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Ancient Agora
South-east side
Private houses in the Ancient Agora
The remains of many private houses have been found on the north,
west and south slope of the Areios Pagos, outside the Ancient Agora. Those
of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, plain both in scale and
furnishing, were probably the residences of craftsmen and merchants.
Their floor plan was simple. The various rooms were organized
around a central rectangular court, usually without a peristyle.
Their number and arrangement depended on the size of the houses.
Only the lower part of the walls was of stone. The rest was made
of plinths covered with lime mortar. The floors were pressed mud-earth
except for the andron (the men’s dining room) where the floor
was paved with pebbles or mosaics. Many of these houses were two-storeyed.
The wooden roof had terracotta tiling. Some larger and richer houses
of the 4th and 5th centuries BC were the residences of famous teachers
who, as is believed, gave private lessons and offered hospitality
to their favorite students.
The ruins of a house have been found between the Tholos and the
Middle Stoa. it had two rooms and a front court where numerous
metal nails and small rings, such as those used in shoe-making,
were found. The base of a cup inscribed with the name of its owner, “of
Simon” was discovered. The house must have belonged to a
shoe-maker, possibly the Simon whose workshop was visited by Socrates,
according to ancient writers.
BYZANTINE HOUSES
The area around the Ancient
Agora continued to be inhabited until the 6th-7th century.
This can be confirmed by the existence of several luxurious
late Roman houses such as the apsidal “House Γ” with
a triclinium north from the Areios Pagos and by the remnants
of houses in the area of the Tholos and the conversion
of the Temple of Hephaestus (Hephaisteion – Theseion)
into a Christian church (6th-7th century).
Today the most probable
theory is that from the late 10th century the city was
limited within the late Roman walls, while during the 11th
and mainly the 12th century a number of areas were developed
outside the walls. Remains of Byzantine houses have been
found on the east and north side of the Agoraios Kolonos
in the Roman Agora, on the west side of Areios Pagos, in
Kerameikos (above the Pompeion), on the southern side of
the Acropolis (near the Odeion of Herodes Atticus and the
Theatre of Dionysos) as well as near the Temple of Olympian
Zeus (the Olympeion).
The expansion of the city
in those areas outside the late Roman walls is also indicated
by the great number of churches that were built there.
One can get a better idea regarding the type of neighborhoods
in medieval Athens from the small area on the north-eastern
side of the Agoraios Kolonos where between the 10th and
12th century, a wide densely populated neighborhood developed.
The lack of city planning
arrangements there is evident. The houses have been built
on either side of a narrow street directed from the north
towards the south. The houses have small rooms built around
a yard which was usually whitewashed and had a small shed
on one side. In most cases there have been two or three
settlement stages. There used to be water wells in the
yard while food supplies were stored in large earthenware
jars embedded to the floor.
The buildings were cheap
and only the foundations have been preserved while the
restoration of the walls has been impossible. Amidst the
houses there used to be small shops and workshops. There
was a large square building with many rooms which might
have been an indoor market, an inn or perhaps a workshop,
probably manufacturing textiles.
The Library of Pantainos
The Library of Pantainos was built to the south of the Stoa of
Attalos. Between the two buildings there was a paved street with
colonnades, constructed in 100 AD. which connected the Ancient
Agora and the Roman Agora. The Library of Pantainos was built around
that time by the Athenian Titus Flavius Pantainos in honor of the
goddess Athena, the emperor Trajan and the people of Athens.
The building had a rectangular courtyard with a peristyle with
several rooms around it. The main library hall was situated to
the east. It was a large square room, 10 meters (32.80 ft) on each
side with a colonnade at the front. Its interior walls were
covered with marble. This is where the books were kept. The
rooms on the western and northern side of the building, in front
of which there was an Ionic colonnade, had their entrance from
the Agora and they probably served as shops or sculptor’s
workshops.
The remains of the library are not visible today due to
the construction of the late Roman wall which was built with architectural
parts from public buildings that were destroyed during the invasion
of the Herulians in 267 AD.
At the site a fragmentary inscription
was found mentioning the rules of the library according to which
lending books was not allowed. This inscription, as well as the
dedicatory inscription of the donor, are displayed in the Ancient
Agora Museum in the Stoa of Attalos.
The Stoa of Attalos
The Stoa of Attalos is a prominent building in the east side of
the Ancient Agora in Athens. It was built ca 150 BC with a donation
from Attalos II, the King of Pergamon (159-138 BC). The Stoa of
Attalos was discovered during the excavations carried out by the
Greek Archaeological Society between 1859 and 1902. It is the most
representative monument of the Hellenistic period in Athens. The
Stoa now houses the Ancient Agora Museum.
In reconstructing the Stoa of Attalos (1953-1956), the American
School of Classical Studies in Athens used much of the original
architecture. The Stoa is a two-storeyed building (116 m
by 19.4 m - 381 ft x 63.64 ft) made of Pentelic marble, grey Hymittos
marble and Attic limestone. The façade of the lower
floor has a colonnade of 45 Doric columns with unfluted lower drums. A
second colonnade of 22 unfluted Ionic columns runs along the inside.
At the far end of the Stoa there were 21 store-rooms which the
city lent to private merchants.
In the south-east part of the Stoa there was a stairway leading
to the upper floor whose floor plan mirrored that of the ground
floor with a colonnade of 45 Ionic columns along the façade.
Marble parapets closed the spaces between the columns. The
interior colonnade was decorated by Pergamene capitals and there
were 21 rooms. On the epistyle of the lower floor there were inscriptions
with the donor’s name “King Attalos son of King Attalos
and Queen Apollonis”.
In front of the Stoa there were honorific pedestals and statues.
The most remarkable was a pedestal with a bronze quadriga (a
four-horse chariot) and its rider Attalos II, the donor of the
Stoa. Later, the Athenians used the monument to honor Emperor Tiberius.
The foundation of the pedestal can still be seen in front of the
middle of the Stoa façade.
The Stoa of Attalos was a large and important commercial centre.
It served Athenian trade and business. It offered shade in summer
and shelter from the winter rains. The building is notable because
of its special luxury which was an unusual feature. The Stoa was
the most significant monument ever donated by the Attalids, the
kings of Pergamon, to Athens.
The Stoa of Attalos was destroyed
during the invasion of the Herulians (267 BC) and its building
material was used to construct the new defensive wall, known as
Rizokastro, along the eastern side of the Agora.