THE HISTORY OF GREEK DRAMA would be much easier to understand if the extant monuments and literary evidence relating to the Greek theatre belonged to the same periods and regions as the extant plays. Unfortunately a very large proportion of the monuments (theatre-buildings, mosaics, wall-paintings, vase-paintings, marble and terracotta figures and reliefs) is either later than the complete plays and fragments which survive, or else is associated with places other than Athens, where all the extant plays were first produced; and the literary notices, since they generally occur in late authors, are of doubtful value. Inevitably, attempts to visualize the staging of fifth-century plays in a Hellenistic or Roman setting, with the actors costumed in the fashion of Roman Imperial times, have led in the past to contradictions and confusion. Yet when errors in reconstruction have once been accepted as dogma, it is seldom easy to recognize and correct them without destroying our whole conception of the ancient theatre. It is essential, then, that the history of Greek theatre production should be clearly subdivided by periods and regions. Furthermore, no play, or literary notice, or monument, should be used in discussing the practices of a particular period and place, until its date has been more or less definitely established, and its relevance to periods and places other than its own carefully assessed. The plays themselves present few problems in this regard, since they are all Athenian, and can generally be closely dated. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of monuments and literary notices. The process of sorting out this type of evidence is still not complete; and new monuments are constantly being discovered in excavation or made available through publication. It requires years of study even to begin to see one's way through the maze. What then must be the feelings of the student just being introduced to the subject, or of the teacher who is endeavouring to guide him? For them, as well as for the specialist who wishes to pursue the subject in detail, Webster's studies will be immensely valuable.x Webster's Greek Theatre Production (hereafter GTP) is illustrated with 38 photographs on 24 plates. A list at the end of the book gives the provenance, date, and present whereabouts of, and a key reference for, each