at the end, they award the prize to the play which has been best written, best put on the stage, best acted, sung, and danced, richest in free and patriotic sentiments or hits at the defeated Persians, and most illustrative of the glory of the city.
The sun shines full in the faces of the expectant multitude, but a Greek is not fastidious about weather;—besides, there is a pleasant breeze blowing over us from the sea. And the time is passed in discussion of the probable character of the different plays, and the chances of the competitors. These are not, as we might have expected, the poets whose plays are to be presented, but the rich men who put the several plays upon the stage. A poet is not usually a rich man, and could not of course afford to hire, as he must, a chorus and actors, and get dresses and scenery arranged; left to himself, he could no more bring out his piece than the ordinary composer could bring out an opera. So the plan in Athens was this. The rich men in each tribe were required to contribute out of their wealth to the benefit and amusement of their fellow-citizens. When ships were wanted, the burden of supplying them was laid on the wealthier citizens, to each of whom, or to several clubbed together, the duty of providing a ship was assigned. Similarly, when the festivals were to be supplied with plays, the office of putting a piece on the stage—of furnishing a chorus, as it was called—devolved upon some one very rich citizen, or upon several of moderate wealth who bore the expense between them. The play to be thus provided for was assigned by the magistrates out of those
