Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/297

 GREEK PLATS IX GEXERAL. 271 inherited a right to front seats {irpoehpia^). It is probable that those who were entitled to reserved places at the theatre had also tickets of admission provided for them. Foreigners on the con- trary were obliged generally to be contented with the back seats". The entrance-money was paid to the lessee of the theatre {Oearpw- V7]<;, deaTpoTTwXT]^, apxi^reKTcov), who defrayed the rent and made the necessary repairs out of the proceeds. The distribution of the admission-money, or dewpiKov, as it was called, out of the public funds, was set on foot by Pericles, at the suggestion of Demo- nides of QEa; its application was soon extended till it became a regular largess from the demagogues to the mob at all the great festivals ; and well might the patriot Demosthenes lift up his voice against a practice which was in the end nothing but an instru- ment in the hands of the profligate orators, who pandered to the worst passions of the people. The lessee sometimes gave a gratis exhibition, in .which cases tickets of admission were distributed^ Any citizen might buy tickets for a sti'anger residing at Athens*. We have no doubt that women were admitted to the dramatic exhibitions, at least to the Tragedies^; and boys as well as men were present at all performances of plays ^, nor were slaves ex- cluded". It seems probable however that the women sat by them- selves in a particular part of the theatre ; for in the theatre at Syracuse there are still inscriptions on the nine different KepKiSe*;, or "^ See Aristoph. Equ. 704; Demosth. Mid. p. 572. 2 See Alexis ap. Poll. ix. 44 : evravda irepi rr^v e<xxo.ry}v bet KepKida vjjids Kadi'^ovaas dewpetv, ws l^vas. ^ Kai iirl deav rjviKa av dej] iropeveadai, ovk eav tovs vieis. [dW] rjuiKa irpoLKa d(pid(nv oi OeaTpOfvai. Theophrast. Charact. XI. " Theophrastus mentions this as one of the marks of aTrovoia in a person, Kat eV dedp-acTL 5e roiis xa^'^'Ot'S eKKiyeiv, KaO' eKaarov irapiuv Kai /idxecrdai rols to av,u.^oov (pepovcn, Kai irpoiKa dewpeiu dt^LovaL. Charact. vi. Among the relicts from Pompeii and Herculaneum preserved in the Studii at Naples, is an oblong piece of metal about three inches in length, and one in breadth, inscribed AiVxi'Xos. This was perhaps the criijui.(3oov of Theop.hrastus/' Former Editoi'. ^ Kat ^eVots be avrov deav dyopdaas, fxri Soi'j to p.ipos, deojpelv. Theophrast, Charact. ix, ^ Pollux uses the same term deaTpia (ii. § 56, iv. § 121), which is alone some evidence of the fact. It is stated, however, expressly by Plato, Gorgias, 502 D ; Lejg. II. 658 D; VII. 817 c; and by Aa-istoph. Eccles. •21—23; Satyrus ap. Athen. p. 534. See Bekker's Charicles, pp. 403 sqq. ^ For their appearance at tragedies, see the passages of Plato quoted in note 3. That they were allowed to see comedies also is clear from Aristoph. Nub. 537; Pax, 50, 766; Eupolis ap. Aristot. Eth. Nk. iv. 2. ^ Plato, Goj^g. p. 502.