Joel Tomanelli

The Historical Procession of the Athenian Agora

The area of the Athenian Agora from the Archaic Period to the Roman times would see drastic, steady transformations from the simple common green and political and cultural center it began as to the bustling epicenter and showcase of wealth and development it reached during the Roman times before the Herculian invasion of 267 B.C.E. The Agora remained relatively simple until the beginning of the fourth century B.C.E. The name Agora itself denotes a meeting place and it was considered hallowed ground, with marble boundary stones emplaced wherever a street entered the square, demarcating it wherever as land not to ever be built upon. Furthermore, the boundary stones acted as a border across which unholy and/or impure people, i.e. those convicted of desertion, cowardice in battle, or maltreatment of their parents, were not allowed (Camp 45-46). Following the execution of Socrates in 399 B.C.E., Plato and Aristotle each started schools of philosophy, and by the end of the fourth century B.C.E. Athens had become the educational capital of the world. Thus, from its inception as a simple and sacred civic square, it would evolve into a bustling epicenter of international activity and an architectural testament to its past. And so, even after the political and economic power of Athens had dwindled in the centuries subsequent to its so-called Golden Age, its cultural and educational significance allowed architecture within the Agora to continue to flourish, although not in concordance with the original consecrated nature and civic importance with which the Agora had been founded. By highlighting the construction and implementation of the Royal Stoa, the

Statues of Eponymous Heroes, the Stoa of Attalos, and the Odeion of Herod Agrippa, I will show these transformations of the Athenian Agora, both in implementation and in manifestation. The Royal Stoa, or Stoa Basilieos, was constructed in the Archaic Period, estimated around the middle of the sixth century B.C.E., with three walls and one colonnade of eight columns facing the field of the Agora from the Northwest Corner aside the Panathenaic Way. Those watching the festival from the inside would have had a great view of the entire Panathenaic Procession up until the moment it passed through the dipylon gate. It was most likely the subject of almost entire destruction in the Persian invasion of 480 B.C.E., and rebuilt true to its original design afterwards. This is corroborated by the fact that despite the tentative construction date of around 550 B.C.E., hypothesized from the stylistic elements of its Doric columns and Doric frieze, pottery shards dating to 500 B.C.E. were excavated from underneath the floor. As per its name, the Stoa Basileus was primarily the office of the archon, the second-in-command and symbolic king of the city. Aristotle gives the following description of his role :
The basileus is first responsible for the Mysteries, in conjunction with the overseers elected by the peoplealso for the Dionysia at the Lenaion, which involves a procession and a contestHe also organizes all the torch-races and on might say that he administers all the traditional sacrifices. Public lawsuits fall to him on charges of impiety, and when a man is involved in a dispute with someone over a priesthood. He holds the adjudications for clans and for priests in all their disputes on religious matters. Also all private suits for homicide fall to him. (Ath. Pol 57)

This shows the extraordinary public importance of the king as well as the open nature of his kingship. On a herm base set up outside the Stoa Basileus is recorded the winners of the theatre festival in Lenaia of 400 B.C.E. (Camp 100). Also from Aristotles discourse on Athenian politics is the following passage: Inscribing the laws (of Solon) on the pillars, they set them up in the Stoa Basileios. The nine archons, taking an oath at the stone, declared that they would set up a golden statue if they transgressed any of the laws; this is

the origin of the oath which they still take (Ath. Pol. 7,1). According to an unattributed fragment, The law of Drakon concerning homicide is to be inscribed by the inscribers of the laws, after they have received it from the secretary of the Boule for the prytany, on a stone stele, and placed in front of the Stoa Basileia (Wycherley 21-25). The literary and epigraphical testimony indicates an important tradition held through multiple administrations of inscribing important laws on stelai directly outside of the Royal Stoa. Beyond attesting to the widespread literacy of the time, this is a clear indication of the public nature of the Royal Stoa and, by extension, the Agora in general. Also attested to is the function of the large, ungainly stone awkwardly placed in the front of the Stoa as a place for taking oaths of public office (Camp 53, 100-105). Perhaps most remarkable, especially considering the notion of kingship that Western culture has attained, is that the archon passed his days in the Royal Stoa entirely accessible to anyone who could enter the Agora and wholly engrossed in his public duties. Above all, the evidence from the Royal Stoa points to the staunchly public nature of the Athenian community in both the Archaic and the classical periods. Kleisthenes literally rocked the Athenian world in 508/7 B.C.E. with a series of reforms that abolished the old four Ionian tribes and divided the populace into ten newlywrought tribes, each made up of people from various places in the social strata. In order to legitimize these radical changes, he entreated the oracle at Delphi to pick ten Athenian heroes who would give their name and imaginary patronage to their respective tribes. The tribes served as essential social and political determinants. People fought in the army and served in the Boule as a member of their tribe, and the Athenian democracy on the whole was organized and structured by tribe. The monument commemorating these changes

consisted of a long base with ten bronze statues placed upon it, representing the heroes of each tribe. As it stands today in the sacred space of the Agora directly east of the Metroon, a stone base remnant of past splendor, it can be dated to around 330 B.C.E. according to Camp, though some would strenuously argue for an earlier date. It is certain that some such monument existed earlier due to literary testament, and it is possible that the original monument was moved from an earlier position in the southwest corner of the Agora. Following the turbulent period generated by the death of Alexander the Great, when Demetrios Poliorcetes abolished the tyrant regime of Demetrios of Phaleron and reestablished the Athenian democracy in 307/6 B.C.E., he and his father Antigonos were both named as heroes and given a statue in the monument, and the number of tribes in Athens was increased to twelve. In 223 B.C.E. in an attempt to fawn up to the Lagid Dynasty in Egypt, the Athenians made King Ptolemy Euergetes an eponymous hero, gave him a statue, and increased the number of tribes to thirteen. At the end of the 3rd century B.C.E., war broke out for the Athenians against Philip V of Macedon. Being repulsed from the heart of the city, Philip deliberately destroyed the outlying buildings and grave monuments, and, subsequently Athens produced a damnatio memoriae against the entire house of Philip. This would include Antogonos and Demetrios, and the number of statues of eponymous heroes as well as the number of tribes decreased to eleven. Soon, however, King Attalos I of Pergamon was added to bring the number of eponymous heroes back up to the recently made customary twelve. (Camp 89, 97-100, 163-168). The attitude and sentiment of the Athenians, especially during the classical period ushered in by the Athenian defeats of the Persian Empire, was first and foremost dominated by a huge collective ego. One might even call it hubris. Indeed, a myth of the

founding of Athens relates how Poseidon and Athena were so enamored with the city that they fought over it, with, of course, Athena eventually emerging victorious. Keeping that in mind, the later changes made to the Monument of the Eponymous Heroes show how, in addition to political and economical downfall, Athens experienced a psychological one as well when they resorted to erecting statues of foreign leaders along with ancient Athenian heroes. King Ptolemy Euergetes and King Attalos I did not even perform the service of liberation as did Demetrios. At its inception it was one of the few structures allowed in the sacred space. These instances of paying homage to those in power outside of Athens show the growing insecurity of the city and its dependence on foreign sources of wealth and protection for survival. Despite its controversial dating of 330 B.C.E., much literature attests to its existence in some form as well as its function beforehand. In the Aristophanes comedy Peace a man wakes up in the Agora after a night of revelry and then, standing by the statue of Pandion, he sees his own name (Peace 1183-84). This means that he was on the list of those in his tribe who had been selected for military service. In an early speech of his, from 353/2 B.C.E., Demosthenes is quoted as saying The prescribed procedure is that first the proposer should write out his law and display it before the Eponymoi for anyone who wishes to examine (Timokrates 18). Despite its monumental nature, it seems the Statues of the Eponymous Heroes assumed the more plebeian role of a bulletin board for the people of Athens. Once again, this reinforces the notion of the Agora as the political heart of Athens, and indicates that the average citizen would come almost every day to keep up with the times (Wycherley 85-89).

During the Hellenistic Period, the newer Agora began to exhibit signs of coordination between edifices as construction projects continued to be undertaken at a rapid pace. Two large stoas forming a right angle flanking the Panathenaic Way were built on the South and East sides of the Agora area. The Eastern stoa, known as the Stoa of Attalos, was erected in the middle of the second century B.C.E., a gift from King Attalos II of Pergamon during his reign from 159-138 B.C.E. Attalos II had studied at the University of Athens prior to ascending the throne, and donated the building upon becoming king. The dedicatory stone still survives, and features the fragmented inscription King Attalos, son of King Attalos and Queen Apollonis, built the stoatoward the demos of the Athenians (Wycherley 46). It was one of the earliest two-storey buildings, and certainly the most elaborate of its time, and this is evident in its architectural crudeness. Essentially, the Stoa of Attalos is two one-storey building placed one on top of the other, and their floor plans are practically entirely identical. At the back wall of the Stoa of Attalos, on both the ground floor and top floor, were a series of smaller rooms which were rented out as to merchants to be used as shops. Thus, in addition to the worlds first alumni hall, we also have the worlds first strip mall. The top floor was a favorite place for wealthy Athenians to gather and watch the procession of the Panathenaic Way. The columns are spaced further apart than was the norm, indicating that large crowds were meant to be gathered in the stoa, and the lowest two meters or so of the exterior columns were left unfluted, so as to not be chipped when such crowds bustled through the colonnade carrying goods (Camp 172-75). The practice of a foreign king donating a building clearly denotes the end of both civic unity and the original notion of the polis as individualism becomes an idea more associated with the state in the Hellenistic World. Despite its political and economic decline, due to its

cultural status and unparalleled education system Athens was able to continue to build monumental buildings on a grand scale with the aid of foreign wealth. The Agora had already been transformed from a sacred political center of an autonomous entity to the bustling, commercial heart of the worlds first college town. During the Roman Period, the Athenian Agora would see the utter abandonment of the idea of the sacred space within and the sheer end to the continuity between the structures. Directly on the sanctified ground of the Agora immediately north of the Middle Stoa the Odeion of Agrippa, a concert hall, was built around 16-12 B.C.E. Although Roman and Greek architecture seem to be very similar by their appearance, they are very different. While Greek buildings are held together by gravity, Roman buildings are held together with glue i.e., that is to say, cement. Furthermore, with the advent of the arch, Roman buildings do not suffer the limitations of the need for interior columnal support. Indeed, the Odeion boasted a huge span of 25 m with no internal supports over the auditorium, which seated about a thousand people (Camp 184). Eventually, the roof would in fact collapse, and the rebuilt version of the Odeion was split into two rooms: one smaller theatre and a room in which lectures were held. Once again, we see a vision of Athens, however much culturally alive, politically fading away. In their age-old hallowed ground, the epicenter of Athenian democracy in the Golden Age and before, they allowed to be erected a Roman concert hall. Although it was not the only building within the sacred bounds, it was the only one devoted to leisure. All through the centuries of its decline, Athens experienced a steady architectural elaboration which can only be attributed to one word: nostalgia. It was not just the nostalgia of the Athenians, a pining for the Golden Age, but a collective sense of

respect on the part of many Greeks for what Athens represented and what it had accomplished in the centuries prior. The dedication of the Stoa of Attalos shows his desire not only to display his wealth and power to his Athenian contemporaries, but also to be remembered alongside their predecessors. The same can be said for the Odeion of Herod Agrippa. The early structures of the classical and archaic periods were built to suit the needs of the Athenian democracy, and, as ironic as it is befitting, in the erection of ostentatious monumental buildings to glorify the democratic past, the Agora retreats yet further from it. In seeking to exalt the earlier age with such monuments and dedications, the Athenians of the Hellenistic and Roman Age, with the typical lack of vision of those who are accustomed to denouncing their current state of affairs, as well as their foreign benefactors, persistently failed to realize that the spirit of the Golden Age of democracy was entirely conceived, nourished, and contained by the demos.

Bibliography

The Athenian Agora, John Camp The Archaeology of Athens, John Camp The Athenian Agora, Literary and Epigraphical Testimonia, R.E. Wycherley