A long account is given by Pliny of a most magnificent tempo rary theatre built by the aedile M. Aemilius Scaurus in 58 B.c. It is said to have held the incredible number of 8o,000 people and was a work of most costly splendour. Still less credible is the account which Pliny gives (H. N. xxxvi. 116) of two wooden theatres built by C. Curio in 5o B.C. which were made to revolve on pivots so that the two together could form an amphitheatre in the afternoon after having been used as two separate theatres in the morning.
All Roman provincial towns of any importance possessed at least one theatre and many of these are partly preserved. Covered theatres were sometimes built, whether on account of climatic conditions (as at Aosta) or more commonly for musical per formances. These latter were generally called Odea (a place for singing). The best preserved is the Odeum of Herodes Atticus, at the south-west angle of the Athenian Acropolis, which has a semi circular orchestra. It was built in the reign of Hadrian by Herodes Atticus. Its cavea which is excavated in the rock, held about 6,000 people; it was connected with the great Dionysiac theatre by a long and lofty porticus or stoa of which considerable remains still exist, probably a late restoration of the stoa built by Eumenes II. of Pergamum. It was also a common practice to build a small covered theatre in the neighbourhood of an open one, where per formances might take place in bad weather. We have an example of this in Pompeii. The Romans used scenery and stage effects of more elaboration than did the Greeks. Vitruvius (iii. 7) mentions three sorts of movable scenery :—(i ) for the tragic drama, facades with columns representing public buildings; (2) for comic plays, private houses with practicable windows and balconies such as are shown on Graeco-Roman vases of the latest type, with paintings of burlesque parodies of mythological stories, and (3) for the satyric drama, rustic scenes, with mountains, caverns and trees. (X.) Renaissance Theatre.—The classic theatres were disused after Roman civilization faded, but it was the classic theatre that de termined the form of the playhouse built by the learned academies in the cities of Renaissance Italy, and they were the links between the ancient theatre and that of to-day. At Vicenza, the Renais sance theatre of the Olympian academy, sometimes called the Palladian theatre after its famous architect, still exists, with all its distinctive architectural features and ornament intact. It is,
in effect, a small Roman theatre roofed over and made more corn pact, with typical Renaissance modification of Roman motifs in the decoration. The stage wall is heavily encrusted with archi tectural ornamentation and statuary, and the five classic door ways are in orthodox position. One addition, made by Scamozzi in 1585, links this classic stage with the theatres of later times. In that year were constructed the vistas or "perspectives" behind the five doorways of the stage wall, forming the earliest "make believe" scenes that have been preserved for posterity. (Already the mystery and miracle stages had in cases been characterized by a combination of half-formed architectural "stations" and realis tic localized scenes like the famous "Hell-mouth"; and the court masques were being staged with picture scenes, including the "perspective" type.) The Roman-type building and the added vistas at Vicenza form a plan as shown in fig. 6.
The picture scenes were not yet designed as localized back grounds for the action so much as an added spectacular attrac tion, in the Italian masques, and at first the "new style" settings had little effect on the form of the classic-revival playhouses ; but the appeal of such pretty playthings could not be long denied, and the modern playhouse emerged where the two currents met. Thus the Palladian theatre at Vicenza takes on double importance as historic evidence: (I) as preserving the Roman playhouse form, including the rigid architectural stage; and (2) as providing for introduced "scenery" (not as yet changeable). The backgrounds of the Roman and Palladian Renaissance stages are shown in fig. 7. There are extant plans which indicate that certain artists of the time, trying to think through to a more practical combination of the classic stage with provision for pictorial backgrounds, saw a means in the widening of the central "palace" doorway to pro vide acting space within the "vista." Thus Inigo Jones made a plan and an elevation similar to those shown in fig. 8. And the theatre at Sabbioneta (of which the scene unfortunately no longer exists) showed the whole stage as one narrowing vista (1588) ; see fig. 1 o.