Agora Books
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Agora Health Books (01 September 2003)Price: $16.95 -
Cricket Books (15 February 2007)Price: $12.21 -
W. W. Norton & Company (17 March 1996)Price: $12.71 -
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Zondervan (04 October 1992)Price: $17.93
Definition
Retail traders (known as Kapeloi) served as middle-men between the craftsmen and the consumer but were largely mistrusted in ancient times as unnecessary parasites (in his Politics Aristotle states that the Kapeloi served a “kind of exchange which is justly censured; for it is unnatural and a mode by which men unfairly gain from one another”). These retail traders were mostly metics (not free-born citizens of the city, today known as 'legal aliens') while the craftsmen could be metics, citizens or even freed slaves who had become skilled artisans.
In the Agora of Athens there were confectioners who made pastries and sweets, slave-traders, fishmongers, vintners, cloth merchants, shoe-makers, dress makers, and jewelry purveyors. A special separate 'potters market' was reserved for the buying and selling of cookware as that was considered solely the provenance of women and was frequented by female slaves on task for their mistresses or by the poorer wives and daughters of Athens.
It was in the Agora of Athens that the great philosopher Socrates questioned the market-goers on their understanding of the meaning of life, attracting a crowd of Athenian youth who enjoyed seeing the more pretentious of their elders made fools of. In this marketplace, one day, the young poet Aristocles son of Ariston heard Socrates speaking, went and burned all his works, and became the philosopher known as Plato. His philosophical dialogues, coupled with his founding of the Academy, the first University, and his role as the teacher of Aristotle who then was tutor to Alexander the Great, changed western philosophy.
In Rome the agora would serve in much the same way as it did in Greek city-states and the Roman satirist Juvenal, the Latin poet Horace as well as other writers found much of their inspiration in watching and listening to those who gathered for shopping in the open-air market.
Articles
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The early Athenian Agora served a series of very different purposes than it did in its halcyon days of ancient history. The area that came to be the Agora was in use as a cemetery from the Bronze Age (approximately 3000 B.C.) until the end of the 7th century B.C. It was also a residential area during this time. This is evidenced by the discovery of remains of wells that would have been dug for homes.
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The Classical Athenian Agora began to take shape under the ruling of Kimon. He took power around 479 B.C., as the Athenian people ostracized Themistocles. As a respected general who had led many victories for Athens in the Persian Wars, he was easily accepted as a new leader. Kimon is widely known in ancient history as a beautifier of the arid Athenian countryside, and he was responsible for several buildings in the Agora during his tenure.
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The Agora was the central gathering place for all of Athens, where social and commercial dealings took place. Arguably, it's most important purpose was as the home base for all of the city-state's administrative, legal and political functions. Some of the most important, yet least acclaimed, buildings of ancient history and Classical Athens were located in the Agora.
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After Athens' victory in the Persian War (around 448 BC), it was leader among the Greek poleis in the realms of politics, economics, art, and literature. They were seemingly untouchable, except by perhaps the Spartans. This period of power and prosperity is known widely as the Classical Period of ancient history, and the benchmark of the period of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the culture against which all other cultures have been measured, was Athens.
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The Hellenistic Period of Ancient History is generally though of as the time between the Classical Period (5th century BC) and the onset of the Roman period (1st century BC). It is characterized by Macedonian rule, brought about by the military exploits of Philip II, and later by his son, Alexander the Great. Both Philip (who ruled until 336 BC) and his son Alexander held the Greeks, particularly the Athenians, in high regard because of their affinity for art, culture, and intellectual pursuits. This respect would be beneficial to Athens during the tumultuous period of Macedonian conquer and rule.
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Illustrations
