Ancient Greek Theatre.

The origins of drama TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, two thousand years before Shakespeare, Western theatre was born in Athens, Greece. Between 600 and 200 BC, the ancient Athenians created a theatre culture whose form, technique and terminology have lasted two millenia, and they created plays that are still considered among the greatest works in theatre. Their achievement is truly remarkable when one considers that there have been only two other periods in theatre history which approached the …

…the first Athenian drama competition, the golden era of Greek drama was waning. Athens, whose free-thinking culture had spawned the birth of theatre, would be overrun in 404 BC by the Spartans, and would later be torn apart by constant warring with other city states, eventually falling under the dominion of Alexander the Great and his Macedonian armies. Theatre continued, but it would not return to the same creative heights until Elizabethan England two millenia later.