Many ancient theater tickets have been found in Rome. Round or square and made of ivory or bone, they usually have a picture engraved on one side and an inscription on the other. The images are widely varied, referring to the theater or the occasion or place of performance. The inscriptions are letters and numbers in Latin and Greek that name the play and/or the seating section.

This drawing shows both sides of an ancient Roman theater ticket. It appears to contain on its face an image of the distinctive curved stairway to the Temple of Venus Victrix which served as the cavea of the Theater of Pompey. On the reverse it has the Roman numeral XI, followed by the Greek word [h]emikyklia (hemicycle) and the Greek letters I and L[ambda].