Agora
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history (900s–700s BCE), free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later in Greek history, the agora served as a marketplace where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods under colonnades.
Classical Athens boasted a large agora in the very heart of the city. Under the Athenian dictators Pisistratus and Hippias, the agora was cleared to a rectangular open area of about 600 by 750 yards, bordered with grand public buildings.
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[edit] History
The temple was destroyed by the occupying Persians in 480–479 BC, the agora was rebuilt in the later 400s to include temples, government buildings, and several colonnades. The agora continued to be the center of Athenian commercial and political life throughout ancient times. One of the most prominent buildings added to the space in the Roman period was the Odeon of Agrippa, built in 15 BC.
The agora arose along with the polis after the fall of Mycenaean civilization, and were well established as a part of a city by the time of Homer (probably the 8th century BC). The most well-known agora is the Ancient Agora of Athens. The Agora Open Air Museum of Izmir is one of the best preserved agoras in the world.
[edit] Discovery
The ancient Athenian agora has been excavated by the American School of Classical Studies since 1931. In the 1950s, the Hellenistic Stoa of Attalos was reconstructed on the east side of the agora, and today it serves as a museum and as storage and office space for the excavation team.
The word agoraphobia, the fear of critical public situations, derives from agora in its meaning as a marketplace.
