Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

32 AGORA. AGORA.
The etymology of the name was also a subject (Hom. Ii. i. 54.) The king occupied the most
of much dispute among the ancients; and the va- important seat in these assemblies, and near him
rious etymologies that were proposed are given at sat the nobles, while the people sat in a circle
length by Ovid. (Fast. i. 319-332.) None of around them. The power and rights of the people
these, however, are at all satisfactory; and we in these assemblies have been the subject of much
would therefore suggest another. It is well known dispute. Platner, Tittman, and more recently
that the Quirinal hill was originally called Agonus, Nitzsch in his commentary on the Odyssey, mainand the Colline gate Agonensis. (Fest. s. vv. Ago- tain that the people was allowed to speak and vote;
i2um, Quirinalis; comp. Dionys. ii. 37.) What is while Atiller (Dor. iii. 1. ~ 3), who is followed
then more likely than that this sacrifice should by Grote (fIist. of'Greece, vol. ii. p. 91), maintains
have been originally offered on this hill, and should that the nobles were the only persons who proposed
thence have received the name of Agonalia? It measures, deliberated, and voted, and that the
is expressly stated that the sacrifice was offered in people was only present to hear the debate, and to
the regia, or the domsus regis, which in the historical express its feeling as a body; which expressions
times was situated at the top of the sacera via, near might then be noticed by a prince of a mild disthe arch of Titus (Becker, Handbuchl d. RMms. Al- position. The latter view of the question is contert/h. vol. i. pp. 237, 238)-; but in the earliest times firmed by the fact, that in no passage in the
the regia is stated by an ancient writer to have Odyssey is any of the people represented as taking
been upon the Quirinal (Solin. i. 21), and this part in the discussion; while, in the Iliad, Ulysses
statement seems to render our supposition almost inflicts personal chastisement upon Thersites, for'certain. (Clacssical siIuseum, vol. iv. pp. 154- presuming to attack the nobles in the ayorua. (II.
157.) ii. 211 —277.) The people appear to have been
The Circus Agoneosis, as it is called, is sup- only called together to hear what had been already
posed by many modern writers to have occupied agreed upon in the council of the nobles, which
the place of the present Piazza Navona, and to is called PovX'7 (II. ii. 53, vi. 114, yetpovTs
have been built by the emperor Alexander Severus BovuAvTai), and agOwcKOS (Od. ii. 26), and someon the spot where the victims were sacrificed at times even a&yopd (Od. ix. 112; /&yopal Bovurlthe Agonalia. Becker (ibid. pp. 668-670) has dp'pos). Justice was administered in the agora by
however brought forward good reasons for question- the king or chiefs (Hes. Tlaeog. 85; IIom. II.
ing whether this was a circus at all, and has shown xviii. 497, &c. Od. xii. 439), but the people had no
that there is no authority whatever for giving it share in its administration, and the agora served
the name of circus Agonensis. merely the purpose of publicity. The common
AGO'NES (&yo~es), the general term among phrases used in reference to the cgora are eis icyopqVi
the Greeks for the contests at their great national eaeEsty; &yopt E 7r0e0is al, oa'rOeOa; ESs r7s, a&yogames. [CERTAMINA.] The word was also used p7, Eloedval, ayei[peOati, &c. (Wachsmuth, Ilellen.
to signify law-suits, and was especially employed Alterth/cmsk. vol. i. p. 346, 2d ed.; Hermnann,
in the phrase &ayi Es T71WToL01 and iTi/yr-otL. [TI- LerbuZGch. d. Giec/h. Staatsalt. ~ 55; Grote, I-ist.
MEMA.] of Greece, vol. ii. pp. 91-101.)
AGONOITHETAE (&ycnroOeTa,), were per- Among the Athenians, the proper name for the
sons, in the Grecian games, who decided disputes assembly of the people was E'cK k~ia, and among'and adjudged the prizes to the victors. Originally, the Dorians &daa. The terma agora was confinedl
the person who instituted the contest and offered at Athens to the assemblies of the phylae and
the prize was the agonothetes, and this continued demi. (Aesch. c. Ctes. ~ 27. p. 50. 37; Schbmann,
to be the practice in those games which were in- De ComitiisAt/zen. p. 27, Antiq. Jur. Publ. Graec.
stituted by kings or private persons. But in the pp. 203, 205; *Bfickh, Corp. Inscrip. vol. i. p. 125.)
-great public games, such as the Isthmian, Pythian, In Crete the original name &yopd continued to be
&c., the agonoth/etae were either the representatives applied to the popular assemblies till a late period.
of different states, as the Amphictyons at the (Bekker, Anecdot. vol. i. p. 210.)
Pythian games, or were chosen from the people in A'GORA (dyopd), was the place of public aswhose country the games were celebrated. During sembly in a Greek city, both for traffic, and for
the flourishing times of the Grecian republics, the the transaction of all public business. It answcrs
Eleians were the agonotietae in the Olympic games, to the Roman forumc; and, in fact, it is impossible
the Corinthians in the Isthmian games, the Am- to keep these two subjects entirely separate.
phictyons in the Pythian games, and the Corin- In the earliest times, the Agora was merely an
thians, Argives, and inhabitants of Cleonae in the open piece of ground, which was generally in front
Nemaean games. The dYcivoOeoram were also called of the royal palace, and, in sea-port towns, close to
aervlu7s-atL,?aycidpXcat, aycooaiKat, d&OoOErat, the harbour. The Agora of Troy was in the citaPae8ovXOL or a~ovvdo1oL (from the staff they del. Here, the chiefs met in council, and sat in
carried as an emblem of authority), IPpaessTs, judgment, and the people assembled to witness
/3paev'rai. athletic games. It was evidently also the place of
AGORA (dyopd), properly means an assembly traffic and of general intercourse: in one passage
of any nature, and is usually employed by Homer of Homer, we have a lively picture of the idlers
for the general assembly ofthe people. The agora who frequented it. It was enclosed with large
seems to have been considered an essential part in stones sunk into the earth, and seats of marble
the constitution of the early Grecian states, since were placed in it for the chiefs to sit in judgment,
the barbarity and uncivilised condition of the Cy- and it was hallowed by the shrine of one or more
clops is characterised by their w)anting such an divinities. In the Agora which Homer particularly
assembly. (Hom. Od. ix. 112.) The agora, though describes, - that of the Phaeacians, - there was
usually convoked by the king, appears to have been a temple of Poseidon. (Hom. II. ii. 788, vii. 345,
also summoned at times by some distinguished 346, xviii. 497-506, Od. vi. 263-285, viii. 16,
chieftain, as for example, by Achilles before Troy. 109, xvi. 361.)