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Modern Description: The best preserved relict of the area is the ancient theatre which is reached by continuing 100m further along the path. It is a later structure which dates from the period of Roman rule after the 2nd century BC, created in a deep natural cavity, shaped and faced with Parian marble and looking out due south across the bay. Only the retaining walls at either extremity of the cavea have needed to be built up: they are constructed in a multicolour, isodomic masonry of andesite blocks—now substantially eroded—with carefully drafted angles. The corners of the entrance are beautifully faced in a contrasting white, Parian marble. The semicircular orchestra is set down well below the level of the first of the eight remaining rows of marble seats in the cavea, indicating its use also for the more elaborate entertainment spectacles typical of Roman taste. The structure of the skene is now in ruins: the complex drill-cut designs of the pieces of its trabeation, which lie in fragments in the orchestra but whose detail has survived well, show that it must have been an elaborate structure. Turning back from the theatre to the East Gate, shortly before the point where the Venus de Milo was found, and taking a clear track back to the left, you come up onto a small plateau above the theatre, marked by a couple of column stumps. In the centre of the area, recessed into the ground, is a small cruciform Early Christian baptismal pool, with some of its marble revetment still in place. Nothing remains of the Baptistery building which once enclosed it or the basilica which may have stood nearby.
Wikidata ID: Q38184737

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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