The function of Pompey's building complex in the Campus Martius.

Abstract

On September 29, 55 BC, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, master of Italy, and conqueror of Spain, Africa, and the East, celebrated the grand opening of his magnificent building complex in the Campus Martius. This extraordinary monument was an architectural achievement hitherto never attempted at Rome. The building complex was designed with Rome's first permanent stone theatre, a temple of Venus Victa quadriporticus, a curia, and housed numerous works of art. Pompey was a triumphant imperator, who used his manubiae to build a monumentum that would best represent his desire for supreme and everlasting glory, in an age of political turmoil, social upheaval, and religious strife. The attempt to discover what influenced Pompey to build such a structure and the purposes it served will show that the building complex functions as an architectural metaphor toward Pompey's quest for popularity at Rome.