Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

THEATRUJM. THEATRUM. 1121
of the Greek drama and the only place which pro- lopolis, which was reckoned the largest theatre in
duced great masterworks in this department of Greece. (Paus. viii. 32. ~ 1.) The great numliterature. It should also be borne in mind that ber of ruins of theatres may enable us to form
theatres are mentioned in several parts of Greece an idea of the partiality of the Greeks for such
where the worship of Dionysus and the drama magnificent buildings, and of their gigantic dimenconnected with it did not exist, so that these build- sions. The ruins of the theatre at Argos enclose
ings were devoted to other public exhibitions. a space of 450 feet in diameter; the theatre of
Thus at Athens itself there were in later times, Ephesus is even 660 feet in diameter. Upon
besides the theatre in the Lenaea, two others, viz. these ruins see the works of Clarke, DodwelL,
the'AypthrrELov and the e&r'PyohXNAp X SaTpov, Leake, Hughes, Arundell, and the Supplement to
which were not destined for dramatic performances, Stuart's Antiquities of Atdlens.
but were only places in which the sophists de- The construction of the Greek theatres has been
livered their declamations. At Sparta there was the subject of much discussion and dispute in mo-.a theatre of white marble (Paus. iii. 14. ~ 1) in dern times, and although all the best writers agree
which assemblies of the people were held, choral on the great divisions of which a theatre consisted,
dances performed, and the like (Athen. iv. p. 139, the details are in many cases mere matters of conxiv. p. 631), for the festive joy of Dionysus and jecture. The Attic theatre was, like all the Greek
the regular drama were foreign to the Spartans. theatres, placed in such a manner that the place
All the theatres however which were constructed for the spectators formed the upper or northin Greece were probably built after the model of western, and the stage with all that belonged to it
that of Athens, and with slight deviations and the south-eastern part, and between these two
modifications they all resembled one another in the parts lay the orchestra. We shall consider each of
main points, as is seen in the numerous ruins of these three divisions separately, together with its
theatres in various parts of Greece, Asia Minor, parts and subdivisions, referring the reader to the
and Sicily. Some of them were of prodigious di- annexed plan which has been made from the remensions. The theatre at Epidaurus in the grove mains of Greek theatres still extant, and from a
of Asclepius, of which considerable ruins are still careful examination of the passages in ancient
extant, excelled in beauty the -Roman theatres writers which describe the whole or parts of a
(Paus. ii. 27. ~ 5), and in size even that of Mega- theatre, especially in Vitruvius and Pollux.
NtV..........
O. M
1. The place for the spectators was in a nar- dot. p. 270; Pollux, iv. 123; Harporat. and Suid.
rower sense of the word called Nea'rpov. The seats s. v. Ka'aroo4,), and when the concourse of people
for the spectators, which were in most cases cut was very great in a theatre, many persons might
into the rock, consisted of rows of benches rising stand in them. One side of such a passage formed
one above another; the rows themselves (a) formed towards the upper rows of benches a wall, in which
parts (nearly three-fourths) of concentric circles, in some theatres, though perhaps not at Athens,
and were at intervals divided into compartments niches were excavated which contained metal esby one or more broad passages (b) running between sels (hXdela) to increase the sounds coming from the
them and parallel with the benches. These pas- stage and orchestra. (Vitruv. i. 1. ~ 9, v. 4;
sages were called etaCcS6ara, or,KaTaTOeatl, Lat. Stieglitz, Arcliiol. der Baukunst, &c. ii. 1. p. 150.)
praecinctiones (Vitruv. v. 3 and 7; Bekker, Anec- Across the rows of benches ran stairs, by which
4c