These contests were limited to the principal actors or protagonists in each play. The subordinate actors, the deuteragonist and tritagonist, had nothing to do with them. The principal actor in a Greek play was a much more important personage than even the ‘star’ in a modern company. The actors in a Greek play were limited to three in number, and each of them had to play several parts in succession, by means of changes in dress and mask. Hence the protagonist had to perform not only the principal part, but also several of the subordinate ones. Besides this, the composition of most Greek tragedies was designed with the express purpose of bringing out into strong relief the character of the principal personage. The incidents were intended to draw forth his different emotions: the subordinate characters were so many foils to him. As a consequence, the success of a Greek play depended almost wholly upon the protagonist. In the ordinary language of the times he was said to ‘act the play’, as if the other performers were of no importance. To take an example from existing inscriptions, it is recorded that in 340 ‘Astydamas was victorious with the Parthenopaeus, acted by Thessalus, and the Lycaon, acted by Neoptolemus’.[170] This is the regular form of the old records both in tragedy and comedy. Demosthenes uses similar language. Referring to the Phoenix of Euripides, he says that ‘Theodorus and Aristodemus never acted this play’. The form of the language is proof of the overwhelming importance of the protagonist.[171] The only other point to be noticed is that the success of the actor was quite independent of the success of the play in which he was performing. Thus in one of the comic contests of the second century the prize for acting was won by Onesimus. But the play in which he acted, the Shipwrecked Mariner, only won the second place. The successful comedy, the Ephesians, was acted by Sophilus. Similarly in the tragic contests of the year 418 the prize for acting was won by Callippides; but the poet Callistratus, whose three tragedies he performed, was only second. The tragedies of the successful poet were acted by Lysicrates.[172]