VITRUVIUS. 
106 
THE degrees (a) of the spectatory, whereon the seats are laid, should be in heighth not less 
than a foot and a palm, nor more than a foot and six digits; their breadth should not be 
more than two feet and an half, nor less than two feet. 
CHAPTER VII. 
Of the Porticus and other Parts of the Theatre. 
HE roof (m) of the porticus (k) which is on the highest degree, is to be level with the 
top of the scene; for the voice ascending regularly to the uppermost degrees and roof, will. 
if the top is not all on a level, be lost at the summit of that part whose altitude is least, and 
to which it first arrives. 
WHATEVER may be the diameter (II H) of the orchestra, which is encompassed 
(8*) We learn from passages in sundry authors, that the 
ancients used-to lay coverings of wood, or cushions, &c. 
on the stone seats of the theatres; and these words of Vi- 
truvius, Gradus spectaculorum ubi subselliae componantur (the 
degrees where the subsels or seats are laid) seem to intimate the 
same; the word subselliae signifies some kind of seats, and 
cannot mean the degrees, or stone seats themselves, because 
it is laid they are laid on the degrees; it is therefore pro¬ 
bable that by that word Vitruvius means the coverings of 
boards, culhions, &c which were laid on the stone degrees, 
Perault remarks, that Dion Cassius had overlooked this 
passage of Vitruvius, when he asserted that such coverings 
were not laid on the degrees of theatres, before the time of 
Caligula; adding, that, as Vitruvius wrote in the time of 
Augustus, they must have been used in his time; but this 
is taking it for granted, that Vitrüvius wrote in the time of 
Augustus; that not being certain, these words of Dion 
Calsius become an argument in favour of the opition that 
Vitruvius did not vrite at that time, nor tillaftet the time 
of Caligula, in whose reign Dion Cassius wrote. See the 
Remarks on thé Life of Vifruvius. 
(9) A palm is a quarter of a foot ; it has before been 
oblerved that the ancient Roman foot was 11 inches s of 
our foot, and was divided into fixreen digits; the heighrh 
therefore of the degrees was not les than about a fot and 
à quarter, nor more than a foot and thre eighths. In the 
theatre of Marcellis, the degrees were in heighth half their 
breadth; which proportion I have chosen to follow in my 
drangh, bg. XXXVI, making the degres one foot and a 
quarter high, and two feet and a half broad. 
(19) Viruvius gives us no diections conceraing the pro¬ 
porion of the orchestra to the whole buiding, hat depend- 
ing on the number of degrees disposed around the orchestra. 
which might be determinate; it must, however, be supposed 
that lo great a number were not disposed around small or¬ 
chestras as around larger, and that some bounds were ob- 
served. The orchestra of the theatre of Pola, given by 
Serlio, and which sublisted at the time he measured it, was 
in diameter, one third of that of the whole building; and. 
in a theatre represented in the fragments of the plan of 
Rome, now preserved in the Capitol, the diameter of the 
orchestra is nearly of the same proportion. 
In the theatre of Marcellus, it was as four is to eleven, or 
thereabout. Barbaro, Perault, and Galiani, following each 
other, have, in their draughts, made it nearly as one to two, 
which is more than it is found in any ancient theatre, and 
is productive of many inconsistencies, as will be hereafter 
lhewn. I have chosen the proportion of that of the theatre 
of Marcellus. Perault, and Galiani, would persuade us that 
Vitruvius means the semi diameter of the orchestra, where 
he mentions the diameter; because the sixth part of the 
diameter, which he gites to the heighch of the entrances 
(as they understand the word itenerum) into the orchestra. 
ls, in their opinion, too great. But, notwichstanding the 
reasoning of Perault, I cannot so easily assent to a deviation 
from the expres words of the text. It may as well be sup¬ 
poled that Vitruvius means semi diameter, where he writes 
diameter in the description of the round temples, and in 
all other parts of his work. Perault, with an intent to 
prove that Vitruvius means the semi diaueter, and not the 
d'ameter, brings, as an argument, a passige from Pliny. 
who says, that be theatre of M. Secaurus wag one of the largest 
ever bulk, and that ile lewver colunns af the secne of his iheatre 
was 4a jet bigh. Vitruvius, in the next paragraph, says, sach 
louer colunni hould be in beigbtb the fourth part of tbe dia nelet 
9 the orchstra; acording to this rule, ikerefore, ibe dlameter