was proportionally somewhat greater than in the Greek theatre, being in the latter about of the diameter of the orchestra, and in the Roman . Thus, in the theatre of Dionysus at Athens the diameter of the orchestra (and consequently the width of the available part of the stage) was 72 feet, and the depth of the stage only a little more than 10 feet. A Roman stage of the same width would have been 17 feet deep. The following are some of the largest ancient theatres whose ruins are now known:

-Between the decline of the ancient and the rise of the modern drama there is a long interval, in which the nearest approach to theatrical performances is found in miracle plays, mysteries, and interludes. These were given for the most part in convents, colleges, and churches, or in the halls of palaces and castles. The first theatres in France were built for miracle plays. As early as 1548, however, the confraternity of the Trinity had a theatre in Paris in which they were licensed by the parliament to perform only "profane pieces of a lawful and honest character." So late as 1561 the French had no scenery, and the performers remained on the stage during the whole representation. The first Italian theatre is said to have been erected at Florence in 1581, by Bernardo Buontalenti, but it was probably not public. About the same time Palladio made an attempt to revive the classical theatre in his celebrated teatro Olimpico at Vicenza, but with reduced proportions. It is of semi-elliptical form, with the stage on the longer axis of the ellipse, and the scena has the ancient permanent architectural background, with avenues seen through the openings in it, the apparent length of which is increased by artificial perspective. From 1618, when a theatre was built at Parma by Aleotti, the modern arrangement began to prevail. By narrowing the stage opportunity was given for the use of painted scenery, and by increasing its depth for the introduction of a variety of complicated machines and the production of spectacular pieces. In England there were regular companies of players as early as the reign of Edward IV., long before there were regular play houses. Churches, universities, private houses, and the yards of inns served at first for their performances. Probably the first play house was the London "Theatre," built before 1576; the Curtain in Shoreditch, and the theatres in Blackfriars and Whitefriars, were built near the same time. In Shakespeare's day London

had 3 "private" and 4"public" theatres, the difference between which is not clearly understood. His own plays were produced at the house in Blackfriars and at the Globe, both of which belonged to the same company, known as his majesty's servants. The Globe was a hexagonal wooden edifice, partly open at the top and partly thatched. In the middle was probably an uncovered court where the common people stood, and around 3 sides ran galleries or "scaffolds," under the lowest of which were enclosed boxes called "rooms." The prices of admission ranged from a penny or twopence to a shilling. The performance commenced at 3 o'clock; in the private theatres it took place by candle light. The stage at this period was strewed with rushes and concealed by curtains, which opened in the middle and drew backward and forward on an iron rod. In the background there was a balcony or upper stage, likewise curtained, from which parts of the dialogue were spoken, and at each side of this balcony there was a private box. In the private theatres the wits, critics, and other persons of consequence were furnished with seats on the stage. Movable scenery was first used in a regular drama on a public theatre by Davenant in 1662, though something of the sort had been arranged at Oxford by Inigo Jones as early as 1605, on the occasion of an entertainment given to James I. Shakespeare had no other scenery than tapestry hangings and curtains, but the use of stage machinery of a more or less elaborate nature is as old as the drama itself. Women first appeared upon the English stage about the period of the restoration.-The first theatre in America was opened at Williamsburg, Va., Sept. 5, 1752. Others followed at Annapolis, Md., and in Nassau street, New York (1753), Albany (1769), Baltimore (1773), Charleston, S. C. (1774), Newbern, N. C. (1788), and Boston (1792). The largest in the United States are now the opera houses of New York, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. Modern theatres, except those intended for opera, are now almost always small. The expenses are thus diminished, and all the audience are brought within easy seeing and hearing distance. It has been found by experiment that the human voice, moderately exerted, can be distinctly heard about 90 feet in front of the speaker, and 75 feet each side. In an opera house the dimensions may be vastly increased, as singing can be heard at a greater distance than speaking, and it is not requisite to bring the audience near enough to see the facial expression of the performers. The small acting theatres of New York have been considered the best of their kind in the world; and the opera house of the same city, though defective in its arrangement of seats, is one of the handsomest in existence. The best form for the auditorium is either three fourths of a circle, or a semicircle with divergent ends. The latter affords the best opportunities for seeing, but

Egyptian monument, occupies a series of terraces communicating with each other by flights of steps. Its entrance is flanked by two pyramidal towers; its first court has a double avenue of columns on either side, and in the area a pedestal on which was a syenite sitting colossus of Rhamses; its second court has walls covered with sculptures representing the wars of Rhamses III., and Osiride pillars which are doubtless the monolithal figures of 16 cubits high described by Diodorus; the third stairway, from the foot of which Belzoni took the head of a royal statue of red granite, now in the British museum and known as the young Memnon, conducts to a hall used for public assemblies, with columns and walls covered with civil and religious sculptures; and beyond the hall extended 9 smaller apartments, two of which remain, supported by columns, one of them being the sacred library or "dispensary of the mind" mentioned by Diodorus. Among the other monuments in this vicinity are two colossal statues, 60 feet in height, the wonder of the ancients, one of them known as the Vocal Memnon. (See MEMNON.) The village of Medinet-Aboo stands upon a lofty mound formed by the ruins of the most splendid temple palace in western Thebes, the Thothmesium, connected with the palace of Rhamses by a dromos 265 feet in length. The sculptures in the latter are of singular interest, being the only examples that have been found of the decoration of the private apartments of an Egyptian palace. The whole sweep of the Libyan hills, for the space of 5 miles and to the height of 300 feet from Goorneh to Medinet-Aboo, is full of sepulchres, excavated in the native calcareous rock. This was the necropolis of the whole city, no tombs existing on the eastern side. The mummies are laid in rows by the side of or tiers above each other, but never stand erect. The tombs of the lower classes are unsculptured, but abound in mummies of sacred animals. The royal sepulchres are in the valley of Bab-el-Melook, the most spacious and highly adorned belonging to those monarchs who enjoyed a long reign. Here repose the Theban Pharaohs from the 18th to the 21st dynasty, but only 3 complete catacombs have been discovered. The monuments, as also those in the separate burial place allotted to the queens, are chiefly interesting from their hieroglyphics. Still more remarkable are the ruins on the eastern bank of the river, in the villages of Luxor and Karnak. At Luxor the most striking monuments were two beautiful obelisks of red granite, covered with a profusion of hieroglyphics, one of which has been removed to the Place de la Concorde at Paris. Behind them are two sitting statues of Rhamses, one 39 feet high, but now covered to the breast with accumulations of earth and sand. Two courts and a series of apartments, connected and surrounded by colonnades and porticos, extend beyond. The road from Luxor to Karnak lies through fields of halfeh grass, though they were

once united by an avenue of andro-sphinxes. The great palace temple of Karnak stands within a circuit wall of brick 1,800 feet long and somewhat less broad. It was approached by an avenue of crio-sphinxes, of which only fragments remain. Between the end of the dromos and the main body of the building, 5 lofty pylones and 4 spacious courts intervene. In the first court were two obelisks of Thothmes I., one of which still remains; in the second court is another obelisk, the loftiest known except that of St. John Lateran at Rome; and in one of the chambers are the sculptures which compose the Karnak tablet, one of the most important records of Egyptian chronology. The dimensions of the great hall are 80 feet in height, 329 in length, and 179 in breadth; the roof is supported by a central avenue of 12 massive columns, 66 feet high and 12 feet in diameter, together with 122 columns of less gigantic dimensions. These vast courts, halls, and esplanades were reared by kings of the 18th and succeeding dynasties for purposes partly religious and partly secular. The sacred calendar abounded in days for periodical meetings; the troops were reviewed and the apportionment of the spoils of victory made in the courts of royal palaces, which also served occasionally for the administration of justice and for the encampment of the army. The ruins of Thebes hold a foremost place in the researches and speculations of Egyptologists.

THEBES (in the classical writers Theba; modern Gr. Theva), in Greek antiquity, the chief city of Boeotia, built on and around a hill between the streams of Ismenus on the east and Dirce on the west. The citadel occupied the height, and the greater part of the town stood in the valleys. Of its ancient buildings, monuments, and walls, there remain only a few scattered fragments, and its topography is entirely uncertain. It is impossible to harmonize the ancient writers as to the position or even the names of its 7 gates. Thebes was equally illustrious in the mythical and the historical ages of Greece. It was the birthplace of the divinities Bacchus and Hercules, of the seer Tiresias, the musician Amphion, the poet Pindar, and the warriors Pelopidas and Epaminondas; its two sieges and the fortunes of its royal houses were favorite subjects of tragedy; and it was for a time the ruling city of Greece. Tradition ascribed to Cadmus the foundation of the citadel, which was hence called Cadmea. From the 5 Sparti, the survivors of the progeny of the dragon's teeth, were descended the noblest Theban families. The expulsion of Edipus, and the successive sieges by the "Seven against Thebes" and by the Epigoni, were the principal events before the Cadmeans were driven out by the Boeotians, a tribe from Thessaly. This occurred about 60 years after the Trojan war, according to Thucydides. The legislation of Philolaus, in the 8th century B. C., gave it an oligarchical instead of monarchical form of government, and made it the head of the con

federacy of Boeotian towns. The first entirely certain event in its history is the revolt of one of these towns, Platea (519 or 510 B. C.), which applied to Athens for protection. A war ensued between the Thebans and Athenians, in which the latter were successful, and which initiated lasting enmity between the two states. Thebes lost credit by abandoning the cause of Greece in the Persian war, and fighting against the Athenians at Platea (479). The victorious Greeks appeared before its walls, and compelled the inhabitants to put their "Medizing" leaders to death. An Athenian invasion supplanted its oligarchy by a democratic government in 456, but the former was restored in 447. During the Peloponnesian war the Thebans were more anti-Athenian than even the Spartans, but joined the coalition against the latter in 395, and were the only portion of the allied army which was not routed by them at Coronea. The peace of Antalcidas, negotiated by Sparta (387), deprived them of their supremacy over the other Boeotian towns, and in 382 a blow was struck at their independence by the treacherous seizure of their citadel. They continued in the hands of the Spartan party for 3 years, when Pelopidas and others succeeded in expelling the garrison. In the hostilities which followed they recovered Boeotia, invaded Phocis, and triumphed over the Spartans at Tegyra (375). The decisive victory of Leuctra (371) gave to them the hegemony of Greece, and Epaminondas invaded Peloponnesus, and established there the Arcadian confederation and the state of Messenia as political powers antagonistic to Sparta. But they in vain sought to establish their supremacy by a general treaty, and lost it after the death of Epaminondas at Mantinea (362). Athens, long jealous of Thebes, was now able to resist it, and succeeded in wresting Euboea from it (358). Thebes was soon after supported by Philip of Macedon against both Athens and Sparta in the Phocian war, and continued in alliance with him till he seized Elatea (339), when the eloquence of Demosthenes induced the Thebans to unite with the Athenians against his dangerous projects. They sent an army to the battle of Chæronea (338), in which their sacred band was cut to pieces in the ranks, and after which they opened their gates to a Macedonian garrison. The leading citizens were put to death or banished, but the exiles returned after Philip's death, besieged the garrison, and invited the other Greek states to declare their independence. The rapid advance of Alexander defeated their attempt (335). The city was razed to the ground, the temples and the house of Pindar alone being spared; the citadel was again held by a Macedonian garrison; the territory was divided among the allies; and the inhabitants were sold into slavery. Thebes was without inhabitants for the next 20 years, and, though restored by Cassander, never became again an independent state. In the time of Strabo it had dwindled down to VOL. XV.-27

the condition of a village, in which it has since remained.

THEFT. See LARCENY.

THEINE. See CAFFEINE, and TEA.

THEINER, AUGUSTIN, a German theologian and priest of the Oratory, born in Breslau, April 11, 1804. He studied at the universities of Breslau and Halle, at first theology and afterward philosophy and law. While studying he fully shared the views of his brother, Johann Anton, on church reform, and assisted him in the publication of his extensive work on celibacy. An essay on the papal decretals procured for him from the university of Halle the degree of doctor of laws, and from the Prussian government a stipend for a scientific journey to Vienna, London, and Paris. A residence in a college of the Jesuits at Rome completely changed his theological views, and he became from an extreme Gallican one of the most uncompromising advocates of the papal prerogatives. He has ever since remained in Rome, where he was appointed in 1851 prefect of the secret archives of the Vatican. His writings, mostly on church history and church law, are very numerous, and many of them contain valuable documents, which he was for the first time permitted to publish from the papal archives. Among the more important of his works are a "History of Theological Seminaries" (Mentz, 1835); a “History of the Efforts of the Holy See to cause a Return of the Nations of Northern Europe to the Roman Church" (vol. i., Augsburg, 1837); a "History of the Return of the Houses of Brunswick and Saxony to the Roman Catholic Church" (Einsiedeln, 1843), &c. Against Crétineau-Joly, who had censured Clement XIV. for having suppressed the order of the Jesuits, he wrote, in vindication of the pope, the "History of the Pontificate of Clement XIV." (2 vols., Leipsic, 1853). He undertook to continue the church history of Baronius, and published the first 3 volumes at Rome in 1853. A collection of important documents relating to the church history of Hungary, mostly taken from the Vatican archives, was published by him in 1859 (2 vols.); and similar collections respecting Poland and Lithuania (2 vols.) in 1860 and 1861, and respecting the church history of France from 1790 to 1800, in 1858 (2 vols., Paris).-JOHANN ANTON, a German theologian, elder brother of the preceding, born in Breslau, Dec. 15, 1799, died there, May 15, 1860. He studied Roman Catholic theology at the university of his native town, and was appointed there in 1824 professor of exegetical theology and of canonical law. He showed himself from the beginning a zealous advocate of Gallican principles, and took an eager part in movements among the clergy of Silesia for their practical introduction. Assisted by his brother Augustin, he published in 1826 an extensive work on the history of celibacy (Die Einfüh rung der erzwungenen Ehelosigkeit, Altenburg, 1828; new ed., 1845), which at the time of its

publication made a deep sensation in Germany, and is regarded as the most complete work on the subject. He resigned his chair in 1830, and held a pastoral charge until 1845, when he joined the German Catholics, publishing in vindication of this step Die reformatorischen Bestrebungen in der katholischen Kirche (Altenburg, 1845). But he soon disconnected himself from the movement, as its principal leaders, in his opinion, went too far, and joined the Protestant church. He afterward received an appointment in the library of the university of Breslau. Beside the works already mentioned, he wrote a commentary on the minor prophets, forming part of the Bible work of Dereser, and Das Seligkeits Dogma der katholischen Kirche (Breslau, 1847).

THEISS (anc. Tibiscus; Hun. Tisza), a river of Europe, which drains all eastern Hungary and the greater part of Transylvania. It is formed by the union of the Black and White Theiss about 20 m. E. N. E. from Szigeth, in the county of Mármaros, flows first westward to Tokay, thence S. W. to Szolnok, when it turns S. and enters the Danube near Titel, in the Military Frontier land, 22 m. E. S. E. from Peterwardein. Its length is about 500 m., for most of which it is navigable. Its principal tributaries are the Szamos, the Bodrog, Zagyva, Körös, Maros, and Bega. The chief commerce of the river consists in the conveyance of salt, timber, and agricultural produce.

THELWALL, JOHN, an English author and elocutionist, born in London, July 27, 1764, died in Bath, Feb. 17, 1834. He was originally intended for an artist, but subsequently studied law, which however he abandoned in his 22d year for the profession of literature. In 1787 he published poems in 2 volumes, which brought him into notice; and embracing liberal opinions, he became a member of the "Corresponding Society." Taking a prominent part in the political agitation of the times, he was prosecuted for high treason along with John Horne Tooke and Thomas Hardy, and after a trial of 5 days was acquitted. He afterward lectured for a number of years on political subjects, and in 1801 began to act as tutor of elocution, upon which he contributed several papers to the "Medical and Physical Journal and to the "Monthly Magazine." He also published "Poems written in the Tower and in the Newgate;" "The Tribune" (3 vols.); "Political Miscellanies;" "A Letter to Mr. Cline on Stammering;" "The Peripatetic" (3 vols.); and a novel called "The Daughter of Adoption."

THEMIS, in the Greek mythology, a daughter of Uranus and Gæa, married to Zeus. She dwelt in Olympus, and convened the assembly of the gods. She is represented in Homer as the personification of the order of things established by law, custom, and equity. At Thebes she had a sanctuary in common with Zeus Agoræus, and at Olympia in common with the Horæ, her daughters. Temples were also dedicated to her at Athens, at Tanagra, and at Trozene.

THEMISTOCLES, an Athenian statesman and general, born about 514 B. C., died in Magnesia, Asia Minor, about 449. He was in early life so remarkable for his ambitious character that his master said to him: "My boy, you will not be any thing little, but certainly something great, good or bad." He was present at the battle of Marathon in 490 B. C., and may have been general of his tribe on that occasion. After the disgrace of Miltiades, Aristides and Themistocles became the chief men of Athens, and the rivalry between the two was so bitter that the former is reported to have remarked: "If the Athenians were wise, they would cast both of us into the barathrum." The contention, after being carried on 3 or 4 years, resulted in 483 in an appeal to a vote of ostracism, and Aristides went into exile. From this time Themistocles was the great political leader in Athens, and his active genius saw at once the steps necessary to be taken to save the city from the threatened revenge of the Persian king, who had been making vast preparations for the conquest of Greece. He persuaded the Athenians to build 200 ships with the produce of the silver mines of Laurium, instead of distributing it among the citizens; and he endeavored in various ways to make Athens a great naval power. The open bay of Phalerum was given up as a harbor, and the new harbor of Piræus was begun to be formed and fortified during the year when he was either archon or general. In the beginning of 480, as the force of Xerxes was on the point of passing the Hellespont, 10,000 heavy-armed Greeks, under the command of the Spartan Euænetus and Themistocles, occupied the defile of Tempe; but finding that troops could be landed in their rear, and that there was another entrance into Thessaly through Macedonia, they retreated to their ships. All northern Greece was in consequence left defenceless, and either joined or submitted to the invaders. Themistocles now commanded the Athenian portion of the fleet which was stationed at Artemisium, under the Spartan Eurybiades. When the vast number of Persian ships was discovered, Eurybiades was disposed to draw back to southern Greece; but the Euboeans gave 30 talents to Themistocles, with which he induced the Spartan commander, and also the Corinthian Adimantus, to remain and defend Euboa. In the ensuing battle, fought on the same days with the engagement at Thermopylæ, the Greeks had the advantage; but that pass having fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the Athenian ships being much crippled, it was determined to retire. Themistocles first, however, caused to be cut on the rocks at various points an address to the Ionians in the Persian fleet, entreating them either to desert or to fight backwardly against men of their own race. Athens, at the instance of Themistocles, was abandoned by its inhabitants, and its defence, in accordance with a Delphic response probably dictated by him, intrusted to