Teus /Teos, (Siğacık, near Izmir: Turkey)

200 BCE

Cavea Width: 72 meters
Orchestra Width: 23 meters

Teus or Teos (modern Sığacık, Turkey). Cavea width: 72.3 m, orchestra width: 23 m (TH); ima cavea in 13 cunei; summa in 12cunei; capacity: N/A; ca. 2nd cent. BCE.

Teus or Teos Theatre (modern Sidacik)
Source: Sear, Frank. Roman Theatres: An Architectural Study. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. . (pp.354-355)

Location: theatre at south foot of acropolis hill; odeum or bouleuterion south-east of theatre.

Cavea: D 235 ft = 72.30 m including whole semicircular mound

(Pococke’s plan), facing south-east (Laumonier); ima cavea in 13 or more cunei; summa, in 12 cunei (Pococke’s plan); one of prohedria seats found with lion’s feet.

Substructures: rested on slight slope, supplemented by aggestus, enclosed in walling penetrated by radial passageways; radial passageways under ima cavea accessible from annular passage under praecinctio; annular passage terminated in arched open- ings in analemmata; radial passageways shown emerging in lowest seats of ima which may indicate that cavea continued further. Similar arrangement of radial passageways under summa cavea, but here passages seem to be accessible from hillside directly behind, and run into praecinctio.

Remains: only undercrofting survives; no seat in place; scene building, buried under several metres of earth, may be well preserved (Laumonier); cavea completely in ruins, stage well preserved (Akurgal).
Date: 2nd cent. bc, scene building enlarged in Roman times. Literature: Ionian actors’ guild established at Teus, end 3rd century bce; largest temple of Dionysus in ancient world built at Teus; considered important that actors should live in town to take part in celebrations. They gave performances in other places using Teus as their centre; fled to Ephesus in middle of 2nd cent. bc; because they caused trouble, had to be moved to Myonnesus; finally moved to Lebedus. Strabo, Geography 14. 29.

Bibliography: Pococke, Description of the East, 2, pl. 44, opp. p. 43. Chandler, Ionian Ant. 4 (1881), 35; 5 (1915), 10, 13, 28. Bulle, Untersuchungen, 264. A. Laumonier and T. Bequignon, BCH 49 (1925), 281. Akurgal, Anc. Civilizations, 140. B. Ögun, TTAED 13/1 (1964), 116.