them by sea, and, after a siege that lasted more than two years, took the capital, Thasos, and compelled the Thasians to destroy their walls, surrender their ships, pay an indemnity and an annual contribution, and resign their possessions on the mainland. In 411 B.C., at the time of the oligarchical revolution at Athens, Thasos again revolted from Athens and received a Lacedæmonian governor; but in 407 the partisans of Lacedæmon were expelled, and the Athenians under Thrasybulus were admitted. After the battle of Ægospotami (405 B.C.), Thasos again fell into the hands of the Lacedæmonians; but the Athenians must have recovered it, for it formed one of the subjects of dispute between them and Philip of Macedonia. In the embroilment between Philip III. of Macedonia and the Romans, Thasos submitted to Philip, but received its freedom at the hands of the Romans after the battle of Cynoscephalæ (197 B.C.), and it was still a "free" state in the time of Pliny. Thasos, the capital, stood on the north side of the island, and had two harbours, one of which was closed. Archilochus described Thasos as "an ass's backbone crowned with wild wood," and the description still suits the mountainous island with its forests of fir. The highest mountain, Ipsario, is 3428 feet high. Besides its gold mines, the wine, nuts, and marble of Thasos were well known in antiquity. The mines and marble quarries are no longer worked; and the chief exports are now fir timber for shipbuilding, olive oil, honey, and wax. The imports consist of manufactured goods, beasts of burden, and corn, for the island is too mountainous to grow enough corn for the inhabitants.
In 1858 the population, distributed in ten villages, was estimated at 10,000. The people are Greek Christians, and do not differ in appearance from the inhabitants of the other Greek islands. The villages are mostly situated at some distance from the sea; for the island suffered from pirates up to a time within living memory. In the early part of this century sentinels stood on duty night and day, and at a signal of alarm the whole population, including the Turkish aga himself, used to hide in the woods. For a description of the island and its remains of antiquity, see A. Conze, Reise auf den Inseln des thrakischen Meeres, Hanover, 1860.
THAYETMYO, a district in the Irrawaddy division of Burmah, having an area of 2397 square miles, and lying between 18° 50 and 19° 30 N. lat. and between 94° 30 and 95° 50 E. long. It is bounded on the N. by the newly acquired territory of Burmah, on the E. by Toungú district, on the S. by Prome, and on the W. by Sandoway. On the west is the Arakan Yoma range, and on the east the Pegu Yoma; and the face of the country, where it does not rise into mountains, is everywhere broken by low ranges of hills, many of which are barren and destitute of all vegetation. The greater part of the district is wooded, and the Yomas east and west are covered with forests now mostly preserved. The chief river is the Irrawaddy, which traverses Thayetmyo from north to south. The country is well drained; the drainage finds its way to the Irrawaddy by three main streams (the Pwon, Ma-htún, and Ma-de) on the west, and by two (the Kye-nee and Bhwot-lay) on the east. Several salt and hot springs occur in many localities of the district; petroleum is also found, and extensive lime quarries exist a few miles south of Thayetmyo. The principal wild animals are leopards, wild cats, barking deer, elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, black bears, and wild hogs. Silver pheasants and partridges are found in large numbers, especially in the mountains.
In 1881 the number of inhabitants in the district was 169,560 (males 87,308, females 82,252); Hindus numbered 2620, Mohammedans 1861, Christians 2349, and Buddhists 148,629. The chief town is Thayetmyo, with a population (1881) of 16,097; it is situated in 19° 18 43" N. lat. and 95° 15 40" E. long., on the right bank of the Irrawaddy. Of the total area of 1,534,080 acres, only 108,167 were under cultivation in 1885–86; 547,631 were available for cultivation; and forests occupied 256,256 acres. The chief products are rice, cotton, oil seeds, and tobacco; cutch is also very abundant, and the manufacture of the dye-stuff is carried on extensively. Coal has recently been found in the district, and earth oil-wells exist, but neither coal nor oil has yet been extracted in any quantity. The revenue of the district in 1885–86 was returned at £36,702, of which the land contributed £10,482. On the annexation of Pegu by the British in 1852–53, Thayetmyo was formed into a subdivision of Prome district; and in 1870 it was erected into a separate jurisdiction and placed under a deputy-commissioner.
THEATRE (θέατρον, "a place for seeing," from θεάομαί). The invention of a building specially devised for dramatic representations was due to the Athenians (see Drama). At first representations at the Dionysiac festivals were held on temporary wooden platforms; an accident, however, which occurred in 500 B.C. induced the Athenians to begin the construction of a permanent building. This first theatre was not completed till 340 B.C., and during the interval a large number of theatres, designed on the same model, had been erected in many towns of Greece and Asia Minor, though in some cases, as at Sparta, they were used for assemblies of the people and dances rather than for dramatic performances. The great Dionysiac theatre at Athens was placed in the Lenæum, an enclosure sacred to Dionysus, and its auditorium is scooped out of the rock at the base of the Acropolis on its south-east side. A similar position on the slope of a hill was always chosen by the Greeks, and it was not till the 1st century B.C. that theatres were built by the Romans on a level site.
Fig.—1. Plan of the Theatre at Myra.
Fig. 1 shows the plan of the existing theatre at Myra, in the south-east of Lycia, which, though late in date, is built after the old Greek model.[1] The seats for the audience are arranged in concentric tiers, rising like steps one above the other (see fig. 2); these mainly rest on a cavity excavated in the hill-side, and the whole space occupied by the spectators was called the κοῖλον (Lat. cavea). About half-way up the slope is an encircling passage (διάζωμα, præcinctio).
Fig. 2.—Section showing the Seats A,—with B, places for spectators' feet.
Flights of steps divide the seats into wedge-shaped blocks (κερκίδες, cunei). At the highest level behind the top row of seats ran a colonnade, forming a covered passage with a gallery at the top. Rows of niches were formed in the back wall of this, and also sometimes in the low wall encircling the διάζωμα; in these niches a series of large bronze jars (ήχεῖα) were set: they were intended to catch and repeat the reverberation of the voices from the stage. Vitruvius (iii. 5) gives
- ↑ See Texier and Pullan, Asia Minor, London, 1865.
