Description of the Odeon (Reg VIII, Ins 7, 19) .. The upper two tiers of seating (summa and media) consisted of 17 steps, while the lowest (ima) had four and were reserved for the city's decurions. Architecturally there are many similarities with the nearby Large Theatre. However, here the orchestra is semi-circular. The Odeon, built between 80 and 75 BC, seated about 1500, and was commissioned by two public officials, C. Quinctius Valgus and Marcus Porcius. It consists of a theatre cavea inside a square perimeter wall that supported a pyramid shaped roof. .. .. The entrances are vaulted and supported the tribunalia, reserved for particularly important spectators (pictured above). The scaena as well as the scaenae frons are straight. The latter has five doors which lead to a room behind that served as a dressing room. The orchestra was paved in coloured marbles during the Augustan period. Elegant decorative details help to alleviate the plainness of the materials and the severe architectural lines of the building. The lower part of the end walls of the cavae are decorated with kneeling atlantes in dressed tufa (pictured left) while griffins' claws are carved on the wall separating the ima cavae from the media cavae . The Odeon's architecture is based on theatres of the Hellenistic period such as the one in Miletus, dateable to around 170 BC. A 3D view of the Odeon is available to view, courtesy of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei.

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