markets and fairs
markets and fairsGreece
The arrival of the market as an institution in the 8th cent. bc (see trade, Greek), gradually replacing archaic mechanisms for exchange, along with the concomitant beginnings of urbanization, prompted the polis to develop marketing arrangements. The installation of permanent retail-markets in urban centres, signalled in the shift in the meaning of agora from ‘assembly (place of)’ to ‘market’, is best followed at Athens, where built shops are attested by c.500 and the first public edifice for commercial purposes by 391 BC (Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae 686), although temporary ‘booths’ (skēnai) and ‘tables’ (trapezai) still typified the bazaar-area in the 4th cent.; generally, peristylar (colonnaded) markets (makella) are a 3rd-cent. development. Elsewhere, as in the ‘new town’ at...[The entire page is 626 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
