Keith has spotted the loophole: the theatre that wasn't a theatre

Pompey is said to have built a temple of Venus Victrix at the top of his theatre's seating, so the rows looked like steps up to it. Platner and Ashby explain the point: to escape censure for building a permanent theatre.^{[4, p. 353]}

Roger would like you to know the Senate's hall doubled as an art gallery

The Curia and its porticoes held fine Greek paintings. Middleton singles out one by Pausias showing a sacrifice of oxen, which he calls technically remarkable for its skilful foreshortening and chiaroscuro. Senators had something to look at while the debate dragged on.^{[5, p. 1]}

History has a sense of timing

Suetonius says Caesar set up the statues of Sulla and Pompey after the populace had broken them to pieces. Plutarch puts a statue of Pompey in the Curia's session-room, and has Caesar falling at its pedestal. Rome rarely wrote better irony.^[6][7][2]

This sounds invented, but Suetonius wrote it down

Suetonius reports an omen from the day before the Ides: a little bird carrying a sprig of laurel flew into the Hall of Pompey, chased by others from the nearby grove, and was torn to pieces there. Ancient writers loved a warning, so treat it as a story.^[6]

Roger insists this matters: the Senate cancelled a date

After Caesar's death, Suetonius says, it was voted that the Ides of March be called the Day of Parricide and that a meeting of the senate should never be called on that day. Roger finds this the most dramatic calendar change in Roman history.^[6]

Keith would like to clarify: nobody agrees how the hall ended

Platner and Ashby say Augustus walled up the curia as a locus sceleratus, an accursed place. Middleton, writing in 1892, says it was burnt in the outburst of grief after Caesar's death. The sources differ, so Keith is declining to pick a winner.^{[4, p. 353][5, p. 1]}

Argentina has nothing to do with Argentina

The square is named after Argentoratum, a Roman military outpost in modern Strasbourg. Johannes Burckardt, master of ceremonies to Alexander VI Borgia, came from that city and called the tower of his palace Argentina. The square, in short, is named after a Strasbourg man's tower.^[1]

The cats would like a word about the ruins

Cats have sheltered among the ruins since the 1929 excavation, according to the sanctuary's own history, and the film star Anna Magnani fed them during breaks at the neighbouring Teatro Argentina. The sanctuary was founded in 1993, when about 90 cats lived there.^[9]

Keith found a labelling problem: temples A, B, C and D

The four temples beside the Curia are known only by letters because their identification is not yet completely certain, Turismo Roma says. The site itself was found unexpectedly in 1926 during demolition, so the Curia's neighbours are still partly anonymous.^[1]

Roger has noticed the contrast with Pompey's house

Pompey's private house stood close by, and Middleton calls it very modest and simple. It contrasted strongly with the magnificence of the group of buildings Pompey erected for public use, including the hall where the Senate met.^{[5, p. 1]}