Agŏra
（
ἀγορά).
1.
A word that properly means an assembly of any nature, and is usually employed by Homer for
the general assembly of the people. The
ἀγορά seems to have
been considered an essential part in the constitution of the early Grecian states, since the
barbarity and uncivilized condition of the Cyclopes is characterized by their wanting such an
assembly. The
ἀγορά, though usually convoked by the
king—as, for instance, by Telemachus in the absence of his father—appears
to have been also summoned at times by some distinguished chieftain, as, for example, by
Achilles before Troy. The king occupied the most important seat in these assemblies, and near
him sat the nobles, while the people sat or stood in a circle around them. The power and
rights of the people in these assemblies have been the subject of much dispute. Platner,
Tittmann, and Nitzsch maintain that the people were allowed to speak and vote; while Heeren
and Müller think “that the nobles were the only persons who proposed
measures, deliberated, and voted, and that the people were only present to hear the debate,
and to express their feeling as a body, which expressions might then be noticed by a prince
of a mild disposition.” The latter view of the question is confirmed by the fact
that in no passage in the
Odyssey is any one of the people represented as
taking part in the discussion; while, in the
Iliad, Odysseus inflicts personal
chastisement upon Thersites for presuming
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Plan of a Greek Agora, according to Vitruvius. A, the open court, surrounded by double
colonnades and shops; B, the curia; C, the chief temple, also used as a treasury; D, the
basilica, or court of justice; E, the tholus, in connection with the other rooms of the
prytaneum, c, d.
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to attack the nobles in the
ἀγορά. The
people appear to have been only called together to hear what had been already agreed upon in
the council of the nobles, which is called
βουλή and
θόωκος, and sometimes even
ἀγορά.
Among the Athenians, the proper name for the assembly of the people was
ἐκκλησία, and among the Dorians
ἁλία. The term
ἀγορά was confined at Athens to
the assemblies of the phylae and demi. In Crete the original name
ἀγορά continued to be applied to the popular assemblies till a late period.
2.
The name
ἀγορά was early transferred from the assembly
itself to the place in which the assembly was held; and thus it came to be used for the
market-place, where goods of all descriptions were bought and sold. The expression
ἀγορὰ πλήθουσα, “full market,” was used to
signify the time from morning to noon, that is, from about nine to twelve o'clock.
The agora in Greek cities corresponds to the Roman
forum (q.v.). The chief authorities on the subject are Pausanias and Vitruvius. The
accompanying plan (after Vitruvius), taken from Hirt's
Geschichte der Baukunst
(xxi., fig. 1), represents the later form of the agora.
See Boeckh,
Econ. of Athens; Leake,
Topography of Athens;
Krause,
Hellas, vol. ii.; Hirt,
Lehre d. Gebäude d. Griechen
und Römer, chap. v.; Wachsmuth,
Hellenische Alterthumskunde;
and BeckerGöll,
Charikles, 4th scene, ii. pp. 177-212.
