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POETRY IN CONNEXION WITH THE STATE.we find in Grecian cities no instance, as far asmy knowledge extends, where private persons erected them, as wasusual in Rome. Their structure was always the same, suchas may still be seen in Herculaneum ;and we must thereforeinfer, that all the external means of representation remainedthe same ;the wealth and taste of individual citiesalthoughintroduced higher degrees of splendour ;which in our timeswe may observe in our larger cities, compared with thesmaller or provincial towns. But from the remains of theGrecian theatres, the size and extent of these buildings areapparent, and their great dissimilarity in this respect tomodern ones. If they had not been regarded as a realwant, and if the emulation of the cities had not also exertedits influence, we might doubt whether sufficient meanscould have been found for erecting them.The bringing forward of the single plays belonged to thecivil burdens, (Xemn^/at,) which the opulent were obligedto bear in rotation, or which they voluntarily assumed. Wecan hardly doubt, that these regulationsin other cities resembled those in Athens, though on this subject we haveno distinct testimony. Thus the state threw these expensesin part upon private persons but the matter was not the;less a public concern, for this expense was considered as acontribution due to the state. But another regulation mayastonish us still more than this ;the regulation by whichmoney was granted from the public treasury to the poorercitizens, that they might be able to visit the theatres. Thiswas the case in Athens, though not till the times in whichof itsthe state began to sink under the moral corruptioncitizens. The desire of pleasure may in such periods degenerate into a sort of phrensy and the ;preservation of tranquillity may demand sacrifices, which are reluctantlymadeeven by those who consent.Though the oldest dramatic essays among the Greeks maybe of a more remote age,there is no doubt that Jischyluswas the father, not only of the finished drama, but also ofthe Grecian stage.It was not, therefore,till after the victories over the Persians (he himself fought in the battle ofSalamis) that a theatre of stone was erected in Athens; 11The occasion is related by Suidasin IJpanWe. At the representation of a playof JEschylus, the wooden scaffold, on which the spectators stood, gave way.