Classical Athens saw the rise of an achievement unparalleled in history. Perikles, Aeschylus, Sophokles, Plato, Demosthenes, Thucydides, and Praxiteles represent just a few of the statesmen and playwrights, ...
The excavations of the Athenian Agora have uncovered about thirty acres on the sloping ground northwest of the Acropolis (Fig. 3). Material of all periods from the Late Neolithic to modern times has been ...
Numerous roads led in and out of the Agora square. By far the most important, however, was the broad street known as the Dromos or Panathenaic Way, the principal thoroughfare of the city (Fig. 4). It ...
Near the middle of the open square, somewhat to the north, lay the Altar of the Twelve Gods (Fig. 7), today largely hidden under the Athens–Piraeus railway (1891). A corner of the enclosure wall survives, ...
Lying just south of the railroad tracks, along the west side, are the remains of the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios (Freedom) (Figs. 8, 9). This cult of Zeus was established after the battle of Plataia in 479 ...
Next to the Stoa of Zeus at the south are the remains of a small temple of Apollo Patroos (Fatherly), so-called because he was the father of Ion, founder of the Ionian Greeks, a tribe that included the ...
Overlooking the Agora from the hill to the west (Kolonos Agoraios), is the Hephaisteion, the best preserved example of a Doric temple in mainland Greece (Fig. 12). It was dedicated jointly to Hephaistos ...
The south half of the west side was given over to the major administrative buildings used to run the Athenian democracy (Fig. 14). The buildings are poorly preserved, but the identifications are secure ...
Just uphill from the Tholos was the Bouleuterion, meeting place of the boule, or senate. Five hundred Athenian citizens were chosen by lot to serve for a year, and met in this building every day except ...
The Metroon served two functions; it was both a sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods and the archive building of the city, a repository of official records (Fig. 19). The present remains date to the mid-2nd ...
Across the street from the Metroon lie the remains of the Monument of the Eponymous Heroes (Fig. 21). When Kleisthenes created the democracy in 508/7 B.C., he assigned all the Athenians to ten newly-formed ...
Inscribed marble posts were used to mark the entrances to the Agora wherever a street led into the open square. Two have been found in situ, inscribed with the simple text "I am the boundary of the Agora," ...
Leaving the area of the boundary stone, one can head southwest up a valley leading toward the Pnyx, meeting place of the Athenian assembly. Here are the complex remains of a residential and commercial ...
Closer to the agora proper a row of five public buildings lined the south side of the square in the Classical period (Fig. 29, 36). They comprise several important monuments, though their state of preservation ...
Immediately to the east are the poor remains of a large square enclosure, open to the sky and measuring about 30 meters on a side. Built in the early 5th century, at the command of the oracle of Apollo ...
Measuring some 80 meters long, South Stoa I takes up much of the south side; its eastern end is the better preserved (Figs. 31, 32). It had a double colonnade, with sixteen rooms behind. It dates to ca ...
The slight traces just south of the Church of the Holy Apostles have been identified as the remains of an early fountain house (Figs. 33, 34). The identification is based on a large terracotta pipeline ...
Just east of the fountain house lie the miserable remains of a large square building with several rooms; the northern half lies under the Church of the Holy Apostles and the Southeast Temple (Early Roman) ...
The appearance of the south side of the Agora was radically changed during the 2nd century B.C. with the construction of several new buildings. This South Square, as it is called, was made up of two long ...
Running southward from the east end of the Middle Stoa is the East Building. Its eastern half takes the form of a long hall with a marble chip floor and stone slabs designed to carry wooden furniture, ...
