Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Proscenium

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

PROSCE'NIUM (προσκήνιον). The stage of an ancient theatre, including the whole space of the elevated platform, bounded by the permanent wall of the scena at the back, and by the orchestra in front (Vitruv. v. 6. 1. Ib. 7. 1. Apul. Flor. 18. Virg. Georg. ii. 381. Serv. ad l.). This stage, or part before the scenes, did not, however, extend backwards, either in a Greek or Roman theatre, to nearly so great a depth as the stage of a modern playhouse, because the number of characters in the ancient drama were much fewer than we are accustomed to introduce, and the chorus of the Greeks performed all their evolutions in the orchestra, while the Romans did not exhibit any chorus at all. The illustration (Proscenium/1.1) presents a view of the proscenium in the great theatre at Pompeii, taken from the centre of the first lobby (praecinctio), and shows a large part of the orchestra, with the stage beyond, then the wall of the scene with its three entrances, and the boundary wall of the postscenium, in a half tint at the back.

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  Proscenium/1.1