holding nearly twenty thousand spectators, it will easily be seen that, in spite of the excellence of the acoustic arrangements, the demands upon the actor’s voice must have been excessively great. For these various reasons the first and most essential requisite in a Greek actor was a powerful and expressive voice. As a matter of fact, whenever an actor is mentioned by an ancient author, he is referred to in language which at the present day would seem much more appropriate to a notice of an operatic singer. It is always the excellence of the voice which is emphasized, little regard being paid to other accomplishments. And it is not so much the quality as the strength of the voice which is commended. The highest merit, on the Greek stage, was to have a voice that could fill the whole theatre. Numberless passages from ancient authors might be quoted in proof of this assertion, but a few specimens will suffice. Of Neoptolemus, the great tragic actor, it is said that ‘his powerful voice’ had raised him to the head of his profession.[804] Licymnius, the actor mentioned in one of the letters of Alciphron, won the prize for acting at a tragic contest on account of ‘his clear and resonant utterance’.[805] Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, on a certain occasion, being covetous of distinction as a dramatic writer, dispatched a company of actors to the Olympic festival, to give a performance of one of his tragedies. As he wished to ensure that the exhibition should be of the highest excellence, he was careful to choose ‘actors with the best voices’.[806] In a similar manner the emperor Nero prided himself on his talents as an actor. He instituted a tragic contest at the Isthmian festival, in order to display his powers. At this contest the actor Epeirotes ‘was in splendid voice, and as his tones were more magnificent than ever, he won the greatest applause’.[807] The above passages are in reference to particular actors. Remarks about acting in general are of the same type. Demosthenes is reported to have said that ‘actors should be judged by their voices, politicians by their wisdom’. According to Zeno an actor was bound to have ‘a powerful voice and great strength’. Aristotle defines the science of acting as being ‘concerned with the voice, and the mode of adapting it to the expression of the different passions’. Lucian remarks that the actor is ‘responsible for his voice only’. Plato would expel ‘the actors with their beautiful voices’ from his ideal state.[808] Finally, there is the curious fact recorded by Cicero, that in the performance of a Greek play, when the actors of the second and third parts ‘had louder voices’ than the protagonist, they used to moderate and restrain their tones, in order to leave him the pre-eminence.[809] These passages, and others of the same kind which might be quoted, read like notices about operatic singers and musical performances, and prove conclusively the supreme importance of the voice