Geometrodynamical Formulation of Two-Dimensional Dilaton Gravity and the Quantum Birkhoff Theorem

General two-dimensional pure dilaton-gravity can be discussed in a unitary way by introducing suitable field redefinitions. The new fields are directly related to the original spacetime geometry and in the canonical picture they generalize the well-known geometrodynamical variables used in the discussion of the vacuum dilatonic black hole. So the model can be quantized using the techniques developed for the latter case. The resulting quantum theory coincides with the quantum theory obtained imposing the Birkhoff theorem at the classical level.