Theater 2

View looking east as the interior of the Theater at Nysa.  The theater could seat about 12,000 people.  It was built in the second half of the first century BC.  Note how the theater is larger than a semi-circle and characteristic of Hellenistic theaters.

Notice the stairs that divide the theater seating into sections.  There were two "belts" (diazoma) that divided the seating are horizontally into three sections.

The orange roof on the right (south) covers reliefs of mythological scenes that graced the stage area.  During the life of the theater the backdrop of the stage (the scaenae frons) was two, and sometimes three, stories high.

The theater went through a number of rebuilds during the Late Roman Period—during the reigns of the emperors Antoninus Pius and later Septimius Severus.