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

TJIEOl'IIANIA.

374

THEOEICA.

pomp of the Circensian games, conveyed the
statues of certain deities with all their deco-
rations to the pulvinaria, and after the
sports were over bore them back to their
shrines. We are ignorant of their precise
form. We know that they were drawn by
horses, and escorted [deducerc) by the chief
senators in robes of state, who, along with
pueri patrimi [Patrimi], laid hold of the
bridles and traces, or perhaps assisted to
drag the carriage by means of thongs at-
tached for the purpose (and hence the pro-
posed derivation from tendo). So sacred
was this duty considered, that Augustus,
when labouring under sickness, deemed it
necessary to accompany the tensae in a litter.
If one of the horses knocked up, or the
driver took the reins in his left hand, it was
necessary to recommence the procession, and
for one of the attendant boys to let go the
thong, or to stumble, was profanation. The
only gods distinctly named as carried in
tensae are Jupiter and Minerva, though
others appear to have had the same honour
paid them.

XHEOPHANIA (0eo$dvia), a festival cele-
brated at Delphi, on the occasion of which
the Delphiaus filled the huge silver crater
which had been presented to the Delphic god
by Croesus.
" THEORIA. [THBOBI.]

THEORICA (0ewpi<ca). Under this name
at Athens were comprised the monies ex-
pended on festivals, sacrifices, and public
entertainments of various kinds ; and also
monies distributed among the people in the
shape of largesses from the state. There
were, according to Xenophon, more festivals
at Athens than in all the rest of Greece. At
the most important of the public festivals,
such as the Dionysia, Panathenaea, Eleusinia,
Thargeiia, and some others, there were not
only sacrifices, but processions, theatrical ex-
hibitions, gymnastic contests, and games,
celebrated with great splendour and at a
great expense. A portion of the expense was
defrayed by the individuals upon whom the
burden of the liturgies devolved ; but a con-
siderable, and perhaps the larger, part was
defrayed by the public treasury. Demos-
thenes complains, that more money was spent
on a single Panathenaic or Dionysiac festival
than on any military expedition. The re-
ligious embassies to Delos and other places,
and especially those to the Olympian, Ne-
mean, Isthmian, and Pythian games, drew
largely upon the public exchequer, though a
part of the cost fell upon the wealthier
citizens who conducted them. The largesses
distributed among the people had their ori-
gin at an early period, and in a measure

apparently harmless, though from a small
beginning they afterwards rose to a height
most injurious to the commonwealth. The
Attic drama used to be performed in a
wooden theatre, and the entrance was free to
all citizens' who chose to go. It was found,
however, that the crushing to get in led to
much confusion and even danger. On one
occasion, about b. c. 500, the wooden scaffold-
ing of the theatre fell down, and caused great
alarm. It was then determined that the
entrance should no longer be gratuitous.
The fee for a place was fixed at two obols,
which was paid to the lessee of the theatre,
(called OeaTpuivYjs, 0eaTpo7ra>Ajj?, or apxiTeVTWF,)
who undertook to keep it in repair, and con-
stantly ready for use, on condition of being
allowed to receive the profits. This payment
continued to be exacted after the stone
theatre was built. Pericles, to relieve the
poorer classes, passed a law which enabled
them to receive the price of admission from
the state ; after which all those citizens who
were too poor to pay for their places applied
for the money in the public assembly, which
was then frequently held in the theatre. In
process of time this donation was extended to
other entertainments besides theatrical ones ;
the sum of two oboli being given to each citi-
zen who attended; if the festival lasted two
days, four oboli; and if three, six oboli; but
not beyond. Hence all theoric largesses re-
ceived the name of diobclia (Siw/SeAia). It is
calculated that from 25 to 30 talents were
spent upon them annually. So large an ex-
penditure of the public funds upon shows and
amusements absorbed the resources, which
were demanded for services of a more im-
portant nature. By the ancient law, the
whole surplus of the annual revenue which
remained after the expense of the civil admi-
nistration (to. 7rept0PTcx xPVtJLaTa T% Sioi/CTjceio;)
was to be carried to the military fund, and
applied to the defence of the commonwealth.
Since the time of Pericles various demagogues
had sprung up, who induced the people to
divert all that could be spared from the other
branches of civil expenditure into the theoric
fund, which at length swallowed up the whole
surplus, and the supplies needed for the pur-
pose of war or defence were left to depend
upon the extraordinary contributions, or pro-
perty-tax (eio-^opat). An attempt was made
by the demagogue Eubulus to perpetuate this
system. He passed a law, which made it a
capital offence to propose that the theoric
fund should be applied to military service.
The law of Eubulus was a source of great
embarrassment to Demosthenes, in the prose-
cution of his schemes for the national de-
fence ; and he seems at last, but not before