Il teatro ellenistico di Mytilene: note preliminari per la sua ricostruzione

The fame of the theatre of Mytilene(Lesbos) is due to Plutarch, who tells how Pompey, during his visit to the polis in 63 BC, greatly impressed by the monument, ordered his architects to take it as a model for the realization of a permanent theatre that he intended to build in Rome. For a long time scholars have discussed on what were the architectural characteristics that Pompey had so much admired; nevertheless, in the face of many advanced hypotheses, a systematic study of the architectural remains of the theatre, in cooperation between the Polytechnic of Bari and the Archaeological Ephorate of Lesbos, begun only in 2015. The new survey and the identification of the architectural fragments have allowed the reconstruction of the general plan and of the skené elevation, already in the Hellenistic age on two orders, completely of marble. The reconstruction permit to understand what impressed Pompey so much and to assign the theatre of Mytilene and its skené a key role in the formation of the model of the Roman theatre.