The Theater of Pompey the Great, Rome's first permanent theater, was a magnificent structure when it was completed in 55 B.C. Its astonishing new concrete and stone technology – the basis for its original design – permitted Pompey's architect(s) to locate it on a flat, marshy plain rather than on a more traditional sloping hill, as it had been perfected previously in surrounding warehouses and amphitheaters. The theatre’s huge walls, made of rectangular blocks of tufa and travertine, were traditional; its concrete vaults, ascending and horizontal, were exceedingly innovative. Its immense scale amazed its contemporaries, combining Hellenistic eastern models with Italic trends.

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