Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

THEATRUM.

371

THEATRUM.

spectators, which were in most cases cut out
of the rock, consisted of rows of benches
rising one above another ; the rows them-
selves {a) formed parts (nearly three-fourths)

; of concentric circles, and were at intervals
> divided into compartments by one or more
■ broad passages (b) running between them,
I and parallel with the benches. These pas-
se \v"

O O Q COG

Plan of Greek Theatre.

sages were called Sia^uiixara, or /con-aro^ai,
Lat. praecinctiones, and when the concourse
of people was very great in a theatre, many
persons might stand in them. Across the
rows of benches ran stairs, by which persons
might ascend from the lowest to the highest.
But these stairs ran in straight lines only
from one praecinctio to another; and the
stairs in the next series of rows were just
between the two stairs of the lower series of
benches. By this course of the stairs the
seats were divided into a number of com-
partments, resembling cones from which the
tops are cut off; hence they were termed
Keoxi'Ses, and in Latin cunei. The whole of
the place for the spectators (Oearpov) was
sometimes designated by the name koi\ov,
Latin cavea, it being in most cases a real
excavation of the rock. Above the highest
row of benches there rose a covered portico
(c), which of course far exceeded in height
the opposite buildings by which the stage

was surrounded, and appears to have also
contributed to increase the acoustic effect.
The entrances to the seats of the spectators
were partly underground, and led to the
lowest rows of benches, while the upper
rows must have been accessible from above.
—2. The orchestra (opxrjcrrpa) was a circular
level space extending in front of the specta-
tors, and somewhat below the lowest row of
benches. But it was not n complete circle,
one segment of it being appropriated to the
stage. The orchestra was the place for the
chorus, where it performed its evolutions
and dances, for which purpose it was covered
with boards. As the chorus was the clement
out of which the drama arose, so the or-
chestra was originally the most important
part of a theatre: it formed the centre
around which all the other parts of the
building were grouped. In the centre of
the circle of the orchestra was the thymelc
(0u|U.e'A7)), that is, the altar of Dionysus (d),

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