At Athens, during the fifth century, when the drama was in its most flourishing state, plays were usually exhibited once, and once only. There were only two festivals in the whole year at which regular theatrical performances could be held. Consequently, as long as the creative period of the drama lasted, the few days given up to them barely sufficed even for a single performance of the various new compositions. Nor were repetitions necessary. The theatre at Athens was of enormous size, so that every man had a chance of seeing a play when it was first brought out. If it was successful, and he wished to see it again, he had numerous opportunities of doing so at the Rural Dionysia, where reproductions were the rule. For these reasons the Athenian stage of the fifth century was confined almost exclusively to original works. When a play had once been performed, it was never seen again, as far as Athens was concerned, unless it happened to be of extraordinary merit. It is stated on the authority of Dicaearchus that the Frogs of Aristophanes ‘was so much admired on account of its parabasis that it was actually repeated’.[279] The language here used implies that such a repetition was a very unusual circumstance. It is true that when the Capture of Miletus, the historical play of Phrynichus, caused so much commotion in the theatre the Athenians are said to have passed a law that ‘for the future no one should exhibit this drama’.[280] But the law must have referred to its reproduction at the Rural Dionysia.