In the course of recent excavations underneath the orchestra two discoveries have been made. It appears that at some unknown period certain tunnels of irregular shape, and too small to serve as passages, were bored through the rock, but filled up again as soon as made. Also, just in front of the Roman stage, the rock was cut away in a straight line, and the cutting was continued as far as the stage-buildings, the interval being filled up with earth. The purpose of both these works is quite uncertain.[354] It will be seen, from the above description, that the remains of the Athenian theatre throw very little light upon the character of the ancient orchestra. Fortunately, during the last ten or fifteen years, a large number of other theatres have been excavated, which suffered less from reconstruction, and in which the orchestras have been left more or less in their original condition. The finest and best preserved of these is the theatre of Epidaurus, which was built at the end of the fourth century.[355] It is described by Pausanias as the most beautiful theatre in the world.[356] A plan of the building (Fig. 6) is here inserted, together with a view taken from the north-east (Fig. 7).[357] The evidence derived from this and other theatres will enable us to clear up many questions in connexion with the orchestra, to which the Athenian theatre supplies no answer. [Illustration: FIG. 6.] In the early Greek theatres, as already pointed out, the seats of the spectators were so arranged that every one had an excellent view of the orchestra, while the view of the stage was in many cases a very poor one. When the Romans gave up the orchestra to the spectators, and transferred all the performances to the stage, they made various alterations in the arrangement and proportions of the theatre. They largely diminished the size of the orchestra by bringing the stage several yards forward; and at the same time they cut off considerable portions from the two ends of the auditorium. In this way they were enabled to make the stage much deeper, so as to accommodate a larger number of performers. By shortening the wings of the auditorium they abolished those seats which looked away from the stage. Vitruvius gives some interesting directions for determining the proper proportions of a Greek and Roman theatre.[358] According to his figures the orchestra in a Roman theatre constituted an exact semicircle. The front line of the stage coincided precisely with the diameter of the orchestra. In a Greek theatre the stage was placed much further back. The distance between the central point of the front line of the stage and the central point in the opposite circumference of the orchestra was six-sevenths of the diameter of the orchestra. In a Greek theatre therefore, according to this statement, if the circumference of the orchestra was prolonged so as to form a complete circle, it would be found that the front line of the stage only intersected a very small