A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.

THEATRUM;

the Theater, the Romans entended it farther than the Sence we take it in; for hereby we mean no more than a Stage, whereon Actors appear and act, whereas the Ancients by it meant the whole Circumference of the Place within which the Actors and Spe∣ctators were contained: Their ancient Theaters were only built of Wood, and served but once, just as the Stages or Scaffoldings we now erect upon some extraordinary Occasions. M. Vale∣rius Messala and Cassius Longinus when Censors took the Freedom so far as to begin a Stone Theater upon Mount Palatine, near the She∣wolf's Picture that suckled Romulus and Remus, but Scipio Nasica did so vigorously oppose it, that their Design miscarried.

L. Mummius after he had destroyed Corinth, carried to Rome the Vessels appertaining to a fa∣mous Theater there, and they were made use of at the Plays acted at his Triumph, some will have him to have been the first Author of Wood∣en Theaters at Rome. M. Scaurus, says Solinus, undertook to build a very costly Theater, en∣riched with extraordinary Ornaments: It had 360 Pillars in Three Rows one upon another, whereof the first was Marble, the second Chri∣stal, and the third was of gilt Pillars; there were 3000 Brass Statues between the Pillars. Curio built a Kind of a suspended and folding Thea∣ter, which might be divided into two at Plea∣sure. Pompey built a Stone Theater with so solid a Foundation, that it seemed to have been built to last for ever. There was a kind of an Aqueduct made here, to convey Water into all the Rows of the Theater, either to cool the Place, or to quench the Thirst of the Spectators. Julius Caesar erected one of Stone near the Ca∣pitol, and Marcellus built another at the farther End of a Piece of Ground called Argiletum at the End of the Tuscan-Street by the Foot of the Capitol in the second Division of the City. It was consecrated by Augustus. There were no less than Four Theaters in Campus Flaminius only; Trajan built a pompous and magnificent one, which was ruined by Adrian.

The principal Parts of the Ancients Thea∣ters were the Scene or Building which separated between the Proscenium and Postscenium, or Place whither the Actors withdrew, and where they had their Paintings, Tapistry-works, Curtains designed for Machines and Musick. The Scene took its original from the Simplicity of the first Actors, who contented themselves with the Shade of Trees, to divert the Spectators with and so the meanest at first consisted of no other than Trees set together and well matched Greens: They made them sometimes of plain Linnen Cloth, or shapeless Boards, till Mens Luxury caused them to be adorned with the best Paintings, and made use of the richest Hang∣ings to set them out. C. Pulcher was the first who adorned the Scene with Paintings, for till his Time they rested satisfied with Diversity o•• Columns and Statues without any other Orna¦ment:

Antony to appear extraordinary adorned the Scene with Silver: One Petrelus gilt it, Catulus covered it with Ebony, and Nero to entertain Ti∣ridates gilt the whole Theater. As for the Cur∣tains, Hangings, &c. the one served only to di∣stinguish and adorn the Scene, the other were for the Conveniency of the Spectators: Those of the Scene represented somewhat of the Fable that was acted: They had a kind of Versatile Scene, which was a suspended Triangle, and such as could easily turn about, and on whose Curtains some things were painted, that had a relation either to the Subject of the Fable, or Chorus, or Interludes. The Sails served instead of Coverings, and they made use of the same for the Conveniency of the Spectators only, wherewith they were shaded from the Heat of the Sun. Catulus was the first Inventer of this Conveniency; for he caused the whole Theater and Amphitheather to be covered with Sails, extended with Lines tied to the Masts of Ships, or pieces of Trees fastned in the Walls. Lentu∣lus Spinther made them of such fine Linnen as was never before known: Nero not only dyed them Purple, but also added Gold Stars there∣unto, in the midst whereof he was painted in a Chariot, all of it wrought with Needle-work, with so much Art and Judgment, that he ap∣pear'd like an Apollo in a Serene Heaven, who moderating his Beams form'd a Day in respect to its Light, which was agreeable to a fine Night. The Machines were very ingenious; with them they drew Heroes up to Heaven, made the Gods descend upon Earth, and repre∣sented Hell, Palaces and Prisons: They used both Vocal and Instrumental Musick.

The Scene in the Theater of the Ancients ge∣nerally comprehended all that belonged to the Actors: It consisted of four Parts, viz. Prosceni∣um, Scena, Postscenium and Hyposcenium. The Proscenium was a raised Place where the Actors play'd; and is that which we call the Theater or Stage; and this Proscenium consisted of two Parts in the Grecian Theaters, the one was the Proscenium purely so called where the Actors acted, the other was the Legeion or Thymele, or Bomos, where the Chorus came to rehearse, and the Pantomimes acted their Parts. It was called Bomos and Ara, because of its square Form that was like an Altar: Scena was the Front of the Building, by which the Proscenium was separa∣ted from the Postscenium, which was the Attiring∣place behind the Stage, whither the Actors withdrew and drest themselves. The Hyposce∣nium, according to Polliux, was before the Prosce∣nium, and reached from the lowest part of the Orchestra, to the Level of the Proscenium: This Author says it was adorned with Pillars and Sta∣tues, which shews that the said Hyposcenium could be no where but in the Greek Theaters, where the Proscenium was raised 12 Foot high, for that of the Romans was too low to admit of Pillars: The Orchestra among the Grecians made a part of the Scene; but in the Roman Theaters none of the Actors went down to the Orchestra, which was taken up with Seats for the Senators. The Doors of the Theaters called Hospitalia, were those by which they made strange Actors enter, that is, those who were to appear to be of ano∣ther Scene than the common one, wherein they entered by a Door that was in the middle, or else it was the Place whereby they entred into the Scene, as from another Place than that where the principal Actors were. Pollux says, that one of these Doors which was the Left, was the Door of a Prison: Lipsius will not allow that they sate any where else but upon the gradual Seats of the Theater, and explaining these Verses of Calphurnius, who mentions Chairs for Women to sit on,

Venimus ad sedes ubi pulla sordida veste Inter foemineas spectabat turba cathedras,

He thinks they ought not to be taken for Chairs placed upon the Steps of the Theater, but such as were set above them, on the top of the Thea∣ter, between the Pillars of the Portico, which crowned the Theater; which he proves by Sue∣tonius, who says, that Augustus made a Law that forbad Women to sit upon the raised Seats of the Theater, and were allowed to place themselves no were but above among the common People. Propertius also intimates the same thing, when he says in order to express the Prohibition of his Mistress, that he should not look upon her, when she was at the Play,

Colla cave inflectas ad summum obliqua Theatrum.

But for all this Vitruvius informs us, that in Au∣gustus his Time, and so on, they laid some thing upon the Seats of the Theater, whether the same were Pillows, or somewhat else to sit on.