I am doing a research paper on "the genius behind the piece",
I chose the Theatre of Pompey. I am finding it difficult to find information regarding this subject. I know that it was General Pompey, however, is General Pompey the same person as Pompey the Great, or is that his father? The information I have found has me quite confused. How does General Pompey's work on the Theatre of Pompey affect our perceptions of it as a work of art?

Since it was General Pompey who designed the theatre, who exactly did the manual labor and what did they use, what is it made out of?

I am quite surprised that I have not found the answeres to all of my questions regarding this, and I have many more, but I thought or rather hope that what I have already written here will start a discussion and maybe my other questions will be answered just through this discussion.

The Theatre of Pompey was built using slave labor and was financed by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, otherwise known as Pompey Magnus or Pompey the Great.

Roman Concrete, brick and marble are the general materials used to build the structure.

The Wikipedia Article does go into much of this, however i would suggest doing further research through Google books and your local library.

I am quite surprised myself that you have had such a hard time finding information as I spent months gathering, researching and writing on the structure myself and see all my information is still very much intact. Well....it's not my information but the work of hundreds of people over hundreds of years.

Look.....the theatre is buried under 2000 years of development. What is still left was plundered of a great deal of material for other structures throughout the medieval period, made into a number of fortresses and palaces and then apartments....however, due to flooding and deposits I am convinced the theatre was buried to a level similar to the modern ground level near the theatre of Marcellus. About 25 feet or more. The first level may have still exist in some form or another and the basement and sub-basement have probably survived by being covered by sediment and then built on top of.

I tell you what If anyone has questions....pose them here and I will research them out if I do not have the answers. But if you want the most accurate information I would contact Professor Packard or any of the archaeologists that worked on the recent digs in Rome. New information is coming out all the time.

By the way, General Pompey went to war against Julius Caesar, who was subsequently murdered in the curia of the Theatre of Pompey....so a good starting point may be to research the two first to get an understanding of the times, the civil war and other structures of the time. Remember that the Theatre was a Republican structure. Much of these were buried or altered drastically by the Empire.

I should mention that not all workers were slaves....but for the most part they were.

Did you read this article?