It behoved the actors, however, to take care of their gold and jewels, since it would appear that thieves found their way even to the stage.—Aristoph. Acharn. 258. Footnote 1038: Poll. iv. 118. Footnote 1039: Dion. Chrysost. i. 231. Scalig. Poet. i. 13. Footnote 1040: Poll. iv. 119, sqq. Footnote 1041: Scalig. Poet. i. 13. ----- We now come to the masks,[1042] a subject upon which much has been written, though very little has been explained. The primary difficulty connected with them is, to determine whether they were so constructed as to resemble a speaking-trumpet,[1043] which, by narrowing the stream, and compressing, as it were, the particles of the voice, cast it forth condensed and corroborated upon the theatre,[1044] which it was thus enabled to penetrate and fill, even to its utmost extremities. My own opinion, after bestowing much attention upon the subject, is, that the mask was in reality so constructed as to communicate additional force and intensity to the voice; but whether by roofing or encircling the artificial mouth by metallic plates, or thin laminæ of the stone called Chalcophonos,[1045] it is now scarcely possible to determine. Be this, however, as it may, there existed in some theatres other contrivances for conveying and augmenting the volume of the actor’s voice; these were the Echeia,[1046] vases generally of metal, finely toned, and arranged according to the musical scale, in a succession of domed cells,[1047] running in diverging lines up the hollow face of the theatre. They rested with one edge upon a smooth and polished pavement, the mouth outward, and the external edge reposing on the summit of a small, blunt obelisk,[1048] while a low opening in each cell enabled the resonances, or echoes, thus created, to issue forth, and fill the air with sound,[1049] which, however the fact may be accounted for, produced no isolated reverberations, no confusion. ----- Footnote 1042: When actors displeased the audience they were sometimes compelled to take off their masks and face those who hissed them, which was regarded as a serious punishment. Duport. ad Theoph. Char. p. 308. We ought, perhaps, to understand Lucian _cum grano_, when he informs us that actors who performed their parts ill were scourged. Piscator, § 33. On the derivation of the word _persona_, Aul. Gell. v. 7. Cf. Aristoph. Poet. c. 5. Scalig. Poet. i. 13, on the derivation of πρόσωπον. Etym. Mag. 691. 1. Footnote 1043: Vid. Cassiod. iv. 51. Plin. xlvii. 10. Solin. cxxxvii. Lucian. de Saltat. § 27. De Gymnast. § 23. A tragic poet, Hieronymos, exposed himself to ridicule by introducing into one of his pieces a mask of frightful aspect. Aristoph. Acharn. 390. Footnote 1044: Cf. Suid. v. φλοιός. t. ii. p. 1073. Diog. Laert. iv. p. 27. Footnote 1045: Plin. xxxvii. 56. Footnote 1046: