1. Location

The theater in Tralleis is located on the NE part of the city, inside the walls, at the foot of the acropolis. Due to its south-west orientation, it is located towards the lower part of the city and the valley of Maeander. The stadium was built to the south of the theater and parallel to its scene. The proximityof the two buildings is an unusual phenomenon in the area of Asia Minor.¹

2. Architectural Description

The theater was made of marble. Its ground plan follows that of the theaters of Greek type, but it was later converted into a Roman – Asia Minor style theater (1^st Century A.D.), a usual tendency in the area of Asia Minor, where the layouts of the earlier Hellenistic theaters were modified during the imperial era.²

The theatrical construction was of large size, with a horseshoe – shaped auditorium (cavea), 148 m in diameter and an orchestra 25 m in diameter. It is built against a natural slope taking advantage of its incline, while for the construction of the retaining walls artificial substructures were required so as to cover the incline. Parts of the foundation of the retaining walls are visible today. Two radial vaulted corridors at sides of the cavea provided direct access from outside the theater to the circumferential uncovered corridor (peripatos)at the top of the cavea.

The auditorium (cavea) is divided horizontally by two broad corridor (diazomata, praesinctiones) into three zones (maeniana). Details of the seating’s arrangement remain unknown. From the archaeological evidence it can only be concluded that the lower section of seating (theatron, ima cavea-maenianum ) was divided vertically by nine staircases (scalae, scalaria) into eight wedge-shapes, called cunei. Access to the ima cavea, was probably provided by staircases built into the thickness of the retaining walls, an element that can be also found in the theater of Magnesia ad Maeandrum. The total number of the rows of seats is not known and only a few traces of them are preserved today at the lower section of seating.³ The seats made of white marble had a curved profile and were not made of a single block of marble, like in the theaters of Greece, but of two different blocks: the seat and the slab for the feet of the spectators. Because of the damage of the theatrical construction, we don’t know if this design characteristic applied to all the seats of the theater.

The first row of the ima cavea (theatron) and behind the channel (euripus) for the collection of the rainwater, was the prohedria, reserved for the privileged visitors of the theater. These seats of honour were higher than the rest of the seats and stood on a podium. A low parapet rested on that podium.⁴ In the middle of of the cavea there are traces of boxes (tribunalia) reserved for the city’s officials, a characteristic feature which can be also seen in the theater of Priene.

In the top part of the cavea behind the uppermost row of the seats, there are traces of a wall which follows the curve of the seating, and probably belonged to a circumferential stoa (porticus in summa cavea) which created a passage for the spectators at the upper part of the theater, and a shelter in case of rain.

Between the lowest row of seats of the ima cavea, the prohedria, and the orchestra, there was a narrow paved passageway, 1 m. wide. The orchestra was according to W. Dörpfeld unpaved, while later, probably during the 1^st century A.D. it seems that it was paved with marble slabs, some of which are preserved in situ.⁵ At the remaining part of the orchestra, the sub layer of limestone is preserved, as well as traces of the paving.

In the middle of the orchestra, 2,10 m below the ground level runs a T-shaped passage.⁶ This underground passage, 0,60 m. wide can be identified with the Charonian tunnel.⁷

From the scene building, only traces of the proscaenium are preserved, which is 3 m high and 6 m wide. The layout and the building phases of the stage can not be securely restored. It was divided into two oblong aisles through three parallel colonnades that included 16 columns. From these colonnades, only the square slabs of the foundation are preserved on which the columns stood. It is indicative that for static reasons, the foundation slabs of the middle colonnade⁸ were of bigger size than those at the two edges, which rested on the walls of the scene building. The foundation slabs bear apertures at their upper surface for the support of the columns, some of which have left visible traces.⁹ The proscaenium had a closed façade, which was adorned by a relief frieze. At the centre of the façade of the proscaenium¹⁰ there are architectural components of a staircase or ascending ramps that allowed the access to the scene from the orchestra.

3. Sculptural Decoration

The theater at Tralleis is one of the first theaters of the Hellenistic period that had a decorated proscaenium. In spite of the poorly preservation of the theatrical construction, quite a few sculptures are preserved, round and relief. From the fully sculptured figures, the most significant are a statue of Apollo Kitharodos,¹¹ and a group of archaistic female figures of the type of Caryatid.¹² During the German excavations of 1888, in the area of the theater, fragments of sculptures were unearthed which were assumed to belong to the relief decoration of the proscaenium.¹³ The findings were taken to Berlin and Constantinople. The best preserved finds are from the frieze, 1 m in height, that represented the procession of Dionysian thiasus. A winged female figure is also preserved, which could be identified with Nike, and also a relief depicting the front part of a horse.¹⁴

4. Date

The design of the cavea presents similarities in the shape and the form of the seats to the theater of Nyssa.¹⁵ Thus it can be concluded from these elements that the construction of the cavea was completed probably during the 1^st century B.C., while in the early imperial years, in the Augustan era (27 B.C.-14 A.D.) or even later, in the 2^nd half of the 1^st century A.D., its layout was modified.¹⁶

5. History of Research and State of Preservation