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The Theatre of Pompey may have held as many as 25,000 spectators. The stage of the theatre was enormous: almost 100 metres wide. The diameter of the auditorium was almost 200 metres. Opposite it the great façade of the scaenae frons (which may initially have been constructed of wood), probably rose to the full three-storey height of the upper tiers of the auditorium.
The outer semicircular wall was composed of three tiers of columns carved from red granite, adorned with stone and stucco, and embellished with numerous statues of stone and bronze. It formed a series of forty-four vaulted arches at street level, from which a system of passages and staircases efficiently conducted spectators to their seats above by using tickets organised according to entrance, section, level, etc. This helped to ensure public order by eliminating competition for seats or confusion and congestion whilst locating them.