Theorĭcon
(
τὸ θεωρικόν, sc.
χρῆμα,
“theatremoney”). Money devoted by the State to the public shows and
festivals, or given to the people as legacies. A distribution of two obols (about $0.08) a
head, granted from the time of Pericles to the poorer Athenian citizens, from the common
war-chest (see
Hellenotamiae), enabled them to
attend the representations at the theatre, two obols being the entrance fee levied by the
lessees of the theatre. By degrees this grant was distributed to citizens who laid claim
to it in the case of other entertainments, such as festivals and sacrifices. For the contests
and games at the Panathenaea, Dionysia, Eleusinia, Thargelia, money was set apart by the
State, while some of the expense was borne by individuals. (See
Liturgia.) The public treasury also defrayed a portion of the cost of the
Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian Games. It was abolished towards the end of the
Poloponnesian War, but again introduced after the restoration of the democracy; and a special
fund, to which, by a decree of the people, the whole surplus of the revenue was to be devoted,
was set apart for this purpose, with a special treasurer, who had even for a time the
management of the finances of the State. Demosthenes first succeeded, shortly before the
battle of Chaeronea (B.C. 338), in putting an end to this system, which so severely taxed the
resources of the State in time of war. See Fickelscherer,
De Theoricis
Atheniensium Pecuniis (Leipzig, 1877).