066 The Athenian Agora

The History of Ancient Greece

Ryan Stitt

History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2017

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we discuss the construction, history, and significance of the Athenian Agora (the civic, religious, legal, and commercial nerve center for Athenian democracy), including a walking tour of what a visitor then and now would see

Show Notes: http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2017/12/066-athenian-agora.html

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're going to be. So, The Hello and welcome back to the history of ancient Greece.
0:44.0	Episode 66, the Athenian Agara.
0:49.0	Today's episode is brought to you by our new Patreon supporter, Stratos Argyo, as well as PayPal donor, Alex,
0:57.0	Mitsialis. If you too would like to support the history of ancient Greece, you can become a monthly
1:01.9	Patreon supporter at W.W. of Ancient W. Like any other Greek polis, the Athenian state was a combination of an urban center, or
1:27.0	as to, and countryside, or chora.
1:30.3	The city of Athens initially possessed few public in a half-hazard fashion and without reference to any master plan or guiding architectural principle.
1:45.0	By the 5th century BC, the population had grown to about 180,000.
1:50.6	Most of the population, though, still resided outside the city of Athens in the countryside.
1:55.0	It is difficult to gauge the extent to which those living in the countryside were incorporated into the life of the city,
2:00.0	though all Athenian citizens, at the very least, would have needed to travel to Athens once or twice a year for official business.
2:08.0	Few are likely to have done so on a regular basis, though, particularly those residing in the outermost deams, such as Marathon and
2:15.0	a Carnai, some 25 to 30 miles from Athens.
2:18.9	It is therefore highly likely that there was a considerable gap in the lifestyle, as well as the political engagement of city dwellers and country dwellers.
2:27.0	After the Persian Wars, the limits of the urban geographical growth of Athens were defined by a 675 feet circuit wall
2:35.4	built on top of a three-foot stone foundation with mud brick and its upper courses that
2:40.6	rose another 25 feet. It was built hastily on the recommendation of
2:44.8	Themistically's into the irritation of Sparta, if you recall from episode 40. This
2:49.6	wall was pierced by at least 17 main gates and through these gates roads past connecting
2:55.1	the city with the outlying districts of Attica such as a Carni to the north,
2:59.4	a lusus to the west, and Piraeus to the south. The most famous of these gates was the Dippalon, or
3:05.6	double gate, on the western side of the city. It was so named because it consisted of an entrance
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