The focus of the present study lies on the ancient theatre architecture.
The purpose is to study and better understand the invention and the
development of the architectural type of the Greek and Roman theatre
from the beginning in archaic times until the end of the Roman Empire.
With the exception of the temple buildings the theatres are indeed the
most diffused building type in Classical Antiquity. Of more than 800
single theatres and odeia there exist until today monumental remains.
Almost 200 more theatres are attested by epigraphical and literary
sources. The diffusion of ancient theatre buildings covers the entire
ancient world, from Ai Khanoum, in the northeast of modern Afghanistan,
on the borders to Tadschikistan, to Olisipo in modern Portugal, and from
Camulodunum in England to Oxyrhynchos and Antinoe in Egypt and Petra in
southern Jordan. For the majority of ancient theatres our knowledge is
still unsatisfactory. Therefore it is necessary to reassume the
documentation of all the buildings in an extensive catalogue which
includes all ancient theatre buildings as far as there exist monumental
evidence or epigraphical and literary testimony. In the catalogue all
theatres documented by material remains are described and analysed in
detail. The catalogue includes also the ancient odeia, i. e. roofed
theatre buildings, as a distinction between them and unroofed theatres
is not always possible. The monuments attested by epigraphical or
literary evidence are also listed in the catalogue as they are important
for the analysis of the geographical and chronological distribution of
the ancient theatres. As far as possible the catalogue aims to be
complete.
