Tertullian on the Opening of Pompey’s Theater in Rome Darryl A. Phillips College of Charleston During his second consulship in 55 B.C. Pompeius Magnus opened Rome’s first permanent theater. According to the early Christian writer Tertullian (De Spect. 10.5) Pompey overcame a ban against such theaters by erecting a shrine to Venus above the cavea and calling his theater the steps of the temple: Itaque Pompeius magnus, solo theatro suo minor, cum illam arcem omnium turpitudinum extruxisset, veritus quandoque memoriae suae censoriam animadversionem, Veneris aedem superposuit et, ad dedicationem edicto populum vocans, non theatrum, sed Veneris templum nuncupavit, cui subiecimus, inquit, gradus spectaculorum. Ita damnatum et damnandum opus templi titulo praetexuit et disciplinam superstitione delusit. So when Pompey the Great (outdone only by his theater) had built that bastion of every turpitude, fearing future denigration of his memory, he set above it a shrine to Venus. Summoning the people by decree to its dedication, he called it not a theater, but a Temple of Venus, under which, he said, we have set steps for watching shows. In this way he disguised with PHILLIPS: TERTULLIAN ON THE OPENING … 209 the title of temple a banned structure (which deserved its banning ), and mocked morality with superstition.1 Tertullian’s tale is unique among accounts of this theater’s history, which should perhaps arouse our suspicions. His aim is to highlight the corrupt religious practices and moral character of the Romans. Modern readers, less alert to his religious agenda, delight in the guile that supposedly enabled Pompey to honor the letter of the law while violating the spirit of the prohibition. As a result, this appealing account has long been cited as an important literary source for Pompey’s complex. Many of the details, however, do not stand up to examination, and should be rejected in the face of other evidence. Nor has enough weight been given to Tertullian’s skewing of fact to make anti-pagan propaganda— his prime motive in writing the De Spectaculis. To begin with, Tertullian asserts that Pompey included a shrine in his complex to overcome a ban against permanent theaters in Rome. In fact, the prohibition may have had considerably less influence on the plan for the theater than Tertullian suggests. More than half a century ago, D. K. Hill noted that, whether or not there was opposition, Pompey had good reason for building a temple above his theater. Theaters, Hill argued, regularly included shrines above the cavea. J. A. Hanson expanded Hill’s thesis in his monograph on the Roman theater-temple architectural form. Hanson demonstrated that religion and theater had long been linked in the Roman world and that Pompey had a number of recent architectural models for his building. For example, the sanctuaries at Gabii and Palestrina, both located close to Rome and pre-dating Pompey’s complex, included both theatrical spaces and shrines. Pompey’s theater ultimately included at least four other shrines above the seats in addition to the shrine to Venus discussed by Tertullian.2 Theaters with such shrines were an established Roman tradition. The enforcement and terms of the ban against permanent theaters pose another problem. This prohibition dates back to 155 B.C., when 1 The text of Tertullian is that of Castorina. All translations are by the author. 2 Suetonius (Claud. 21.1) refers to a plural number of shrines (superiores aedes). They were dedicated to Venus Victrix as well as to Honos, Virtus, Felicitas, and another divinity whose name begins with a V (Degrassi, II 13.2.493–494). 210 SYLLECTA CLASSICA 12 (2001) the censors had begun to build a stone theater near the Palatine. The consul P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica moved the Senate to order its destruction (Liv. Per. 48; Oros. 4.21.4; Val. Max. 2.4.2; Vell. 1.15.3).3 By the time of Pompey’s project, however, enforcement of the century-old ban had very probably lapsed. The splendid wood and marble theater that had been erected by M. Aemilius Scaurus in 58 B.C., shortly before the completion of Pompey’s structure, seems to have remained standing long after its initial employment was over.4...