| Return to Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 3, line 126 |
"Pompey's porch" is the portico of the great theatre which Pompey built as a gift to the people of Rome. In the image below the portico is the large colonnaded quadrangle back of the stage. At the far end of the portico is the curia, a meeting-house. It was in the curia, where the Senate of Rome was meeting at the time, that Julius Caesar was assassinated.
The portico was a pleasure-garden, with fountains and statues. From inside, it probably looked like this:
However, Shakespeare might have thought that "Pompey's porch" would be the more familiar kind of portico, the kind that stands at the front of a building, as seen in this photo of the Pantheon:
