| The Agora of Athens was the center of the | | | | was rebuilt and public buildings were added to the |
| ancient city: a large, open square where the | | | | Agora one by one throughout the 5th and 4th |
| citizens could assemble for a wide variety of | | | | centuries, when Athens contended for the |
| purposes. On any given day the space might be | | | | hegemony of Greece. It is during this "Classical" |
| used as a market, or for an election, a dramatic | | | | period that the Agora and its buildings were |
| performance, a religious procession, military drill, or | | | | frequented by statesmen such as Themistokles, |
| athletic competition. Here administrative, political, | | | | Perikles, and Demosthenes, by the poets |
| judicial, commercial, social, cultural, and religious | | | | Aeschylos, Sophokles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, |
| activities all found a place together in the heart of | | | | by the writers Thucydides and Herodotos, by |
| Athens, and the square was surrounded by the | | | | artists such as Pheidias and Polygnotos, and by |
| public buildings necessary to run the Athenian | | | | philosophers such as Sokrates, Plato, and Aristotle. |
| government. These buildings, along with | | | | Together, they were responsible for creating a |
| monuments and small objects, illustrate the | | | | society and culture that has set a standard |
| important role it played in all aspects of public life. | | | | against which subsequent human achievements |
| The council chamber, magistrates' offices, mint, | | | | have been judged. The Agora was the focal point |
| and archives have all been uncovered, while the | | | | of their varied activities and here the concept of |
| law courts are represented by the recovery of | | | | democracy was first developed and practiced. |
| bronze ballots and a water-clock used to time | | | | With the rise of Macedon under Philip II and |
| speeches. The use of the area as a marketplace | | | | Alexander the Great and during the subsequent |
| is indicated by the numerous shops where | | | | Hellenistic period, all significant military, economic, |
| potters, cobblers, bronze workers, and sculptors | | | | and political power shifted to the East. In the |
| made and sold their wares. | | | | spheres of education and philosophy, however, |
| Long stoas (colonnades) provided shaded | | | | Athens maintained her preeminence. The |
| walkways for those wishing to meet friends to | | | | Academy, founded by Plato, and the Lyceum, |
| discuss business, politics, or philosophy, while | | | | founded by Aristotle, continued to flourish. They |
| statues and commemorative inscriptions reminded | | | | were supplemented by the arrival of Zeno of |
| citizens of former triumphs. A library and concert | | | | Kition, who chose to lecture at the Agora in the |
| hall met cultural needs, and numerous small shrines | | | | Painted Stoa. Athenian cultural dominance |
| and temples received regular worship. Given the | | | | continued throughout the Roman period, and the |
| prominence of Athens throughout much of | | | | buildings added to the Agora reflect the |
| antiquity, the Agora provides one of the richest | | | | educational role of the city, a role that ended only |
| sources for our understanding of the Greek world | | | | with the closing of the pagan philosophical schools |
| in antiquity. | | | | by the Christian emperor Justinian in A.D. 529. |
| Used as a burial ground and for scattered | | | | With the collapse of security in the empire, |
| habitation in the Bronze and Iron Ages, the area | | | | Athens and the Agora suffered from periodic |
| was first laid out as a public space in the 6th | | | | invasions and destructions: the Herulians in the 3rd |
| century B.C. Administrative buildings and small | | | | century, the Visigoths in the 4th, the Vandals in |
| sanctuaries were built, and water was made | | | | the 5th, and the Slavs in the 6th. Following the |
| available at a fountain house fed by an early | | | | Slavic invasion the area of the Agora was largely |
| aqueduct. Following the total destruction of Athens | | | | abandoned and neglected for close to 300 years. |
| at the hands of the Persians in 480 B.C., the city | | | | |