0:00:02 > 0:00:05In 405 BC, a new play by the tragedian Euripides
0:00:05 > 0:00:09won first prize at a festival in Athens.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11It was called The Bacchae
0:00:11 > 0:00:15and it is one of the most powerful and disturbing plays ever written.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22It tells the story of the chaos wrought by the god of theatre and revelry, Dionysus.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25It tells of women lured to the mountains,
0:00:25 > 0:00:27where they sing and dance in a frenzy,
0:00:27 > 0:00:31and it follows the fate of an unfortunate young king,
0:00:31 > 0:00:36who is tricked into spying on them and is torn limb from limb.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41It's a play that suggests a changing world, dangerous and uncertain,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44where you never really know who or what to trust.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Euripides himself did not live to see his victory.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55He died far away from Athens, having left the birthplace of drama behind.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02It is likely that Euripides composed The Bacchae here, in Macedon,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04on the northern fringes of the Greek world,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07an area thought by many of the ancient southern Greeks
0:01:07 > 0:01:10to be wild, unruly and unstable.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13And it was here that Euripides lived out his final days,
0:01:13 > 0:01:18not in the cradle of a democracy, but in the court of a king.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Euripides' departure from Athens,
0:01:22 > 0:01:25and the turmoil and disorder of his play, The Bacchae,
0:01:25 > 0:01:27foreshadowed a new era.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31One marked by war, instability and chaos.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35In the next century, Athens would lose its influence,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39its significance and even its democracy.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46And the balance of power in Greece would shift from democrats to kings.
0:01:46 > 0:01:51But drama, that most Athenian of inventions, would thrive,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55spreading throughout the Greek world and beyond.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59This episode is the story of the dramatic decline of Athens,
0:01:59 > 0:02:00and the remarkable triumph
0:02:00 > 0:02:03and transformation of theatre.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19During the 5th century, Athens was the pre-eminent city in Greece -
0:02:19 > 0:02:24confident, powerful, and in control of a vast empire.
0:02:24 > 0:02:30It had given birth to two radical new ideas - democracy and theatre.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33And the dynamic relationship between these ideas
0:02:33 > 0:02:35had driven the city's rise to power.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41This was the time when the great tragedians, Sophocles and Euripides,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45were staging epic plays like Oedipus and Medea,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47and the comedian Aristophanes
0:02:47 > 0:02:52was composing bawdy and fantastical comedies like Birds.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54As well as being great works of art,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56these plays engaged directly
0:02:56 > 0:02:59with Athenian democracy and Athenian life.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08But by the late 5th century, all of this was at risk.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12Athens was also fighting a war, the Peloponnesian War,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15against the great land power of Sparta.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20In 415 BC, still supremely confident,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Athens launched a new phase in this war.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26She sent an expedition to attack the city of Syracuse,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28on the island of Sicily,
0:03:28 > 0:03:31towards the western edges of a Greek world
0:03:31 > 0:03:34that spread from Marseille to the Black Sea coast.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39For two years, brutal fighting raged on the sea and land at Syracuse.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43Thucydides called it the greatest slaughter of the war.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45He wrote of bodies heaped on top of one another
0:03:45 > 0:03:48and of rivers clotted with blood.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Finally, in 413 BC,
0:03:54 > 0:03:58the Athenians were decisively and disastrously defeated.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Those who survived, some 7,000 of them,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06were imprisoned in these stone quarries.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08Amazingly, it is said
0:04:08 > 0:04:12that you can still see the marks from their chisels on the walls.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16Today, this is a famed tourist attraction,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21but the fun belies the horrific reality of this place in the ancient world.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23It was part of a much larger quarry
0:04:23 > 0:04:26where the Athenians, as prisoners of war, were brought
0:04:26 > 0:04:28as part of a labour camp.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Can you imagine being forced to work here day in, day out
0:04:31 > 0:04:34undertaking the backbreaking work of quarrying these stones
0:04:34 > 0:04:36with no respite from the scorching sun?
0:04:37 > 0:04:40There was only one way to escape from this hell -
0:04:40 > 0:04:44the historian Plutarch tells us that some Athenians were freed
0:04:44 > 0:04:48when they were heard quoting lines from Euripides.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Plutarch tells us that the Syracusans were absolutely mad for Euripides
0:04:52 > 0:04:54and the morsels of his plays that made their way over here
0:04:54 > 0:04:57and he says that the Athenians who did make it home
0:04:57 > 0:05:02went to Euripides himself to thank him for saving their lives
0:05:02 > 0:05:05because they'd been able to remember and recite
0:05:05 > 0:05:08some of the lines from his plays.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12It's amazing to think that knowing extracts from a play
0:05:12 > 0:05:15was enough to buy these prisoners their freedom.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20It's a sign that theatre was making an impact far beyond Athens.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Such was the popularity of drama here in Sicily
0:05:22 > 0:05:24that, a few decades before,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27the great Aeschylus, the father of tragedy himself,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30had come here to produce his plays.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32And the message of one play in particular
0:05:32 > 0:05:35now looked to be coming home to roost.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38Aeschylus performed his play, The Persians, here in Syracuse.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Now, that play had critiqued the Persian arrogance
0:05:42 > 0:05:44that foreshadowed their failed invasion of Greece,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47but it had also contained a wider warning for the Athenians -
0:05:47 > 0:05:52beware of hubris, if you over-reach, you too could fall.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55And in the wake of the failed Athenian expedition,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57here, at Syracuse,
0:05:57 > 0:06:01many Athenians began to believe that Aeschylus had been right
0:06:01 > 0:06:04and that THEIR moment of hubris had come.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09At first, the people of Athens couldn't believe the news -
0:06:09 > 0:06:14an army and an entire navy virtually wiped out.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Many blamed the democracy for authorising such a foolish mission
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and the anger and tension even spilled into the streets,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24where some democrats were attacked.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27The great fear now was what would befall Athens
0:06:27 > 0:06:29in the wider war against Sparta.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Serious issues like these
0:06:33 > 0:06:35were regularly addressed in the Athenian theatre
0:06:35 > 0:06:37and, in the midst of this chaos,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40the playwright Aristophanes was preparing a new comedy
0:06:40 > 0:06:43for performance at the theatrical festival.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49In 411 BC, Aristophanes put on a play called Lysistrata.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53It's one of his most well known, not least because of its unabashed rudeness.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56It was actually banned in Britain until 1957
0:06:56 > 0:07:01and even then, the first performance of it was called "savagely pornographic".
0:07:01 > 0:07:05But it's also one of his most popular because of its strong female protagonist,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08but also because its call for peace strikes a chord
0:07:08 > 0:07:12in our continuously conflict-ridden world.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18To put an end to the war, Lysistrata persuades women from all over Greece
0:07:18 > 0:07:23to go on a sex strike until the men agree to make peace.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26The women also seize control of the Acropolis,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29where the city's treasury is kept.
0:07:29 > 0:07:30When a magistrate, a proboulos,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33arrives to retrieve funds for the war,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Lysistrata berates him about the losses that the women have been forced to bear.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50The women dress the magistrate up in their clothes
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and send him away humiliated.
0:07:53 > 0:07:54As the strike continues,
0:07:54 > 0:07:59the sex-starved men of Greece become increasingly desperate
0:07:59 > 0:08:01until, finally, they agree to make peace.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05So, Rosie, with a play like Lysistrata,
0:08:05 > 0:08:10can you give us a sense of just how bawdy, how grotesque
0:08:10 > 0:08:12the humour in Old Comedy really was?
0:08:12 > 0:08:15Well, it's the kind of thing that, for example,
0:08:15 > 0:08:17it's difficult to stage in schools now,
0:08:17 > 0:08:22because it's got men with strapped-on phalluses very visible
0:08:22 > 0:08:25and jokes, all the innuendos
0:08:25 > 0:08:28about whether or not they're going to get sex with their wives
0:08:28 > 0:08:31and just the general bawdiness of that.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33All the jokes on the women's side, of course,
0:08:33 > 0:08:35about what it's like being married,
0:08:35 > 0:08:41what tricks they get up to, you know, even references to sexual positions,
0:08:41 > 0:08:43the lion on the cheese grater.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46So if we look at this, this is from the Pronomos Vase,
0:08:46 > 0:08:48and it's actually from a satyr drama,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51which is a bit different from Old Comedy,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54but you get the idea from the costume, you can see...
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Of just how bawdy and in-your-face it is.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59- Exactly, it's very explicit.- Yeah.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02And, I mean, the kind of jokes that you can make around this -
0:09:02 > 0:09:06"Is that a messenger rod you're carrying?", for example.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09It's...it's easy humour.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11From our point of view, looking at this play,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14you can't believe that this is what they were seeing on stage.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17As part of an official festival within ancient Athenian democracy.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Exactly.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22The plot is certainly outrageous,
0:09:22 > 0:09:24but it speaks to serious issues.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29The important thing about the Lysistrata is actually not the sex strike.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33The young women do have their sex strike, but we all know that's just a silly joke,
0:09:33 > 0:09:35cos all Athenian men could either have sex with each other,
0:09:35 > 0:09:37go to prostitutes, there wasn't a problem,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39they did not just have to have sex with their wives.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42The really important one is the older women
0:09:42 > 0:09:46who, with Lysistrata, take over the place where the keys were owned
0:09:46 > 0:09:48by the High Priestess of Athena,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52the inner sanctuary of the Acropolis where all the money was stored.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56But does the sort of radicalness of the solution in Lysistrata
0:09:56 > 0:09:58underline the seriousness of the problem?
0:09:58 > 0:10:02I think the city is in a state of extraordinary tension,
0:10:02 > 0:10:03there is not a family in the city
0:10:03 > 0:10:07that hasn't lost at least one man in the disaster in 413 in Sicily.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10We know that they had a huge crisis over the population
0:10:10 > 0:10:12because they freed a lot of slaves a few years later
0:10:12 > 0:10:14just to fill up the citizen numbers.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16I think one of the reasons, to me, why it's so interesting
0:10:16 > 0:10:19is that citizen women have an integral part to play
0:10:19 > 0:10:21within the polis in all sorts of ways,
0:10:21 > 0:10:23in religion and within the oikos and so on,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26and yet, they're not responsible in any way for what's been happening
0:10:26 > 0:10:29and one of the things I think I see in Lysistrata
0:10:29 > 0:10:31is a huge loss of political confidence.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35The assault on male power is through the figure of the proboulos,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38who is thoroughly feminised and ridiculed.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41I think you have to put it into its political context -
0:10:41 > 0:10:45a terrible defeat, Athenians loosing self-confidence, really,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and, with some good reason, blaming the leaders
0:10:48 > 0:10:50for their bad advice, et cetera.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53On the other hand, the message overall,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57is should the Athenians make peace
0:10:57 > 0:11:00or should they continue to fight the Peloponnesian War
0:11:00 > 0:11:04and the outcome of the play is, of course, peace is great,
0:11:04 > 0:11:08because you have much more fun in peacetime than you do in wartime.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12You don't lose your husband or your brother or your lover in battle
0:11:12 > 0:11:13and so on and so on.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16So the actual big issue is internal politics,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19is Athens going to continue to be a democracy
0:11:19 > 0:11:23and, externally, should it or should it not make peace?
0:11:26 > 0:11:30Lysistrata is classic Aristophanes - he is using a ridiculous plot
0:11:30 > 0:11:34to throw light on the political dilemmas facing Athens.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37But, for me, it's the constant references
0:11:37 > 0:11:41to the harsh realities of war that really resonate.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45Athens was at war for most of Aristophanes' career
0:11:45 > 0:11:47and despite the bawdy jokes
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and the innuendos and the strap-on phalluses,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54it's that sense of the horrible nature of war
0:11:54 > 0:11:56that just constantly comes through.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01In fact, the bawdy backdrop, in a way, makes the point more strongly
0:12:01 > 0:12:03than tragedy ever could.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07Despite Lysistrata's message,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10Athens did not make peace,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14and the Peloponnesian War continued grinding down Athenian manpower
0:12:14 > 0:12:18and the Athenian economy for a further seven years,
0:12:18 > 0:12:23until, in 404 BC, Sparta finally proved victorious.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Athens was humiliated.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31She lost her empire. She lost her navy.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35She lost her city walls and, worst of all, she lost her democracy.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Here, on the Pnyx, the home of the Athenian assembly,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44the peace terms were worked out.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46And as the victorious Spartans looked on,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49some Athenians suggested that maybe democracy had had its day
0:12:49 > 0:12:52and that it was time for something different.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54The hardcore democrats walked out in disgust,
0:12:54 > 0:12:59and, in their absence, a motion was passed to do away with democracy
0:12:59 > 0:13:02and put Athens into the hands of 30 oligarchs.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07But democracy was not dead
0:13:07 > 0:13:10and the democrats were soon plotting their revenge.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15The democrats focussed their resistance
0:13:15 > 0:13:17at the port of Athens, the Piraeus.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18This area was the home
0:13:18 > 0:13:22of the Athenian trireme warships and their rowers -
0:13:22 > 0:13:23the poorest citizens of the polis,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27who were the bedrock of the democratic system.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31It was here, under the cover of darkness,
0:13:31 > 0:13:32that the democrats regrouped,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36determined to restore their democracy.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39The revolutionaries chose as their place of assembly
0:13:39 > 0:13:41the theatre in the Piraeus.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43Now, we can't visit that theatre today,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46because it's sadly underneath a couple of apartment blocks,
0:13:46 > 0:13:47but the Piraeuns were so theatre-crazy
0:13:47 > 0:13:50that they built themselves a second one, and here it is,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53this one dating from the mid-2nd century BC.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57It might seem odd to have chosen a theatre
0:13:57 > 0:13:59as a meeting point for a revolution,
0:13:59 > 0:14:04but don't forget that theatres had always been civic gathering spaces in ancient Greece
0:14:04 > 0:14:06and we know from the sources
0:14:06 > 0:14:09that armies, entire armies, used them as muster points
0:14:09 > 0:14:12and indeed the very same theatre in Piraeus had been used just a couple of years before
0:14:12 > 0:14:15as the rallying point for a revolution.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19So when these revolutionaries were choosing where to meet
0:14:19 > 0:14:24for a revolution whose very intention was the reinstatement of democracy,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27the theatre was the obvious choice.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32The armies of the democrats and the 30 oligarchs clashed in battle
0:14:32 > 0:14:35in the area surrounding the Piraeus theatre
0:14:35 > 0:14:37and the democrats eventually managed
0:14:37 > 0:14:40to force a reinstatement of their democracy.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43They were honoured with a victory march to the Acropolis
0:14:43 > 0:14:45and the Athenians agreed to move forward together,
0:14:45 > 0:14:49forgiving all crimes, save those of the 30 oligarchs.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57It looked like Athens was getting back on track.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59But the grand celebrations for the reinstatement of democracy
0:14:59 > 0:15:04masked the fact that Athens' days of complete supremacy were now in the past
0:15:04 > 0:15:08and things would never be quite the same again.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13Nowhere was this uncomfortable truth more obvious than on the stage.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19In 388 BC, Aristophanes staged a play called Plutus,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21or Wealth, in English.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23And it spoke to the age old conundrum -
0:15:23 > 0:15:28why is it that in the disparity between rich and poor,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31those who are deserving and hard-working normally come off the worst
0:15:31 > 0:15:35and those who are undeserving and cunning get rich?
0:15:36 > 0:15:42Chremylos is an honest, hard-working man disillusioned with the unfairness of life.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44Out on the road, one day he meets Wealth
0:15:44 > 0:15:47and realises that Wealth is blind
0:15:47 > 0:15:50and that is why he distributes his riches so unfairly.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Chremylos takes Wealth to a healing sanctuary
0:15:55 > 0:15:57where his sight can be restored.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01The upshot is that the corrupt will be stripped of their riches,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03and the virtuous can finally prosper.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05But in a key moment in the play,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08Chremylos encounters the character of Poverty,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11who casts doubt on the entire scheme.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Just supposing Wealth could get his sight back
0:16:14 > 0:16:16and distribute all in equal portions,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19no-one would develop any craft or expertise.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Once there's no incentive, who is going to smelt the metal,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23build the ships or make the clothing,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26manufacture vehicles, stitch the footwear,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29brick the bricking, wash the washing, farm the farming?
0:16:32 > 0:16:34With this play, we're left with the feeling
0:16:34 > 0:16:37that despite the opening of Wealth's eyes,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40the world will remain a very unfair place.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43It's a thought that we can well relate to today,
0:16:43 > 0:16:46and is perhaps why Wealth is a play
0:16:46 > 0:16:47that still gets performed.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49HE SPEAKS IN GREEK
0:17:16 > 0:17:21Do you think there are particular historical circumstances surrounding its creation
0:17:21 > 0:17:26that help us understand why that play was written as it is?
0:18:24 > 0:18:28What's really striking about Wealth is how different it feels
0:18:28 > 0:18:30to a play like Lysistrata.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Lysistrata was an inventive and vigorous heroine,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36whereas Chremylos is passive and tired.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Aristophanes' comedy has lost its biting satire
0:18:39 > 0:18:43and its direct commentary on individuals in the audience.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Instead, its themes are more universal -
0:18:45 > 0:18:48rich, poor, worthy, unworthy.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53It feels like comedy and theatre, more generally,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55has not only lost its edge,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58but lost its specific Athenian identity.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01It's become more general and, at the same time,
0:19:01 > 0:19:07left the Athenians looking back, nostalgic, for an era of lost glory.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13The decline of Athens marks a turning point,
0:19:13 > 0:19:18both in the history of Greece and in the history of theatre.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Athens had invented drama,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24but how would this innovative and democratically-charged art form fare
0:19:24 > 0:19:29in the new world that followed Athens' defeat?
0:19:29 > 0:19:30This new world of the 4th century
0:19:30 > 0:19:34saw the different city-states of Greece jostling for control
0:19:34 > 0:19:37while coming under increasing pressure from new powers,
0:19:37 > 0:19:40many of them led by tyrants and kings.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44In truth, the 4th century reads as a depressing catalogue
0:19:44 > 0:19:47of battles, wars and fractured alliances,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50which played out in the plains of central Greece.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56In ancient times, this whole region was known
0:19:56 > 0:19:59as "the dancing floor of Ares", the god of war.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03It was here that the fate of Greece was decided on the battlefields
0:20:03 > 0:20:05time and time again.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13One conflict in particular symbolises the chaos of the period.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16In 371 BC, Sparta and Thebes
0:20:16 > 0:20:19fought an epic battle at Leuktra,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22at the heart of the dancing floor of Ares.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Against all the odds, it was the Thebans who triumphed,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29due, in no small part, to the powerful attack
0:20:29 > 0:20:31of their elite fighting force - the Sacred Band.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Thebes' shock-and-awe tactics worked brilliantly -
0:20:35 > 0:20:37the battle was over in less than an hour,
0:20:37 > 0:20:42and on this spot, where the Spartan king was supposedly struck down,
0:20:42 > 0:20:44Thebes erected a victory monument
0:20:44 > 0:20:47topped with Spartan shields taken in the battle.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49And to rub salt in the wound,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52the Thebans demanded that Sparta's allies
0:20:52 > 0:20:54cleared their dead from the battlefield first
0:20:54 > 0:20:59so that the scale of Sparta's loss could be humiliatingly on display.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03This monument marked a decisive change
0:21:03 > 0:21:04in the balance of power in Greece.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07But, more than that, Cicero later claimed
0:21:07 > 0:21:10that this was the first ever battlefield memorial
0:21:10 > 0:21:12to a Greek-on-Greek conflict.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15This kind of monument was to become a defining feature
0:21:15 > 0:21:19of the century that followed, as Greek states jostled for power
0:21:19 > 0:21:23and engaged in their favourite pastime - fighting one and other.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27It was a situation that Aristophanes
0:21:27 > 0:21:30had already warned against in Lysistrata -
0:21:30 > 0:21:33you worship at the selfsame holy altars,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35just as if you're a family -
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Olympia, Thermopylae, Delphi and elsewhere.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Yet, with foreign armies at the ready to attack, what are you doing?
0:21:49 > 0:21:51This is hardly the kind of context
0:21:51 > 0:21:54in which you would expect drama to thrive.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56But what's really amazing
0:21:56 > 0:21:59is that, while Greece was tearing itself apart,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01theatre seems to have been flourishing.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03During the 4th century BC,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07theatres emerged all over the Greek world.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11But the irony is that, despite this explosion of theatre construction,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15we don't have a single complete tragedy surviving from this period.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18After the deaths of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21we are left with nothing but fragments.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23It is true the great spread happens
0:22:23 > 0:22:25in the first half of the 4th century,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29when every city that had cultural pretensions built a theatre.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33There seems to be a neat story - Sophocles and Euripides die,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35and within everybody's perception of it,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39Nietzsche says that Euripides and Sophocles killed tragedy.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42So the easy story would be important tragedy came to an end
0:22:42 > 0:22:45and mass entertainment spread throughout the Greek world
0:22:45 > 0:22:47in a rather superficial way.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50I think it's much more complicated than that.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53It's really what happens in later antiquity
0:22:53 > 0:22:56and the great three become educational set books
0:22:56 > 0:22:58and that's really why we have them.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01And it was those three who were most read,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05so texts of the other tragedians,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08they simply weren't copied enough times to survive.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10It doesn't mean they weren't any good.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12There were very famous tragedians in the 4th century,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14people who made a big mark
0:23:14 > 0:23:18and people and who were remembered in later centuries.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23The fragments of plays by these writers that have survived
0:23:23 > 0:23:27support the idea that this was an extremely active era.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31One Athenian playwright from this time was called Astydamas the Younger.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33He was a relative of the great Aeschylus
0:23:33 > 0:23:38and he's said to have composed 240 plays during his career,
0:23:38 > 0:23:43won many first prizes and even had a statue of himself put up by the Athenians.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48And what the surviving fragments also allow us is a unique window
0:23:48 > 0:23:52into how the subject matter of tragedy is changing during this period.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57Astydamas wrote a play called Antigone,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00just like Sophocles and Euripides had done in the 5th century.
0:24:00 > 0:24:01SHE CRIES
0:24:01 > 0:24:05It again told the story of how Antigone had broken the law
0:24:05 > 0:24:07by burying her rebel brother
0:24:07 > 0:24:10and is sentenced to death by King Creon
0:24:10 > 0:24:14against the wishes of his son Haemon, who is in love with her.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17In Sophocles' play, the key moment is the political debate
0:24:17 > 0:24:21between Creon and Haemon about leadership and justice,
0:24:21 > 0:24:26and the play ends with Antigone's and Haemon's suicide.
0:24:26 > 0:24:27In Astydamas' version,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Haemon and Antigone run away and have a child together.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33They are both sentenced to death,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36but Heracles intervenes to try and save them.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40It's the same basic story, but the emphasis has shifted.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45Well, we've already got this sense in the 5th century of changing myth,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48where you might have one playwright
0:24:48 > 0:24:51that's already done an Antigone and say he wants to change it
0:24:51 > 0:24:53and make it your own as a playwright.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56You get that even more in the 4th century.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00If you imagine, they're using the same material, the same myths,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02but there's a taste for far more elaborate plots.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06You're still dealing with myth, but the interest has shifted,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09so, in that example of Antigone,
0:25:09 > 0:25:14you know, the focus there is what happens in that relationship.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16You hear hardly anything about that relationship
0:25:16 > 0:25:17in the 5th century version,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20but in the 4th century, that becomes the real focus.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Is that to do with tragedy's broadening appeal in this period
0:25:24 > 0:25:27beyond the confines of democratic Athens?
0:25:27 > 0:25:30Well, I think the internationalisation is really important,
0:25:30 > 0:25:33because, after all, you want this to appeal.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36You now have playwrights from all over the Mediterranean
0:25:36 > 0:25:38coming to compete.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40And so, there's that shift
0:25:40 > 0:25:45and, of course, particular political circumstances
0:25:45 > 0:25:47are different in the different cities.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51So, I mean, a shift to the romantic themes, domestic,
0:25:51 > 0:25:53it has a broader appeal.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00Theatre was becoming more about spectacle and entertainment
0:26:00 > 0:26:03and less about political process and debate.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06And as Athens' power waned,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10the plots drifted away from Athens and from its democratic process
0:26:10 > 0:26:14to focus more on personal dilemmas and relationships -
0:26:14 > 0:26:17the kind of stuff that would be interesting
0:26:17 > 0:26:20and resonate with, well, pretty much anyone anywhere.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24Indeed tragedy was becoming very much more of what it is today.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29There's no better evidence for these trends
0:26:29 > 0:26:32than the ruins of a little-known city
0:26:32 > 0:26:35that was a product of the battle of Leuktra.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37After their victory in that battle,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40the city of Thebes surrounded their defeated Spartan enemies
0:26:40 > 0:26:44with a series of newly-established cities in the Peloponnese.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50I've come to this rather unpromising-looking industrial part of the Peloponnese
0:26:50 > 0:26:53in search of a city called Megalopolis - the great city.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55Now, I've read about this place lots in books
0:26:55 > 0:26:57and I've studied lots of floor plans,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00but I've never actually been here for real.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03And what I'm searching for, first of all, is the theatre,
0:27:03 > 0:27:05a theatre said by the ancient sources
0:27:05 > 0:27:07to be the biggest in the whole of mainland Greece.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16It held up to 20,000 people.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19And it is further evidence that, despite the turbulent times,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21theatre was growing in popularity.
0:27:24 > 0:27:30There's an extraordinary calm to this place, but what it symbolises
0:27:30 > 0:27:34is a place that's tried to put itself on the map out of nowhere.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38A sort of ancient version of Milton Keynes.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41When they built this place, they gave it everything a city should need -
0:27:41 > 0:27:44they gave it an assembly, they gave it an agora,
0:27:44 > 0:27:45they gave it a sports centre,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and they gave it a theatre, a huge theatre.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Theatre by this stage had become
0:27:53 > 0:27:57part of the dress code of what a Greek city should look like
0:27:57 > 0:28:00and, more important than that,
0:28:00 > 0:28:06a theatre had now become a symbol of Greekness itself.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11Theatre had become an essential part of any Greek community.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16But the role that it now played in that community was changing.
0:28:16 > 0:28:22And this transformation can be traced in the ruined remains of Megalopolis.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24When this theatre was built,
0:28:24 > 0:28:29it was placed directly facing the city's political assembly place.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34It's an extraordinary example of how these two facets of polis life
0:28:34 > 0:28:39politics and theatre, were once thought to be intimately connected.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42But, you know, there's an irony here.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44As Megalopolis was being built,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47as this city was being created out of nothing,
0:28:47 > 0:28:52the very institution of the Greek city, the polis, was beginning to falter.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56Now, we were in a very different world, a world of tyrants and kings,
0:28:56 > 0:29:02the very vitality and viability of the polis
0:29:02 > 0:29:04was beginning to be in doubt,
0:29:04 > 0:29:09and there's perhaps no better symbol of that gradual decay
0:29:09 > 0:29:12than here, at Megalopolis, and right here, in the theatre.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Because in the mid-2nd century BC,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18the people of Megalopolis built this -
0:29:18 > 0:29:21a solid, high stone wall
0:29:21 > 0:29:25that cut off the theatre from the assembly place.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28The people of this great city
0:29:28 > 0:29:30themselves cut off the umbilical chord
0:29:30 > 0:29:34between theatre and politics.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44This gradual transformation in the role of theatre was aided by a crucial innovation
0:29:44 > 0:29:48which we know occurred in the early 4th century BC.
0:29:48 > 0:29:49The proof is here,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52in this inscription at the Epigraphic Museum.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56It says that, in exactly 386 BC -
0:29:56 > 0:30:02"Palaion drama proton paredidaxan."
0:30:02 > 0:30:08For the first time, an old drama was put on as an extra at the festival.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12The 4th century saw the start of revivals.
0:30:12 > 0:30:17This meant that old plays by the great tragedians of the 5th century -
0:30:17 > 0:30:19Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides -
0:30:19 > 0:30:23could be performed alongside current playwrights like Astydamas.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26It was the birth of a classic repertoire
0:30:26 > 0:30:32and it fuelled another of the most important theatrical shifts of the period.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35We're now 45 years later, in 341 BC,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38and this inscription lists the playwrights and the plays
0:30:38 > 0:30:41that were put on at the City Dionysia in Athens in that year.
0:30:41 > 0:30:42And here's our man, Astydamas,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45who actually won first prize this year and it tells us
0:30:45 > 0:30:49the names of his three tragedies, including Antigone, that he put on.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52But what's also fascinating about this inscription
0:30:52 > 0:30:54is the prominence it gives to the actors.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Not only does it give us the name of the lead actor in each of the plays,
0:30:58 > 0:31:00but also, and here's the key line,
0:31:00 > 0:31:04tells us Neoptolemus, one of the actors,
0:31:04 > 0:31:06"enika", he won, he won the prize
0:31:06 > 0:31:09for the best actor at the festival as well.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12And indeed, Neoptolemus was a busy guy that year,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15because he was lead actor in more than one of the plays
0:31:15 > 0:31:20and it tells us that he was the producer for one of the old plays
0:31:20 > 0:31:23that was being re-performed as well.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26What this stone symbolises is this growing shift,
0:31:26 > 0:31:27during the course of the century,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31in importance from the tragedians, the playwrights,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35towards the actors as being the real kings of the theatre.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43They were the great entertainers of their day
0:31:43 > 0:31:47and they had magnificent physique, they had magnificent voices.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51Actually, the tragic actors and the comic actors, people didn't do both,
0:31:51 > 0:31:54that's rather interesting, you were one or the other.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57The tragic actors, they were very famous for their voices
0:31:57 > 0:32:00and some of them were even employed to go on diplomatic missions and so on,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03so you want to send an embassy, you hire an actor to go along
0:32:03 > 0:32:07and put the case as well as he possibly can on your behalf.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09And this is Neoptolemus we're talking about?
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Yes, well, and others as well.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15One thing that one has to bear in mind is that the cultural movement
0:32:15 > 0:32:19within ancient Greece doesn't seem to have obeyed military history.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23Generally speaking, artists, musicians, including actors,
0:32:23 > 0:32:28seem to have travelled across the boundaries of hostility
0:32:28 > 0:32:32and so, that meant that cities which might well be on very bad terms
0:32:32 > 0:32:36were all competing to set up their own cultural activities.
0:32:36 > 0:32:41Cities laid out large sums of money, built wonderful theatres,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45supplied wonderful facilities in order to attract the best actors
0:32:45 > 0:32:47to their city to put on performances.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52Theatre had become a sort of cultural currency.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Competition for the best actors and playwrights was extremely fierce
0:32:56 > 0:33:00and fees soared, giving rich kings the upper hand.
0:33:00 > 0:33:01But theatre's transformation
0:33:01 > 0:33:05into a hugely popular and lucrative entertainment business
0:33:05 > 0:33:08raised questions about its value to society.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13Two different views of the value of theatre can be found in the works
0:33:13 > 0:33:18of two of the greatest thinkers of the age - Plato and Aristotle.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20Now, for Plato, in his ideal society,
0:33:20 > 0:33:25poetry and theatre are actually banned because they are just entertainment.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Worse than that, they're imitation, not truth,
0:33:29 > 0:33:34yet they can seem like the truth and, as a result, they can lead people astray.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36But for Aristotle, it's a very different case -
0:33:36 > 0:33:39he sees a place for theatre in the ideal society
0:33:39 > 0:33:46because it is able to speak to universal emotions and ideals of humanity.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50And more than that, it gives the audience what he calls catharsis.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53And catharsis is a notoriously difficult world to translate,
0:33:53 > 0:33:57but it means something along the lines of purification,
0:33:57 > 0:34:01a purging of emotion that comes as a result of watching tragedy
0:34:01 > 0:34:08and, as a result, can give people the ability to better control their emotions.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12But the very fact that two such eminent thinkers are so vociferously arguing
0:34:12 > 0:34:16about the value of theatre at this time, in the 4th century,
0:34:16 > 0:34:21suggests that there really is something of a crisis of confidence
0:34:21 > 0:34:26about the value and role of theatre in Ancient Greek society itself.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30Theatre's role was made increasingly uncertain
0:34:30 > 0:34:33by the changing balance of power in Greece.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36By the mid-4th century, after years of conflict,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39the richest and most powerful figure in the Greek world
0:34:39 > 0:34:43was not a democrat but a king - Philip II of Macedon.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47At the site of the Macedonian Royal Tombs, at Aegae,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51archaeologists have discovered an extraordinary array of treasures
0:34:51 > 0:34:54testifying to the wealth and might of Philip's kingdom.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58Philip created a strong army and made canny alliances.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01He brought the best craftsmen to his kingdom
0:35:01 > 0:35:04and secured the greatest thinker of the age, Aristotle,
0:35:04 > 0:35:06as tutor for his son Alexander,
0:35:06 > 0:35:10the boy who would later become Alexander the Great.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13It's one of the more unfair characterisations of ancient history
0:35:13 > 0:35:16that Macedon was some kind of savage and uncultured place.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20Far from it - it was a hive of creativity and high culture,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23not just in terms of using precious metals for vessels
0:35:23 > 0:35:27or creating extraordinary armour, but also in terms of the theatre.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31Philip brought dramatists from across Greece to compete in his own dramatic competitions,
0:35:31 > 0:35:33poets followed him in his campaigns
0:35:33 > 0:35:37and actors came to live, work and reside in Macedon.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41Neoptolemus sold his place in Athens and moved north.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46And Philip used all of this as a crucial part of his campaign
0:35:46 > 0:35:49for political and cultural supremacy.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58He was the super patron, he was the Louis XIV of the day
0:35:58 > 0:36:01and so, if you wanted to get the best space,
0:36:01 > 0:36:03the best support, the biggest fees,
0:36:03 > 0:36:08and you are now becoming more professional, so actors move,
0:36:08 > 0:36:11they don't just perform as citizens in their own city.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14So Philip is there, it all comes together,
0:36:14 > 0:36:16he accelerates the process.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18Actors become far, far more important,
0:36:18 > 0:36:20they knew all these stories off by heart
0:36:20 > 0:36:25and we get superbly rich and famous actors like Neoptolemus or Theodoros,
0:36:25 > 0:36:30who's the Laurence Olivier of antiquity and fantastically rich.
0:36:30 > 0:36:35Philip II certainly invited famous actors to his court,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38he got famous actors going on diplomatic missions for him
0:36:38 > 0:36:45and he tried to use theatre one way or another to help affirm his power.
0:36:46 > 0:36:52Philip understood that having the best plays and performers would enhance his own greatness.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56He also understood that kingship is itself a form of theatre.
0:36:56 > 0:36:59And in befriending famous actors like Neoptolemus,
0:36:59 > 0:37:04he ensured that positive reports about his regime found their way back to Athens
0:37:04 > 0:37:08and into the political debates taking place on the Pnyx.
0:37:08 > 0:37:09It was here, in the assembly,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13that the Athenians debated the growing threat from Macedon
0:37:13 > 0:37:18and tried to decide whether Philip should be considered friend or foe.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20Heading the pro-Philip faction
0:37:20 > 0:37:23was an actor turned politician called Aeschines.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Arguing against him was the politician and orator Demosthenes,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32who believed Athens had to oppose Philip, if necessary by force.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37Here, on the Pnyx, time and time again,
0:37:37 > 0:37:42Demosthenes and Aeschines clashed over the Philip question.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Demosthenes' argument was that Aeschines
0:37:45 > 0:37:49had effectively taken bribes to work in the king's interest
0:37:49 > 0:37:51and not in those of his home city,
0:37:51 > 0:37:55but what's really interesting is the language he uses to make his case.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59He refers to Aeschines as "hypokrites",
0:37:59 > 0:38:02the Greek word for an actor.
0:38:02 > 0:38:07"You, Aeschines, are a hypokrites, a big player of parts,
0:38:07 > 0:38:10"while I am the one sitting in the audience.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13"You always served our enemy's interests in politics,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16"I those of our country."
0:38:17 > 0:38:21The Greek word for actor, hypokrites,
0:38:21 > 0:38:23is the root for our word hypocrite.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26So where did this uncertainty come from?
0:38:26 > 0:38:31Well, as Greece became more and more dominated by rich, powerful leaders,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33so the corrupting force of money
0:38:33 > 0:38:36and the fear of the corrupting force of money increased.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39Actors were, at the end of the day, like mercenary soldiers -
0:38:39 > 0:38:41they sold their services to the highest bidder
0:38:41 > 0:38:46and, more importantly, they had the ability to imitate and to deceive.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48So what everyone was worried about
0:38:48 > 0:38:51was that Philip was writing his own play
0:38:51 > 0:38:54and getting the public figures of Athens
0:38:54 > 0:38:57to star in it as his key actors.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01It was only a matter of time before Athens would have to decide
0:39:01 > 0:39:03one way or the other.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07In 338 BC, Demosthenes persuaded the assembly
0:39:07 > 0:39:11to vote in favour of meeting Philip in battle.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16This battle, Demosthenes versus Philip, democrats versus kings,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20would determine the future of Greece and the fortunes of theatre.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Philip amassed his forces here, in the plains of Chaeronea,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28right at the heart of the dancing floor of Ares.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31The king himself led his army
0:39:31 > 0:39:34and leading the cavalry, his son, Alexander,
0:39:34 > 0:39:37who would become Alexander the Great, then just 18 years old.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41And facing up against them, the combined forces of Athens and Thebes
0:39:41 > 0:39:45and in the Athenian ranks, the orator Demosthenes.
0:39:49 > 0:39:51Philip was victorious,
0:39:51 > 0:39:55while Demosthenes, whose words had so inflamed the conflict,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57is said to have fled the scene.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02Two monuments to the battle remain visible to this day.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06They stand for more than just the graves of the fallen,
0:40:06 > 0:40:11they stand for the end of the independent and free politics of Greek city-states.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15Beneath these trees lie the ashes of Philip's fallen warriors.
0:40:15 > 0:40:21Their bodies were burned on a grand funeral pyre decorated with weapons
0:40:21 > 0:40:25before being buried beneath a huge mound of earth.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27The second monument to the battle
0:40:27 > 0:40:30sits beside the modern town of Chaeronea.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37This is the Lion of Chaeronea, proudly facing the battlefield.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39Its origins are somewhat mysterious,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42but what's really crucial is what's underneath it -
0:40:42 > 0:40:46254 skeletons, laid out in seven rows,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49a mass grave belonging to, we think,
0:40:49 > 0:40:53members of the Theban Sacred Band who fell in the battle.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56And their skeletons testify to the ferocity of the clash -
0:40:56 > 0:41:00leg bones broken in two, skulls fractured.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05And today, the Greeks, as they do with all cemeteries, have lined it with cypress trees,
0:41:05 > 0:41:10forever marking the sanctity and importance of this place.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18I defy anyone to come here and not feel the importance of this place,
0:41:18 > 0:41:23this place where the fortunes of Greece changed forever.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32The world that had given birth to theatre was no longer governed
0:41:32 > 0:41:35by city-states or democrats -
0:41:35 > 0:41:38it was a world controlled by a king.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42But the story of the relationship between history and theatre
0:41:42 > 0:41:46would take a shocking and dramatic twist.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49Tragedy and real life were about to clash.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54In 336 BC, the famous actor Neoptolemus,
0:41:54 > 0:41:56now a resident of Macedon,
0:41:56 > 0:42:01was preparing an important performance for the king at the royal city of Aegae.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06He was to present pieces from his tragedy repertoire at a royal banquet
0:42:06 > 0:42:10on the eve of the celebration of Philip's daughter's marriage.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14We don't know the name of the tragedy he chose,
0:42:14 > 0:42:17but the historian Diodorus preserved the words.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32Philip was delighted with the performance
0:42:32 > 0:42:35and, after the banquet, the crowd raced to the theatre at Aegae
0:42:35 > 0:42:38where the festivities would continue at daybreak.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41This was the scene of the celebration.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44The spectators took their seats before dawn,
0:42:44 > 0:42:50every seat was filled and, as the curtain of darkness rose, the procession began.
0:42:50 > 0:42:51Here, in the theatre,
0:42:51 > 0:42:57carried amidst the procession were 13 lavishly adorned statues.
0:42:57 > 0:42:5912 of them represented the gods
0:42:59 > 0:43:05and the 13th representing Philip as their enthroned companion.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09And a little way behind the statues walked Phillip himself,
0:43:09 > 0:43:12clothed in white and without a bodyguard
0:43:12 > 0:43:15to demonstrate his omnipotence.
0:43:15 > 0:43:21And at that moment, one of his own soldiers rushed into the theatre
0:43:21 > 0:43:23and stabbed him to death.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30The sources suggest that Philip's attacker nursed a personal grudge against the king,
0:43:30 > 0:43:32but we'll never know the whole truth -
0:43:32 > 0:43:36the assassin was killed as he tried to flee the scene.
0:43:36 > 0:43:41The whole sequence of events was worthy of a tale by Euripides himself.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46And, in fact, later in life, the actor Neoptolemus was asked what was his favourite scene in tragedy.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50And he replied not one in any play, but one on a much greater stage -
0:43:50 > 0:43:53watching Philip enter as the 13th god
0:43:53 > 0:43:56and then being killed here, in the theatre.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04Philip's body was placed on a pyre
0:44:04 > 0:44:07and burned in traditional Macedonian fashion
0:44:07 > 0:44:09before his bones were wrapped in purple cloth,
0:44:09 > 0:44:12encased in an ossuary of hammered pure gold
0:44:12 > 0:44:18and buried here, in this tomb, alongside some of the riches of his kingdom.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20The findings here, at the Royal Tombs,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23reveal the extravagance of the funeral.
0:44:23 > 0:44:29This gold myrtle wreath is made up of 80 leaves and 112 flowers.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Philip's luxurious funeral arrangements were organised
0:44:33 > 0:44:37by the new king - his son, Alexander.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40What happened next is the stuff of legend.
0:44:40 > 0:44:41By the age of 25,
0:44:41 > 0:44:46Alexander was no longer just king of Macedon and leader of the Greeks.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49He ruled an empire that comprised two million square miles
0:44:49 > 0:44:52and reached as far east as Afghanistan.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54And everywhere he went, he took theatre.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57Alexander could quote Euripides by heart,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00he read Greek tragedies on campaign
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and he held Greek festivals of drama.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05In just over a decade,
0:45:05 > 0:45:09Alexander single-handedly changed the nature of the ancient world.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11But as Alexander's horizons grew,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14Athens' were limited to her own borders
0:45:14 > 0:45:16and she had to adapt accordingly.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20One politician who came to define this era was called Lycurgus.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24He dealt with Athens' defeat by using the funds available
0:45:24 > 0:45:27to celebrate the glory days of theatre.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32The most lasting legacy of Lycurgus' time in office is actually here.
0:45:32 > 0:45:38In 330 BC, he commissioned the first permanent stone Theatre Of Dionysus,
0:45:38 > 0:45:39here, in Athens.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41Indeed, throughout the entire time
0:45:41 > 0:45:43of the glory period of Greek tragedy and comedy,
0:45:43 > 0:45:47it had been a temporary theatre here made of wooden stacks
0:45:47 > 0:45:50put up every year, year on year, with a few permanent seats below.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54Now, it was a glorious monument
0:45:54 > 0:45:57to the greatness of Athenian cultural glory.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02It doubled the size, the number of spectators that could be taken,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06now nearly 17,000 rather than the 10,000 before,
0:46:06 > 0:46:08and indeed the Athenians loved it so much
0:46:08 > 0:46:10that they started using this place
0:46:10 > 0:46:13as their official political assembly place more than the Pnyx,
0:46:13 > 0:46:15the place where it had been during the 5th century.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18And perhaps the most interesting bit is actually here,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21or at least it was here once upon a time.
0:46:21 > 0:46:26A monument was set up with three towering bronze statues
0:46:26 > 0:46:31to none other than Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides -
0:46:31 > 0:46:33the great tragedians.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39In addition, Lycurgus ordered that copies be made
0:46:39 > 0:46:43of all of their plays, which were preserved in the public archives.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Their works were now classics.
0:46:46 > 0:46:52Lycurgus ensured that, although Athens may have lost everything else, she still had theatre.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56The Lycurgun era, if you call it that,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59was a consequent upon a disastrous defeat,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03which is almost equivalent of the defeat by the Spartans in 404,
0:47:03 > 0:47:06so Lycurgus made a big point,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09a big thing about back to the future.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13The way we go forward, guys, is by consolidating,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16by going back to what we were really good at before
0:47:16 > 0:47:20and part of that is literally setting in stone three tragedians
0:47:20 > 0:47:24with, you know, all these other hundreds
0:47:24 > 0:47:26getting forgotten as a result.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Paul's absolutely right that the crisis of the defeat
0:47:30 > 0:47:35that brought about the whole Lycurgun culture was terrible
0:47:35 > 0:47:37and Athens did go back to the future,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40but they knew they could no longer try for political power,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43this was obviously hopeless under the new regime,
0:47:43 > 0:47:47but what they could do was claim that they had invented theatre
0:47:47 > 0:47:51and that they'd invented philosophy, which is very much true.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55It's very much about celebrating the great theatrical past,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59it's very self-consciously building on the repertoire.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02One of the things going back slightly before Lycurgus
0:48:02 > 0:48:04is the export market, for both tragedy and comedy,
0:48:04 > 0:48:06has boomed in the 4th century
0:48:06 > 0:48:11and it's difficult to say whether that has a sort of feedback effect
0:48:11 > 0:48:13into the kind of dramas being produced in Athens
0:48:13 > 0:48:15and whether the kind of forms of drama
0:48:15 > 0:48:18that proliferate in the 4th century are due to the demands
0:48:18 > 0:48:20of the export market as well.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23I mean, if you look at the plays of Aristophanes that seem to have had
0:48:23 > 0:48:24some life outside of Greece,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28they're the ones that had hardly any political references.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33It's clear that theatre was still central to Athens,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36but the reasons why people came here had changed.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40Whereas once they had come here to connect and to be challenged,
0:48:40 > 0:48:42now they came here to be comforted.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45There was certainly much here to be proud of,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49but it's hard to shake the feeling that, behind this new splendour,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52something significant had been lost.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57These changes were reflected on the Athenian stage itself
0:48:57 > 0:48:59in a new kind of drama,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02one that focused on more mundane affairs -
0:49:02 > 0:49:04everyday people and everyday life.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09Inspiration for this new kind of drama came from a scholar called Theophrastus.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12His most important works were his studies in botany.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15But when he wasn't categorising plants,
0:49:15 > 0:49:20Theophrastus turned his expert powers of observation to people-watching.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23This is a copy of Theophrastus' Characters.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25Now, "character" comes from the Greek word to etch,
0:49:25 > 0:49:27to make permanent, to imprint.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30And Theophrastus applies it here not to things,
0:49:30 > 0:49:33but to us and to the inner nature of human beings themselves.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36It's a brilliant piece of acute observation.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40Theophrastus says there are 30 character types out there -
0:49:40 > 0:49:44the flatterer, the boring person,
0:49:44 > 0:49:47the person who's always got bad timing,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51the person who's got bad taste and the person who's got petty ambition.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56And the thing is these character types don't just give us a fantastic window
0:49:56 > 0:49:59onto the people of ancient Athens,
0:49:59 > 0:50:03they can be applied to any city, anywhere in the world at any time.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09"The mean man - he examines his boundary marks every day
0:50:09 > 0:50:12"to see that they have not been touched.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14"He forbids his wife to lend salt,
0:50:14 > 0:50:19"observing that these trifles make a large sum in the course of a year.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22"The garrulous man - your garrulous man is one who sits beside a stranger
0:50:22 > 0:50:25"and tells the dream he had last night,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29"everything he ate for supper, how the present age is sadly degenerate,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31"that wheat is selling very low
0:50:31 > 0:50:34"and that hosts of strangers are in town.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38"The exquisite man - he has his hair cut frequently,
0:50:38 > 0:50:40"his teeth are always pearly white,
0:50:40 > 0:50:43"while his old suit is still good, he gets himself a new one,
0:50:43 > 0:50:47"and he anoints himself with the choicest perfumes."
0:50:47 > 0:50:50Every-day character types like these provided moulds
0:50:50 > 0:50:53for writers of what we now call New Comedy
0:50:53 > 0:50:56and the most famous of the New Comedy playwrights
0:50:56 > 0:50:59was one of Theophrastus' students - Menander.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03Sadly, hardly any examples of this new style have survived -
0:51:03 > 0:51:07we have lots of names and titles, but only one complete play.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11It was only revealed in 1957 after being discovered in Egypt,
0:51:11 > 0:51:13buried in a sealed jar.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15And it was by Menander.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20But from this one surviving play, and a number of other fragments,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23we can get a pretty good idea of what New Comedy was really like.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28And, in fact, many of Menander's titles could have come from Theophrastus' characters.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31He has plays called The Flatterer, The Woman-Hater
0:51:31 > 0:51:33or The Superstitious Man.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36But the key thing is here that, just like Theophrastus,
0:51:36 > 0:51:38the titles are of ordinary people.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41No mythical heroes, no political leaders,
0:51:41 > 0:51:43just people, like you and me.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49The importance of these stock characters types for New Comedy
0:51:49 > 0:51:51is also demonstrated by the fact
0:51:51 > 0:51:54that there are lots of stock character masks surviving
0:51:54 > 0:51:56that would have been used on the stage,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59so we have, for example, the ruler-slave
0:51:59 > 0:52:00or the courtesan
0:52:00 > 0:52:03or, my personal favourite, the first old man.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06And a number of these can be found
0:52:06 > 0:52:10in Menander's sole surviving complete play - The Grouch.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13The Grouch is a man named Knemon.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17He hates the outside world and wants to shut himself away from life.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20He shouts at servants, insults his neighbours
0:52:20 > 0:52:22and pelts visitors with stones.
0:52:22 > 0:52:27But Knemon's seclusion is threatened when a wealthy young man, Sostratos,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30falls in love with his daughter and wants to marry her.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32Knemon is having none of it.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37That is until he falls down a well and is only able to escape
0:52:37 > 0:52:42with the help of his stepson and the lovelorn Sostratos.
0:52:42 > 0:52:47This ordeal forces Knemon to realise that no man is an island.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51"I admit I may have made one error - that was..."
0:52:57 > 0:53:00New Comedy is far less bawdy.
0:53:00 > 0:53:01You still have some slapstick,
0:53:01 > 0:53:05you still have a little bit of innuendo here and there,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09but for the main part, you know, the strap-on phalluses are gone,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12a lot of the jokes about bodily functions are gone.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16There's a shift to concerns about the domestic
0:53:16 > 0:53:20and, well, you get the emergence of stock characters.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22In the example of The Grouch,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25you have a boy falling in love with a girl
0:53:25 > 0:53:27and there's going to be some obstacle.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32In this case, the obstacle is Knemon, the father of the girl,
0:53:32 > 0:53:35who is this terrible misanthrope, OK,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38he just does not want to speak to anyone ever at all.
0:53:38 > 0:53:45And what sense of the key elements of New Comedy
0:53:45 > 0:53:50do you think resonate with the comedy that we understand today?
0:53:50 > 0:53:54If we think about The Grouch and this misanthropic figure
0:53:54 > 0:53:56who's right at the centre of it,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00then, you might think about more relatively recent playwrights,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04so you might think about Moliere and his Misanthrope.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07Here's a production that was done in Liverpool's Playhouse
0:54:07 > 0:54:11and here you see Alceste, the misanthrope in the play.
0:54:11 > 0:54:17He, like Knemon in Menander, is resisting the rules of society.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20And the same thing you can see being explored
0:54:20 > 0:54:23in Shakespeare's Timon Of Athens,
0:54:23 > 0:54:28you have a central character who's really grumpy with society.
0:54:28 > 0:54:33Here he is in this dinner party with his apparent friends,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36who turn out just to be using him for his wealth.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40You know, while these aren't directly drawn from Menander,
0:54:40 > 0:54:47they take that original idea as a way of really shaping the entire play.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58The Grouch is a work entirely unlike that of early Aristophanes.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00Its world is the home,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03domestic bliss and equal amounts of domestic strife,
0:55:03 > 0:55:08but absolutely nothing to do with the wider world and, particularly, with politics.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11It's the ancient equivalent of One Foot In The Grave,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15Men Behaving Badly or comedies like Frasier and Friends.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18It's kitchen-sink drama and, in reality,
0:55:18 > 0:55:21that was really the only horizon Athenians had left.
0:55:23 > 0:55:28This New Comedy symbolises the end of an era, the decline of Athens,
0:55:28 > 0:55:32but it is also a truly revolutionary moment in drama.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37Menander, or Menandros, made a very big impact -
0:55:37 > 0:55:44comedy changed into a new type of comedy - a comedy of families,
0:55:44 > 0:55:49a comedy of errors, a comedy of manners, a comedy of mistakes
0:55:49 > 0:55:54and of identity much more like the comedy that comes down
0:55:54 > 0:55:57through the Roman comedians, through Plautus and Terence,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01to Shakespeare and Moliere and Oscar Wilde.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04And if you look at Ben Jonson's poem
0:56:04 > 0:56:07facing the portrait of Shakespeare in the First Folio,
0:56:07 > 0:56:13he actually alludes to Shakespeare as the Menander of his day.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18So while tragedy remained fundamentally, I would say,
0:56:18 > 0:56:22the same kind of thing, all the way from 500
0:56:22 > 0:56:24down as far as we can trace it,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27comedy did fundamentally change its nature
0:56:27 > 0:56:34from the absurdly fantastical and wonderful carnival comedies
0:56:34 > 0:56:37of Aristophanes and his contemporaries
0:56:37 > 0:56:39down to what we think of as comedy.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49Theatre began the century as a place
0:56:49 > 0:56:51of biting and pointed political commentary
0:56:51 > 0:56:54and more than that, as the obvious choice
0:56:54 > 0:56:57as a rallying point for democratic revolution.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59And yet, as the years passed,
0:56:59 > 0:57:04whereas Athens suffered in a constantly changing and unsettled world,
0:57:04 > 0:57:05theatre went from strength to strength
0:57:05 > 0:57:08spreading across the Hellenistic Empire.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14It had also become more like theatre as we know it today -
0:57:14 > 0:57:17professional and exportable with powerful actors,
0:57:17 > 0:57:21touring companies and a rich and varied repertoire.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24Theatre had become a symbol of Greekness
0:57:24 > 0:57:26and a tool of power and influence,
0:57:26 > 0:57:30coveted by kings and commoners alike.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35It had outgrown its birthplace and spread not just through Greece,
0:57:35 > 0:57:40but to Italy, Egypt, Libya and as far east as Afghanistan.
0:57:40 > 0:57:45It's an amazing story, but for Athens, it is also a story of loss -
0:57:45 > 0:57:52theatre's success is a direct reflection of Athens' loss of power, influence and uniqueness
0:57:52 > 0:57:54during the course of the 4th century.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57Athens was no longer THE city,
0:57:57 > 0:58:01it was just A city in a much bigger world.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03And there was another city to the west
0:58:03 > 0:58:06whose inhabitants would change the story of theatre
0:58:06 > 0:58:10and indeed of the entire Mediterranean - Rome.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19Join The Open University as we explore the connections
0:58:19 > 0:58:24between Greek theatre and modern-day democracy. Go to...
0:58:24 > 0:58:28..and follow the links to The Open University's free learning website.
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd