ossibly the best preserved of all Roman theatres is that at Sabratha, in what is now Libya [Pis. i^, 16]. Built about ad 200, it is a late and completely developed example,

carried through to a single design, and unhampered by previous buildings on the site. No luxury was spared, the reigning emperor, Septimius Severus, . being a native of North Africa and keen to encourage its prosperity; it was never altered, has survived in good condition, and has been ideally restored by Italian archaeologists.

What makes Sabratha so immediately impressive is its great scaenaefrons, which rises in three storeys, the height of the columns subtly diminishing as it goes up [PL 16]. In plan it consists of three large niches framing doors, and connected by groups of four columns sharing a continuous plinth. The niches contain coupled columns, so that across the facade one gets an alternating rhythm of four and two.

The columns themselves were once vividly distinct, though time and weather have blurred their original brilliance. Those on the lowest storey and the coupled columns of the two upper storeys are of a dark-bluish stone called pavonezetto ; the other columns of the middle storey are of banded white marble, fluted vertically or spirally; and those of the top storey are of black granite. Between the columns at each stage must certainly have been statues, as we see them in Pompeiian wall-paintings. From the top, covering the stage, a wooden roof projected on brackets.

In the undulating wall of the scaenaefrons are tiny rooms, probably used for keeping stage properties; at each end narrow staircases lead to the upper storeys upon which the actors—precariously—often had to appear. The two big areas of blank wall which now flank the stage were originally fairly large rooms, accessible from the portico behind the scene building and opening also on to the upper tiers of the auditorium. They were once articulated on the exterior by superimposed Corinthian columns, uniting them visually with the scaenaefrons.

The stage itself is low, its front edge reproducing in miniature the indentations of the scaenae frons plan, three niches alternating with four square recesses. Like the Roman Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, it has sculptured reliefs, with theatrical and allegorical scenes.