Description:
The morphology of theatres in ancient Greece. The archaeological study of Greek theatres, which is today witnessing a rather belated upsurge of activity, leads to a substantial modification of our traditional ideas of what Greek theatres were like. These ideas were based up to now on the study of texts — mainly Attic ones — , and on the observation of a few Hellenistic or Roman sites. The oldest theatres known, dating from the fifth century B.C., do not have a building for the stage and the stepped rows of seats are often rectilinear. It is only towards the end of the fourth century that the theatre was defined as a building type, at a time when the theatre as a literary and socio-religious phenomenon was already moribund. On account of the absence of amphitheatres in Greek cities, their theatres were transformed during the imperial period to accommodate Roman spectacles such as gladiator combats and hunts.