DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4325#0104
IONIA.
39
of a hill; the wall of the scene alone being built from the foundation. The citizens of Nicaea,
after having expended eighty thousand pounds in building a theatre, were unable to continue the
work ; on which occasion, several private persons undertook, some to erect the portico, others to
furnish the galleries above the seats: the design, however, as Pliny writes to the emperor Trajan,
could not be executed, the principal fabric being at a stand. In the same letter he also mentions
the public bath at Claudiopolis ; the fund for carrying on the work, arising from the money paid
by certain honorary members of the senate on their admission. At Antioch two theatres were
enlarged, on account of the increased population, by the order of the emperors Augustus and
Tiberius ; an upper zone, or range of seats being added to the original structures, and advantage
was taken of the slope of the adjoining hill. Augustus likewise erected in Laodicea of Syria, a
very large theatre, placing in it a statue of himself of marble." (Johannes Malala in Ghron. p. 303.)
Even so late as the reign of Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths, about the year of C. 500, the
preservation of these structures was considered as an object of public concern. " Theatri fabri-
cam, magna se mole solventem, consilio vestro credimus esse roborandam. Ideo sive masculis
pilis contineri, sive talis fabrica refectionis studio potuerit innovari, expensas vobis de nostro
cubiculo curavimus destinare, ut et vobis acquiratur tarn boni operis fama, et nostris temporibus
videatur antiquitas decentius innovata. In primis noxias arbores, quae inferunt fabricarum ruinas,
dum sunt quidam maenium importabiles arietes, censemus radicibus amputari.---------Palatium
quoque, longa senectute quassatum reparatione assidua corrobora."
(Cassiodori Ep. L. ii. 39.—L. iv. 5 1.)
39
of a hill; the wall of the scene alone being built from the foundation. The citizens of Nicaea,
after having expended eighty thousand pounds in building a theatre, were unable to continue the
work ; on which occasion, several private persons undertook, some to erect the portico, others to
furnish the galleries above the seats: the design, however, as Pliny writes to the emperor Trajan,
could not be executed, the principal fabric being at a stand. In the same letter he also mentions
the public bath at Claudiopolis ; the fund for carrying on the work, arising from the money paid
by certain honorary members of the senate on their admission. At Antioch two theatres were
enlarged, on account of the increased population, by the order of the emperors Augustus and
Tiberius ; an upper zone, or range of seats being added to the original structures, and advantage
was taken of the slope of the adjoining hill. Augustus likewise erected in Laodicea of Syria, a
very large theatre, placing in it a statue of himself of marble." (Johannes Malala in Ghron. p. 303.)
Even so late as the reign of Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths, about the year of C. 500, the
preservation of these structures was considered as an object of public concern. " Theatri fabri-
cam, magna se mole solventem, consilio vestro credimus esse roborandam. Ideo sive masculis
pilis contineri, sive talis fabrica refectionis studio potuerit innovari, expensas vobis de nostro
cubiculo curavimus destinare, ut et vobis acquiratur tarn boni operis fama, et nostris temporibus
videatur antiquitas decentius innovata. In primis noxias arbores, quae inferunt fabricarum ruinas,
dum sunt quidam maenium importabiles arietes, censemus radicibus amputari.---------Palatium
quoque, longa senectute quassatum reparatione assidua corrobora."
(Cassiodori Ep. L. ii. 39.—L. iv. 5 1.)