ung Marcellus, son of his sister Octavia. Vitruvius is
generally reported to have been the architect of this building, which
would contain 30,000 persons. The audience part was a semi-circle 410
feet in diameter. Twelve arches of its external wall still remain.
From marks still visible in the large theatre at Pompeii, the place
reserved for each spectator was about 13 inches. This theatre
contained 5,000. The theatre of Pompeii, at Rome, contained 40,000.
The theatre of Scaurus is said to have contained 80,000. The Romans
surpassed the Greeks in the grandeur and magnificence of these
buildings. They built them in almost all their towns. Remains of them
are found in almost every country where the Romans carried their rule.
One of the most striking Roman provincial theatres is that of Orange,
in the south of France.
Odeum was a building intended for the recitations of rhapsodists and
the performances of citharaedists, before the theatre was in existence.
In its general form and arrangements the odeum was very similar to the
theatre. There were, however, some characteristic differences. The
odeum was much smaller than the theatre, and it was roofed over. The
ancient and original Odeum of Athens in the Agora was probably
erected in the time of Hipparchus, who, according to Plato, first
introduced at Athens the poems of Homer, and caused rhapsodists to
recite them during the Panathenaea. There were two others in
Athens--the Odeum of Pericles, and that of Herodes Atticus. The Odeum
of Pericles was built in imitation of the tent of Xerxes. It was burnt
by Sylla, but was restored in exact imitation of the original
building. It lay at the east side of the theatre of Dionysus. The
Odeum of Herodes Atticus was built by him in memory of his departed
wife Regilla, whose name it commonly bore. It lies under the southwest
angle of the Acropolis. Its greatest diameter within the walls was 240
feet, and it is calculated to have held about 8,000 persons. There
were odea in several of the towns of Greece, in Corinth, Patrae, and at
Smyrna, Ephesus and other places of Asia Minor. There were odea also
in Rome; one was built by Domitian, and a second by Trajan. There are
ruins of an Odeum in the villa of Adrian, at Tivoli and at Pompeii.
Remains of amphitheatres are found in several cities of Etruria. The
amphitheatre of Sutri is considered to be peculiarly Etruscan in its
mode of construction. It is cut out of the tufa rock, and was no d
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