“ACCOUNT 
‘might have made important difco- 
veries upon the conftruction of an- 
cient theatres. .It is Mr. Stuart’s 
opinion, that during the time of ac- 
ing, the front of the fcene™in an- 
cient theatres was covered by fome 
paintings analogous to the plays that 
were reprefented; for, according to 
Vitruvius, the front itfelf was highly 
decorated with #ately pillars; and 
the Marchefe Galiani fuppofes, that 
it exhibited the appearance of a pa~ 
Jace. Philoftetes crawling out of 
his cavern, Prometheus chained to 
a rock, could not with any pro- 
riety be introduced upon fuch a 
cene.. This opinion is itrongly con- 
firmed by a paflage in Vitruvius, 
where he tells us there were three 
forts of {cenes; the tragic, the co- 
mic, and the fatyric, each of them 
doubtlefs appropriated to the fubje& 
of the fable reprefented on the ftage. 
He alfo informs us, that when AL{- 
chylus, the great improver of the 
Grecian ftage, exhibited one of his 
tragedies, he introduced for the firft 
time a painted fcene. 
The 4th chapter treats of the 
Choragic monument of Thrafyllus, 
built 318 years before Chrift. 
Though not fo highly ornamented 
as the monument of Lyficrates, it 
is however wrought with great ac- 
curacy, and fingular in its compofi- 
‘tion. There are 6 plates belonging 
to this chapter, one of which repre- 
fents, as Mr. Stuart with great plau- 
fibility conjectures, the fatue of De- 
‘celia, the Demos or town of the vic- 
rious tribe. . Mr. Stuart gives his 
eafons for differing from Dr.Chand- 
ler, an enlightened traveller, who 
‘took that ftatue for Niobe. Mr. 
‘Stuart proves alfo, almoft beyond 
‘the poflibility of a doubt, that the 
Mtatues of Demos, mentioned by Pau- 
fanias, were not meant to reprefent 
‘ \ . 
OF .BOW KS. 
one Demos, 2 minion of Pericles, as 
Meurfius boldly afferts it; but that 
they were allegorical reprefentations 
of Demos, the people, perionified. 
In the following extract Mr. Stu- 
art has given us an account of fe- 
veral particulars relative to the 
Choragic games celebrated at A- 
thens during the feftival of Bacchus. 
«It fhould be obferved, that the 
greater Dionyfia, or feftival of Bac- 
chus, was celebrated by the Athe- 
nians with extraordinaty magnifi- 
cence. Tragedies and comedies 
were then exhibited in the theatre; 
and hymns in honour of Bacchus, 
accompanied with (flutes, were 
chaunted by the chorus in ‘the O- 
deum. On this occafion, each of the 
Athenian tribes (they were ten in 
number) appointed 2 Choragus, an_ 
office attended with confiderable ex~ 
pence, as we may infer from what 
Plutarch has faid in his difquifition, 
Whether the Athenians were more il- 
luftrious for their. military atchieve- 
ments, or their progrefs in fcience. 
When the feftival drew near, an 
emulous contention arofe among the 
Choragi, which fometimes proceed- 
ed to great violence, each ftrivin 
to excel his competitors, and to ob- 
tain the tripod, which was the prize 
gained by that Choragus to whom 
the victory fhould be adjudged. His 
difburfements did not finith with his 
victory; there ftill remained for him 
the charge of dedicating the tripod 
he had won, and probably that of 
erecting a little edifice, or temple, 
on which to place it, fuch as is ‘de- 
fcribed in the prefent chapter. 
Thus Nicias is faid to have ereéted 
a temple whereon te place the tri- 
pod he had won. Nor fhall we won- 
der that the honour of gaining a 
165 
. tripod was fo anxioyfly and earneft- 
ly contended for, -fince, thus won 
M 3 and 
