The colonnades contained arcades and galleries that displayed sculptures and paintings collected from years of war campaigns of its patron and builder, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.

The ancient city of Rome was designed with covered walkways, public gardens as well as large pools and fountains that were common by the 1st century AD.

Pompey, impressed or inspired by what he saw during his years of travel and campaigning for Rome, returned with a desire to build a monument to himself larger than any other before.

A theatre, porticus and curia were built in a huge complex that became a symbol of Roman culture for centuries and was emulated across the Republic and empire.

This was to guide the visitor's sight directly along the inner garden area to the main doorway (regia) to the stage of the theatre and up to the temple of Venus Victrix.