ordinary course of law was not considered sufficient, and they were dealt with under an exceptional process at a special meeting of the Assembly.[5] It is recorded that on one occasion a certain Ctesicles was put to death for merely striking a personal enemy during the procession.[6] Merely to eject a man from a seat which he had taken wrongfully was a piece of sacrilege punishable with death.[7] These various characteristics of the Attic drama—its limitation to certain annual festivals, and its religious associations—have no parallel on the modern stage, apart from isolated survivals like the performance at Ober-Ammergau. The modern theatre has long since been divorced from ecclesiastical influence, and is unrestricted as to season. But its original surroundings were not dissimilar. The Mysteries and Miracle Plays from which it is descended, and which were performed year by year for the instruction of the people on the great Feast-days of the Church, suggest many points of comparison with the exhibitions at the Attic Dionysia. Another remarkable feature of the ancient theatre is the fact that almost all the dramatic representations were arranged in the form of a contest. Prizes were offered by the managers of the festival, and poets and actors exhibited their plays in competition with one another. The victory was awarded by the decision of a carefully selected jury. It is curious to notice how strongly implanted in the Greek nature was this passion for anything in the shape of a contest. It was not peculiar to the drama, or to the Athenian festivals, but prevailed throughout Greece in all festal gatherings where music and poetry were performed. Every Greek city of any importance had its annual meetings, with a long list of competitions. There were contests in choral singing of various kinds; contests in original poetry, and in the recitation of ancient epics; contests between harp-players, flute-players, trumpeters, and heralds. In this respect a Greek festival was not unlike a Welsh Eisteddfod, with its rival bards and choruses. In the case of the drama the element of competition must have added largely to the interest of the entertainment, and must have acted as a powerful stimulus upon the minds of poets and performers alike. The fertility of the old Attic dramatists, and the energy which enabled them to produce, in extreme old age, such masterpieces as the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, the Oedipus Coloneus of Sophocles, and the Bacchae of Euripides, may have been partly due to the invigorating influence of the contests, and the rivalry which they engendered.