Abstract
In this paper I want to consider one controversial aspect of the ancient conditions of dramatic production: how many comedies were produced at the Athenian dramatic festivals in the late fifth century. I wonder how often we teachers of courses in ancient drama have repeated as gospel the conclusion of, for example, Pickard-Cambridge (p.83) that during the Peloponnesian War the number of competitors was reduced from five to three:
The normal number of comic poets competing at both the Dionysia and the Lenaia during the Classical period seems to have been five, except that, during part of the Peloponnesian War, it was reduced to three, probably owing to financial depression in Athens.1
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© 2002 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany
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Storey, I.C. (2002). Cutting Comedies. In: Barsby, J. (eds) Greek and Roman Drama: Translation and Performance. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-02908-9_9
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