Tragedy Performances Outside Athens in the Late Fifth and the Fourth Centuries BC

Foundation of the Finnish Institute at Athens. 2014. Trade paperback. Very good.. 334 pp. + xxi plates. Illustrations, bibliography, index. . We know that Aeschylus produced his Aetnaeae and Persae in Sicily and that Euripides presented his Archelaus in Macedonia. It is also a known fact that, at the end of the fifth century and during the fourth century BC, both tragedies and comedies were performed in the demes of Attica at the Rural Dionysia. Furthermore, it is clear from material and literary evidence that during the fourth century BC theatres were built in all major Greek cities and that many well-known poets and actors of the fourth century were non-Athenians. What we do not know is: 1) which individual tragedies were performed outside Athens, 2) when the spread of tragic performances began on a wide scale, 3) where, in which cities and on what kind of occasions, tragedies were performed, and 4) how were the arrangements for the tragic performances outside Athens carried out in practice? The goal of this study is to answer most of the above-mentioned questions.