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other choragi is uncertain. Another law enacted that no foreigner should dance in the Choruses, under the penalty of 1000 drachms, to be paid by the choragus; but this referred only to the greater Dionysia-for, at the Lenœan exhibitions it was lawful to introduce foreign dancers. At the latter festival, the metaci also were choragi.

Sometimes the expenses of the Chorus were voluntarily undertaken by some spirited individual, or by the poet himself. Sometimes the state was the choragus. The plays of Eschylus were acted a second time after his death at the public expense.

The Archon also, it seems, assigned by lot to the different poets three actors apiece; but the poet who obtained the prize was allowed to select his own performers for the next year.

The contending choragi were called antichoragi; the poetical or musical candidates antididascali; the actors antitechni.

The names of successful choragi and poets were proclaimed to the people.

The choragus consecrated to Bacchus a tripod, inscribed with the names of himself and his poet and the Archon. But perhaps this is true only of the Dithryambic contests. The Tragic victor seems to have consecrated a tablet or marble slab. Some think that the actor's name was never mentioned in these inscriptions. We certainly do not find it in any of the fragments which remain to us of the Attic Didascaliæ; but since the Hypocrita is mentioned in a marble of un< certain date and place, in the Oxford edition, p. 63, and in the Orchomenian inscription, it is probable that in later times the actor's name was added to those of the choragus and poet.

The successful poet was honored with a crown of ivy, as were also the actors of the successful pieces; and the poet, with the chorentæ, sacrificed the epinicia, to which his friends were invited.

The prizes were awarded by judges appointed by the Archon; usually five in number, but not always. Their decision, as might have been expected, was not always impartial. The judges of the Cyclian Choruses, as we learn from Eschines, were punishable by fine if they decided contrary to justice.

The tripods and tablets commemorative of the Dionysiac conquerors were placed in the Lencan temple of Bacchus. From these, different authors at various times compiled chronological accounts of the dramatic contests, giving the names of the three first competitors, the titles of their plays, the success of each, and the name of the Archon in whose magistracy they were performed.

There is no mention in the Museum Criticum (from which this account is almost entirely taken) of the price paid for admission to the Theatres. In the early stage of the art nothing seems to have been

exacted from the spectators; but such gratuitous admission giving rise to many vexatious disputes about places, a law passed fixing the price of admission to one drachma each person. This sum was soon reduced by Pericles to an obolus-evidently for the purpose of attaching the poorer people more firmly to his interest; and he likewise procured a law to be enacted by which the magistrates were bound to distribute two oboli to each person-one to defray the expenses of admission, and the other to procure him refreshment during the representation. That the spectators were not accustomed to sit fasting, but regaled themselves with cakes and nuts and wine during the performance, we learn from Athenæus, 11, p. 464, f. The fund appropriated for this purpose was termed theorica chremata, and the two oboli given to each person, theoricon.

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Thespis first exhibited Tragedy. Birth of Eschylus.

Chœrilus first exhibited Tragedy.

Birth of Cratinus, the Comic Poet. Phrynichus, the Tragic Poet, victorious.

Institution of the chorus of men. Epicharmus perfected Comedy in Sicily.

Birth of Sophocles.

Eschylus present at Marathon, æt. 35.

Chionides first exhibits.

Epicharmus continues to write Comedy.

Eschylus gains the prize in Tragedy.

Birth of Euripides.

Phrynichus victor in Tragedy. Eschylus victor with the tetralogy-Phineus, Perso, Glaucu's Potnieus, and Prometheus Satyricus.

First Tragic victory of Sophocles. Orestean tetralogy of Eschylus. Death of Eschylus.

Euripides began to exhibit, æt. 26.

Crates, the Comic Poet, and Bac

chylides, flourished.

Achæus and Sophocles exhibit Tragedy.

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