This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Anderson , G. The Athenian experiment: building an imagined political community in ancient Attica, BC.
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Martin , R. Paris: De Boccard. Mazarakis Ainian , A. McDonald , W. The political meeting places of the Greeks. Mertens , D. Von der Kolonisationszeit bis zur Krise um vor Christus. Munich: Hirmer. Papadopoulos , J. Pariente , A. Touchais ed. Radt , W. The urban development of Pergamon, in D. Parrish ed. From the 6th and until the 1st century BCE the Agora as the heart of the government and the judiciary, as a public place of debate, as a place of worship, and as marketplace, played a central role in the development of the Athenian ideals, and provided a healthy environment where the unique Democratic political system took its first wobbly steps on earth.
During this time, the Agora's political, cultural, and economic influence shaped some of the most important decisions undertaken in the shaping of what we commonly call today Western Civilization. Well structured arguments by the likes of Socrates and Plato echoed in its streets, the courts and prisons enforced Athenian laws, its Mint spread the dominant Athenian drachma coins throughout the Aegean, the Prytanes determined political affairs in the Tholos, and randomly selected Athenian citizens prepared the laws for the assembly in the Bouleuterion.
With a little imagination and knowledge, one can imagine the hustle and bustle of its streets with merchants of all kinds tending their benches in the shade of the Stoas and under cloth tents, with ox cart wheels creaking through the Panathenaic way, and with citizens convening in small groups under the shade of small trees.
Horses, stray dogs, citizens, metics, slaves, visitors and foreigners--albeit very rarely women--mingled and loitered in the grounds, attentive ears listened to sailor tales from foreign lands, hoplites relayed news from the fronts, and philosophers debated the fine points of arete oblivious to the cacophony rising all around from the energetic artisan workshops. Once per year, the Panathenaic festival united the Athenians in celebration and solemn procession through the Agora toward the Acropolis.
But this imaginative picture of the Agora as an engine of constructive human activity did not last in perpetuity. Its buildings were razed and rebuilt several times through the centuries. The early buildings, mostly bunched on the west end of the Agora, were destroyed by the Persians in BCE, but soon afterward the entire area was rebuilt to include development in the north, west, and southern areas with the erection of three Stoas--the Poikile, the Southern, and the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios--, the Tholos, the New Bouleuterion, the Mint, The Dikastiria law courts , several fountains, along an assortment of artisan workshops.
The fine temple of Hephaestus was built on the low knoll of Kolonos Agoraios in BCE as part of the extensive rebuilding of sacred places initiated by Pericles. The Agora remained a vital place of Athenian life and growth continued until the 2nd c. BCE when the the impressive Stoa of Attalos was dedicated, but eventually, as Athens declined in importance during the late Hellenistic Era so did the development of its Agora.
The Romans under Sulla sacked the Agora in 86 BCE, but later contributed to its growth with impressive buildings programs that lasted until the end of the 2nd century CE. Marcus Agrippa funded the Odeion and probably the Temple of Ares. From the grounds of this temple and from the nearby Areopagos in 52 CE St. Paul introduced Christianity to Athenians and strolled the Agora streets debating with Stoic and Epicurean philosophers.
While St. Paul found the Agora a robust place of assembly, adorned by a myriad of statues of Greek and Roman deities and heroes, a series of subsequent invasions plagued it for the next years. Modern doctors might not have anything to mutter as an oath. What went on at the agora went beyond the simple daily transactions of the market. The conversations that happened there and the ideas that they bore continue to affect us to this day, from the way scientists carry out their work to how we pass our laws.
Nearly every city of ancient Greece had an agora — meaning meeting place — by about B. Usually located near the center of town, the agora was easily accessible to every citizen, with a large central square for market stalls bound by public buildings. The agora of Athens — the hub of ancient Greek civilization — was the size of several football fields and saw heavy traffic every single day of the week.
Women didn't often frequent the agora, but every other character in ancient Greece passed through its columns: politicians, criminals, philosophers and traders , aristocrats, scientists, officials and slaves. Not only did the ancient Greeks go to the agora to pick up fresh meat and some wool for a new robe, but also to meet and greet with friends and colleagues.
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