The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization | agora
agora, Greek term for an area where people gather together, most particularly for the political functions of the polis, normally sited centrally in cities (as at Priene), or at least central to the street lines where the actual centre may be occupied by other features (such as the Acropolis at Athens); the area was sacred, and could be treated like a temenos or sacred precinct. In unplanned cities its shape depends on the nature of the available site, irregular at Athens, on low-lying ground bordered by rising land to west (the Kolonos Agoraios) and south (the slopes of the Acropolis). In planned cities the required number of blocks in the regular grid plan are allocated, giving a strictly rectangular shape. (See urbanism (Greek and Hellenistic).)
Architecturally, the agora need be no more than the space defined by marker stones rather than buildings, as, originally, at Athens. When spectacular...
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