Persian approach had created debate about which side he meant, but the discovery in 1980 of a third‐century BCE INSCRIPTION at the base of the eastern end of the Acropolis allowed scholars to locate the sanctuary of Aglaurus there (Dontas 1983; SEG 46‐137; Hurwit 1999, 136).
SEE ALSO: Epigraphy; Myth; Persian Wars; Temples and Sanctuaries
REFERENCES
1 Dontas, George S. 1983. “The True Aglaurion.” Hesperia 52.1: 48–63.
2 Hurwit, Jeffrey M. 1999. The Athenian Acropolis: History, Mythology, and Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
AGORA (ἀγορή, ἡ)
MATHIEU DE BAKKER
University of Amsterdam
A meeting‐place where citizens gather for the purpose of political, commercial, religious‐ceremonial, judicial, social and/or sportive activities. In early Greek history the agora appears to have had a practical function as “the place where one gathers” for political or military purposes. In the course of the ARCHAIC AGE, Greek CITIES began to demarcate their agora and make it into an open space. In some places (e.g., ATHENS, CORINTH) remains of racing tracks testify to its sportive and ceremonial function. In the classical era the commercial use of the agora had become prominent. The squares were increasingly surrounded with monumental porticoes and other buildings with a religious and/or political function.
Herodotus mentions the agora occasionally, most often in the case of Greek poleis. As for its monumental layout, he mentions the buildings made of Parian marble at SIPHNOS (3.57.3–4) and refers to statues and shrines of local HEROES in METAPONTUM (4.15.4), SICYON (5.67.1), and Athens (5.89.3). In Herodotus’ eyes, the agora defines Greekness. He observes that Egyptians may sell the remains of their SACRIFICES on a Greek agora if it happens to be available (2.39.2), and the typically Greek behavior of the philhellene Scythian king SCYLES is described as “walking around in public on the agora” (ἀγοράζειν, 4.78.4). Furthermore, he makes the Persian king CYRUS (II) condescendingly refer to the agora as a place where the Greeks “gather and cheat one another under OATH” (1.153.1). The agora indeed functions as a backdrop of deceit in the case of the war of the Lydian king ALYATTES against the Milesians, who use it to pretend that the SIEGE leaves the city unaffected (1.21). PEISISTRATUS, too, uses the agora to trick the Athenians into believing that he has been wounded by his adversaries (1.59.4). Although Herodotus considers the agora a typically Greek phenomenon, he also mentions its existence in the case of other peoples that have taken to TRADE, like the LYDIANS (SARDIS: 1.37.2; 5.101.2), BABYLONIANS (1.197), and PHOENICIANS (7.23.4).
SEE ALSO: Acropolis; Agora (Hellespontine Chersonese); Deception; Hellas; polis
FURTHER READING
1 Camp, John McK. 2003. The Athenian Agora: A Short Guide. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
2 Kurke, Leslie. 1989. “KAΠHΛEIA and Deceit. Theognis 59–60.” AJPh 110.4: 535–44.
3 Lateiner, Donald. 1990. “Deceptions and Delusions in Herodotus.” ClAnt 9.2: 230–46.
4 Martin, Roland E. 1951. Recherches sur l’agora grecque: études d’histoire et d’architecture urbaines. Paris: de Boccard.
5 Mee, Christopher, and Antony Spawforth. 2004. Greece: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
AGORA (Ἀγορή, ἡ) in the Chersonese
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A POLIS on the Hellespontine CHERSONESE, between CARDIA and PACTYE in the middle of the isthmus (BA 51 H3). Herodotus mentions Agora by name only as XERXES’ invasion force marches through in 480 BCE (7.58.3). It may have been founded by MILTIADES THE ELDER with Athenian colonists in the late sixth century when he constructed a WALL across the peninsula (6.36–38). “Agora” is the Greek word for “marketplace,” which probably reflects the settlement’s importance as a center for TRADE with the Thracian hinterland. The city‐ethnic Chersonēsitai (Χερσονησῖται) seems to refer to inhabitants of Agora as well as the peninsula as a whole (cf. 4.137.1, 9.118.2; Steph. Byz. s.v. Χερρόνησος (Χ 40) = Hecataeus BNJ 1 F163). They appear on the Athenian Tribute Lists as “Chersonēsitai from Agora” (IG I3 282.B1.11–14).
SEE ALSO: Agora; Athens; Colonization; Delian League; Hellespont; Thrace
FURTHER READING
1 IACP no. 661 (904–5).
2 Isaac, Benjamin. 1986. The Greek Settlements in Thrace until the Macedonian Conquest, 166–70. Leiden: Brill.
AGRIANES (Ἀγριᾶνες, οἱ)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
Thracian tribe. In his account of the campaign of the Persian general MEGABAZUS (c. 513 BCE), Herodotus lists the Agrianes along with the ODOMANTIANS and DOBERES as people dwelling around Mt. PANGAEUM and Lake PRASIAS who were not subjected to Persian rule (5.16.1). However, the Agrianes appear in other sources (Thuc. 2.96.3; Strabo 7 F16a Radt) as inhabitants of the upper STRYMON valley, well to the north (BA 49 E1). owing to the apparent geographical incongruity, some editors have suggested deleting these three tribal names from the text as a later interpolation, or moving them to the next sentence, though this does not solve the problem (Wilson 2015, 95; Archibald 1998, 85–86 n. 35). In the ancient world, the Agrianes (or Agrianians) were best‐known for their role as skirmishers and “special forces” in the army of Alexander III of MACEDON (Bosworth 1988, 263–64).
SEE ALSO: Geography; Thrace
REFERENCES
1 Archibald, Z. H. 1998. The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2 Bosworth, A. B. 1988. Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3 Wilson, N. G. 2015. Herodotea. Studies on the Text of Herodotus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
FURTHER READING
1 Hammond, N. G. L. 1980. “The Extent of Persian Occupation in Thrace.” Chiron 10: 53–61.
AGRIANES RIVER (ὁ Ἀγριάνης ποταμός)
CHRISTOPHER BARON
University of Notre Dame
A river in THRACE (BA 51 H2, 52 A2; Müller II, 770–71), the modern Ergene in European Turkey. Herodotus mentions it (4.90.2) as a tributary of the HEBRUS (modern Maritsa).
SEE
