[292] Drumann (Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 53) observes that "Plutarch does not say that Pompeius built his house near his theatre, but that he built it in addition to his theatre and at the same time, as Donatus had perceived, De Urbe Roma, 3, 8, in Græv. Thes. T. 3, p. 695." But Drumann is probably mistaken. There is no great propriety in the word ἐφόλκιον unless the house was near the theatre, and the word παρετεκτήνατο rather implies 'proximity,' than 'in addition to.'
This was the first permanent theatre that Rome had. It was built partly on the model of that of Mitylene and it was opened in the year B.C. 55. This magnificent theatre, which would accommodate 40,000 people, stood in the Campus Martius. It was built of stone with the exception of the scena, and ornamented with statues, which were placed there under the direction of Atticus, who was a man of taste. Augustus embellished the theatre, and he removed thither the statue of Pompeius, which up to that time had stood in the Curia where Cæsar was murdered. The scena was burnt down in the time of Tiberius, who began to rebuild it; but it was not finished till the reign of Claudius. Nero gilded the interior. The scena was again burnt in the beginning of the reign of Titus, who restored it again. The scena was again burnt in the reign of Philippus and a third time restored. (Drumann, Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 521; Dion Cassius 39. c. 88, and the notes of Reimarus.)
[293] Petra, the capital of the Nabathæi, is about half way between the southern extremity of the Dead Sea and the northern extremity of the Ælanitic Gulf, the more eastern of the two northern branches of the Red Sea. The ruins of Petra exist in the Wady Musa, and have been visited by Burckhardt, Irby and Mangles, and last by Laborde, who has given the most complete description of them in his 'Voyage de l'Arabie Pétrée,' Paris, 1830. The place is in the midst of a desert, but has abundance of water. Its position made it an important place of commerce in the caravan trade of the East; and it was such in the time of Strabo, who states on the authority of his friend Athonodorus that many Romans were settled there (p. 779). It contains numerous tombs and a magnificent temple cut in the rock, a theatre and the remains of houses.
The king against whom Pompeius was marching is named Aretas by Dion Cassius (37. c. 15).
[294] The Pæonians were a Thracian people on the Strymon. (Herodotus, v. 1.) It appears from Dion Cassius (49. c. 36) that the Greeks often called the Pannonians by the name of Pæonians, which Sintenis considers a reason for not altering the reading here into Pannonians. Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 102) uses the name Pæonians, though he means Pannonians.
[295] This is the Roman word. Compare Tacitus (Annal. i. 18): "congerunt cespites, exstruunt tribunal."
[296] The circumstances of the rebellion of Pharnakes and the death of Mithridates are told by Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 110) and Dion Cassius (37. c. 11). Mithridates died B.C. 63, in the year in which Cicero was consul.
The text of the last sentence in this chapter is corrupt; and the meaning is uncertain.
[297] τὸ νεμέσητον.
[298] The body of Mithridates was interred at Sinope. Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 113) says that Pharnakes sent the dead body of his father in a galley to Pompeius to Sinope, and also those who had killed Manius Aquilius, and many hostages Greeks and barbarians. There might be some doubt about the meaning of the words 'many corpses of members of the royal family' πολλα σώματα τῶν βασιλικῶν but Plutarch appears from the context to mean dead bodies. Two of the daughters of Mithridates who were with him when he died, are mentioned by Appianus (c. 111) as having taken poison at the same time with their father. The poison worked on them, but had no effect on the old man, who therefore prevailed on a Gallic officer who was in his service to kill him. (Compare Dion Cassius, 39. c. 13, 14.)