322 HISTORICAL TALES.

the plundering of his gold and purple tent, and the
disgraceful lack of success of his chariots, some of
which were overturned and broken to pieces. As
for the poems, they were received with a ridicule
which caused the deepest humiliation and shame to
their proud composer.

The people of Greece, and particularly those of
Athens, did not, however, restrict their public enjoy-
ments to athletic exercises. . Abundant provision for
intellectual enjoyment was afforded. They were not
readers. Books were beyond the reach of the mul-
titude. But the loss was largely made up to them
by the public recitals of poetry and history, the
speeches of the great orators, and in particular the
dramatic performances, which were annually ex-
hibited before all the citizens of Athens who chose
to attend.

The stage on which these dramas were performed,
at first a mere platform, then a wooden edifice, be-
came finally a splendid theatre, wrought in the
sloping side of the Acropolis, and presenting a vast
semicircle of seats, cut into the solid rock, rising tier
above, tier, and capable of accommodating thirty
thousand spectators. At first no charge was made
for admission, and when, later, the crowd became so
great that a charge had to be made, every citizen of
Athens who desired to attend, and could not afford
to pay, was presented from the public treasury with
the price of one of the less desirable seats.

Annually, at the festivals of Dionysius, or Bacchus,
and particularly at the great Dionysia, held at the
end of March and beginning of April, great tragic