The following facts and measurements will give some idea of the size and capacity of the Athenian theatre. The distance between the inside corners of the auditorium was 72 feet. The distance between the outside corners was 288 feet. In the centre of the auditorium, from north to south, it is calculated that there must have been 78 tiers of seats. Of course on each of the two wings the number of tiers would be considerably less than half that amount. The arrangements throughout were designed with the view of bringing together the largest possible number of people within the smallest possible compass. The vertical passages were little over 2 feet in width. The seats were constructed in such a manner that the spectators could be packed tightly together, without any space being wasted. As the theatre was in the open air the close crowding of the audience was no doubt much less intolerable than it would have been in a covered building. At the same time the situation of the spectator cannot have been a very comfortable one. He had to remain cramped up in one position, with no back to lean against, and with very little opportunity of moving his limbs. That the Athenians were willing to put up with such inconveniences for several days in succession is a proof of their enthusiastic devotion to music and the drama. The total number of people who could be accommodated in the theatre at Athens is shown by recent calculations to have been about 17,000.[347] The theatres at Epidaurus and Megalopolis held nearly the same number.[348] Plato, referring to the wooden theatre of his own time, speaks of ‘more than thirty thousand spectators’.[349] But this must have been an exaggeration. The old theatre of the fifth century is not likely to have been larger and more capacious than the theatre of Lycurgus.