Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 251. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ATTICA, Athens. Mid-late fourth century BC. Æ Eisiterion – Entrance Token (3.10 g). Large A / Blank. Cf. J. Svoronos, “Εἰσιτηρία χαλκᾶ τοῦ Λυκουργείου Διονυσιάκου θεάτρου καὶ τῆς Κλεισθενείου ἐκκλησίας τῶν Ἀθηναίων,” JIAN 1 (1898), 48 (head of Athena on obverse). Near VF, brown and green patina.

From the J.S. Wagner Collection.

Although seating for the audience in an ancient Greek theater followed a specified arrangement, this plan was significantly different from that of its modern counterpart, requiring a special token to place each member of the audience in his own specific section. Special block of seats were reserved for members of the βουλή, the 500-member Executive Council of the Assembly, while citizens sat in sections assigned on the basis of the ten Attic tribes. To quickly and successfully seat the audience prior to the performance, εἰσιτηρία, or entrance tokens stamped with a Greek letter corresponding to a specific seating section, were distributed upon the payment of the two obol entrance fee. For those unable to meet the cost of admission, Athens had established a special Theoric Fund, to which any male citizen enrolled in a deme (tribe) might apply to obtain the required funding to attend the theatrical performances of the City Dionysia, thus showing that theatrical performance was more than entertainment, it was a civic duty.