§ 10 The Prizes
When the contest was ended, and the decision of the judges had been announced, the names of the victorious poet and of his choregus were publicly proclaimed by the herald, and they were crowned with garlands of ivy in the presence of the spectators. The crowning probably took place upon the stage, and was performed by the archon.154 There is no mention of any special prize for the choregus, in addition to the honour of the crown and the public proclamation of his victory. It is often stated that the successful choregus received a tripod from the State, which he was expected to erect upon a monument in some public place, with an inscription recording his victory. But this was only the case in the dithyrambic contests. In these contests each choregus appeared as the representative of one of the ten tribes of Attica; the tripod which he received belonged really to the tribe, and was intended to serve as a tribal monument.155 The dramatic choregi had no such representative character, nor were they provided with any memorial of victory by the State.
As to the rewards for the poets, the tradition was that in the earliest times the prize for tragedy was a goat, the prize for comedy a basket of figs and a jar of wine.156 After the dramatic contests had been regularly organized, each of the competing poets received a payment of money from the State, differing no doubt in amount, according to the place he gained in the competition.157 Nothing is known as to the value of these prizes. But as the ancient dramatist had not only to write his plays, but also to superintend their production, the demands upon his time and energy must have been very great, and the rewards would be correspondingly large. Some idea of the scale on which the amounts were graduated, according to the place of each poet in the competition, may be gathered from the analogy of the dithyrambic contests instituted by Lycurgus in the Peiraeeus. In these contests not less than three choruses were to take part, and the prizes were to be ten minae for the first chorus, eight for the second, and six for the third.158 The payment of the dramatic poets was probably arranged in a somewhat similar proportion. Towards the end of the fifth century the prizes were reduced in amount by certain commissioners of the Treasury, named Archinus and Agyrrhius. Accordingly in the Frogs of Aristophanes these two statesmen are placed in the list of bad men who are not allowed to join the chorus of the initiated.159 The fact that all of the competing poets received a reward of money need cause no astonishment. They were the poets chosen, after selection, to provide the entertainment at the annual festivals. They were not selected until their plays had been carefully examined by the archon and found to be of the requisite merit. To be allowed to exhibit at all was a considerable distinction. There was nothing dishonourable for an ordinary poet in being placed last in the competition. No doubt for one of the great dramatic writers such a position was regarded as a disgrace. When Aristophanes was third it is spoken of as a distinct rebuff.160 But to obtain the second place was always creditable. It is mentioned as a proof of the greatness of Sophocles that he ‘obtained twenty victories and was often second’. When he was defeated for the first place by Philocles, the disgrace consisted, not in his being second, but in his being beaten by such an inferior poet.161 At the same time to be second was never regarded as a ‘victory’. The title of victor was reserved for the first poet. This is proved by the passage about Sophocles just quoted, and also by the fact that in the list of victors at the City Dionysia only the names of the first poets in the tragic and comic contests are enumerated.162 It is clearly owing to an error that the second poet is sometimes spoken of as a victor.163