GRAECOSTADIUM
an area enclosed by walls or buildings and evidently
of considerable size in
Region VIII (Reg.). It was restored by
Antoninus Pius after a fire (Hist. Aug. Ant. Pii 8), and burned again in
the reign of Carinus (Chron. 148). Part of the name -Graecost-appears
on a fragment (19) of the Marble Plan, and this fragment probably belongs
south of the basilica Iulia. The inscription on a slave's collar found in
the Tiber:
reboca me in Grecostadio Eusebio mancipe (
BCr 1902, 126;
DR 383), the statement in Seneca (de clem. 13) that there were dealers
in worthless slaves near the temple of Castor, and the fact that the
Graecostadium is mentioned in the Notitia between the vicus Iugarius
and porticus Margaritaria, and in the Curiosum between the vicus and
the basilica Iulia, make it probable that the Graecostadium was an open
court, surrounded by buildings that were used for shops or dwellings,
and that it was situated south of the forum, between it and the present
church of S. Maria della Consolazione. It may be identified with the
῾Ελλήνων ἀγορά of Plutarch (de sollert. anim. 19) which is called
τέμενος and in front of which was a barber's shop. (Ann. d.
Inst. 1860, 153;
Mitt.
1905, 11-14;
RE vii. 1692).
