Butler, Howard Crosby: Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899 - 1900 (Band 2): Architecture and other arts (New York, 1903)

ROMAN PERIOD

39i

ever, may be approximately estimated from the height of the lower passages, which is
known, and by the relative position of the stage and seating-space.

Interior of theater at Shehba, from the southeast.

The stage buildings are completely preserved and reproduce, in certain features,
the plan of the Odeion of Regilla, built in Athens less than one hundred years earlier.
The front wall of the stage building is broken by three portals which opened upon the
stage. A staircase, winding up at right angles, occupies a square tower at either
end of this wali; the towers form the wings of the stage, The long, narrow com-
partment of the stage building has three openings in its outer or south wall — one in
the center and one at either
end. A broad passage is
carried through the theater
directly in front of the stage
line, dividing the stage buiid-
ing from the auditorium, and
passing under a vaulted struc-
ture below the higher seats
which joined the stage build-
ings on either side.

The auditorium is built
upon two stories of curved,
vaulted passages, concentric
with the semicircle of the

seats. The lower of these P]an belowDiazoma. ^ Plan aboveDiazoma.

passages is carried beyond Fig. 135. Plan of theater at Shehba.