the Battle of Munda; Pompeia Magna, married to Faustus Cornelius Sulla, with descendants; Sextus Pompey, who would rebel in Sicily against Augustus. His fourth wife, Julia, died giving birth to a child who was born prematurely and lived only a few days. The gender of the child is unknown, because the sources are contradictory. Christian Settipani has speculated that he may have had another daughter. Pompey's wives have also featured in post-Roman literature and art, such as Pierre Corneille's plays Sertorius and The Death of Pompey, as well as George Frideric Handel's opera Giulio Cesare. Pompey's theater After returning from his campaigns in the east, Pompey spent a large part of his new wealth on building projects. The grandest of these was a great stone theater complex, on the Campus Martius and the lower slopes of the Pincian Hill in northern Rome. Based, so it was said, on that of Mytilene, it was Rome's first stone theater and a landmark in the history of Roman architecture. Pompey commissioned and collected hundreds of paintings and statues to decorate the theater. Pliny records the names of several "old masters" whose works were acquired, and there is evidence that Pompey patronized at least two contemporary Italian sculptors, Pasiteles and Coponius. On 12 August 55 BC, the Theater of Pompey was inaugurated. Containing seats for an estimated 10,000 spectators, it had a temple of Venus (Pompey's patron goddess) constructed at the back of the cavea, or auditorium, in such a way that the tiers of the seats formed the steps leading up to the front of the temple. Attached to the southeast side of the theater was a great porticus or rectangular garden, measuring approximately 180 by 135 meters, with covered colonnades running around the sides, providing shelter for the spectators in the event of rain. The walls of the colonnades were decorated with paintings gathered from the art collections of the Roman world. Either in the porticus or the theater itself were numerous statues, the arrangement of which was entrusted to Cicero's good friend Atticus. They included fourteen statues, representing the nations which Pompey had conquered, and one of Pompey himself was placed in a large hall attached to the porticus, where meetings of the Senate could be held. Plutarch tells us that Pompey built himself a house in the vicinity of the theater, "like a dinghy behind a yacht," more splendid than