an
inscription found at Ostia in 1881. "In the games which Claudius
presented at the dedication of Pompey's theatre, which had been burned
down, and was rebuilt by him, he presided upon a tribunal erected for
him in the orchestra; having first paid his devotions in the temple
above, and then coming down through the centre of the circle, while
all the people kept their seats in profound silence" (Suetonius,
"Claudius," xxi.). It accommodated forty thousand (Pliny, xxxvi. 24).
It was built B.C. 55, "in his second consulship" (Vel. Paterculus, ii.
48); but afraid of the criticism of the people, he erected at the top
of the seats a temple to Venus.