resources of the state were crippled, and the people demoralized. The theoric question became one of the chief difficulties which Demosthenes had to deal with, in his efforts to rouse the Athenian people to action against Philip.[1010] [Illustration: FIG. 32.] The tickets of admission in the ancient theatre appear to have generally consisted of small leaden coins stamped with some theatrical emblem.[1011] Such coins could easily be renewed and stamped afresh for the different festivals. Many of them have been discovered in modern times, both in Attica and elsewhere, and date from the fifth century down to the Christian era. The specimen which is here given (Fig. 32) contains a representation of three comic masks, with the name of the play, the Prophetess, inscribed above, and the name of the poet, Menander, underneath.[1012] In addition to these leaden coins certain tickets made of ivory or bone, and apparently connected with the theatre, have also been preserved. But they are far fewer in number than the leaden coins, and only date from the Christian era. They are found solely in Graeco-Roman districts. They are too elaborate and permanent in workmanship to have served as ordinary tickets, and were probably intended for the occupants of the reserved seats in the front rows. They usually contain some figure or emblem on the one side, and a description of the emblem in Greek on the other, together with a number in Greek and Latin. The specimen in the text (Fig. 33) exhibits the head of Kronos on the obverse, with the inscription ‘Kronos’ and the number thirteen on the reverse.[1013] The numbers never rise higher than fifteen, and cannot therefore refer to the individual seats in the different rows. Probably both the numbers and the emblems denote particular blocks of seats. We know that in the theatre at Syracuse certain blocks were called after the names of gods and princes, such as Hieron, Zeus, and Hercules; and that in the Roman theatre Germanicus gave his name to a particular block.[1014] It is a very plausible conjecture, therefore, that emblems like that of Kronos refer to some similar method of designation. [Illustration: FIG. 33.]