In the neighbourhood of his theatre Pompey built a house for himself
(Plutarch); and from the back of the stage a portico (Vitruvius),
which, according to Propertius (ii. 32), must have been a beautiful
place.
"Pompey's portico, I suppose, with its shady columns, and
magnificently ornamented with purple curtains, palls upon you; and the
thickly-planted, even line of plane-trees, and the waters that fall
from a sleeping Maro, and in streams lightly bubbling all over." In
the centre of this portico Pompey erected a large hall, which he
presented to the Roman people for the use of the senate. At the time
of Cæsar's assassination the senate house on the Forum was being
rebuilt. Suetonius ("Cæsar," lxxx.), says: "Public notice had been
given, by proclamation, for the senate to assemble upon the ides of
March (15th) in the senate house built by Pompey: the conspirators
approved both time and place as most fitting for their purpose." "They
killed him in the hall of Pompey, giving him twenty-three wounds"
(Livy, "Ep." cxvi.). "The conspirators having surrounded him in
Pompey's senate house, fell upon him all together, and killed him with
several strokes" (Dion Cassius, "Cæsar." See Suetonius, "Cæsar,"
lxxxii.).
"The place, too, where the senate was to meet seemed providentially
favourable for their purpose. It was a portico adjoining the theatre;
and in the midst of a saloon, furnished with benches, stood a statue
of Pompey, which had been erected to him by the commonwealth when he
adorned that part of the city with those buildings. The senate being
assembled, and Cæsar entering, the conspirators got close about
Cæsar's chair. Cassius turned his face to Pompey's statue, and invoked
it, as if it had been sensible of his prayers" (Plutarch. See Florus,
iv. 2).
"The senate house in which he was slain was ordered to be shut up, and
a decree was made that the ides of March should be called parricidal,
and that the senate should never more assemble on that day"
(Suetonius, "Cæsar," lxxxviii.).
_After making the circuit of the seats of the theatre, the Via
Chiavari leads to the_ CHURCH OF S. ANDREA DELLE VALLE, built on the
site of Pompey's senate house.
On the marble plan of Rome, in the Capitoline Museum, a fragment shows
Pompey's theatre, portico, and senate house. With the given remains of
the theatre and the plan it is easy to find the site of the Curia,
which is shown on the plan in the form of a basilica: this will bring
the curve exactly at the apse of the Church of S. Andrew. Now, we are
told that Cæsar was seated in the chair where in the morning Brutus
dispensed justice, so he was, no doubt, seated on the tribunal; and as
the tribunal of the church and curia exactly correspond,