Author Description

Penned by R.R.R Smith, Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at Oxford University, and Director of the Aphrodisias Excavations in Turkey, the book features stunning photographs of Ahmet Ertug. Many of the extraordinary images were photographed with an 8 x 10 inch large-format camera, and show these well-preserved theaters in exceptional detail. The book starts with an introduction on the theater in classical antiquity, and then describes sixteen outstanding theatres individually. This is probably the first time that such combined high-level academic and photographic documentation has been devoted to the extraordinary legacy of theater building in Anatolia. The book is 205 pages long, in landscape format, with a page size of 33 x 46 cm and 174 color plates, showing both details and panoramic views. Striking photographs of many of the high-quality statues and friezes that decorated the theaters are also included in the book. By the second century AD, at the height of the long peace enforced by Rome, most self-respecting ancient cities in the Mediterranean region had a theatre building. Most of the theaters presented in this book belong to, or were re-conditioned in this period. Most survive in their second-century form but have long archaeological histories of re-design and addition that stretch back to the Hellenistic period. Theaters were among the largest, most imposing structures in ancient cities. Their capacity varied greatly, from 2,000 to 20,000, but most boasted a tall monumental stage-building that reared up from the surrounding cityscape - with austere masonry on the outside and majestic tiers of columns inside. Many are astonishingly well-preserved. 'Theater' has the double sense of both an institution and a building. Indeed, drama was a developed practice long before it had the building form we know and recognize as a theatre. Drama grew out of choral performance at religious festivals in honor of Dionysos, and evolved into the exciting new m