In Greece the theatres were regularly built in hillside hol lows, thus avoiding any need to build supporting framework for the tiers of seats, except per haps at the ends of the "rings." The auditorium was broken by up-and-down aisles with steps, into a number of wedge-shaped "segments" of seats, and some times by one or more lateral aisles.
The student of later forms may profitably transfer his atten tion to a point beyond the controversy about the introduction of the raised stage to that time when there was, without doubt, an auxiliary platform for acting. The next well-differentiated type of theatre is that in which the stage building is characterized by a high narrow platform on the audience side, called at times the proskenion (from which our "proscenium" is derived), and at others the logeion or "place for speaking." As acting has become more and more important, the skene has developed into a com bined architectural background and platform for lifting the actor into clearer view (fig. 4). It is to be noted here that the typical Greek separation of auditorium and scene building still exists, although acting now is divided between the orchestra and a stage in our later sense. Through the late Greek and the so-called Greek-Roman periods, the narrow logeion doubtless went through a gradual widening process.
In the Roman theatres there were no built-in facilities for scene changing, and it may be assumed that in general there was no painted scenery and no effort to indicate change of locality, though elaborate "stage machinery" for trick effects, apparitions, etc., is described by contemporary writers. In general, the archi
tecture of the stage wall was the "scene." This wall was regularly pierced by five doorways, three at the back and one in each of the paraskenia. The large centre door was the "palace entrance." (s. Che.) The larger of the two theatres at Pompeii dates from the Hellen istic period but was thrice reconstructed and it is not clear to what date we are to assign the low stage of Roman pattern. Probably it belongs to the earliest period of the Roman colony at Pompeii founded by Sulla 8o B.C. The theatre of Pompeii is said by Plutarch to have been copied from that of Mytilene which sug gests that the Roman theatre was derived from a late Greek model and this is made probable by the existence of transitional forms.
During the Republican period the erection of permanent theatres with seats for the spectators was thought to savour of Greek luxury and to be unworthy of the stern simplicity of Roman citizens. Thus in 554 B.C. Scipio Nasica induced the senate to demolish the first stone theatre which had been begun by C. Cassius Longinus. Even in 55 B.C. when Pompey began the theatre of which remains still exist in Rome he thought it wise to place a shrine to Venus Victrix at the top of the cavea, as a sort of excuse for having stone seats below it—the seats in theory serving as steps to reach the temple. This theatre which was completed in 52 B.c. is spoken of by Vitruvius as "the stone theatre" par excellence: it is said by Pliny to have held 40,000 people, but Huelsen has shown that this statement was exaggerated and esti mates the number of spectators at between 9,00o and i o,000. It was also used as an amphitheatre for the bloody shows in which the Romans took greater pleasure than in the intellectual enjoy ments of the drama. At its inauguration 500 lions and 20 ele phants were killed by gladiators. Near it two other theatres were erected, one begun by Julius Caesar and finished by Augustus in 13 B.C. under the name of his nephew Marcellus and another built about the same date by Cornelius Balbus. Little remains of the latter, but the ruins of the theatre of Marcellus are among the most imposing which now exist in ancient Rome.