I want to look at the Roman Agora, because the Romans themselves added an Agora to Athens. If they were going to have a Greek Agora, if they were going to have a Roman Agora. We don't know if there was a practical need for it, but I guess Caesar and Augustus wanted to emblazon their name on an, an ag-, on an agora, or marketplace in Athens. It was put up again in the Caesarean and, the start of the Caesarean period and completed by Augustus. It is right near the Greek Agora. We see a view of it here, a large open rectangular space with a colonnade around it. In this case stoas, we would call these stoas in the Greek context, with Tabarani or shops at the upper most part. An entrance way, an elaborate entrance way on the western end, and another entrance way on the on the eastern end. But as you can see, it differs, it is, it is done in the mode of a Greek marketplace, because it is more, well, its a sort of in between a square and a rectangle here. It's not as lo-, long as a Roman forum, and it does not have a temple on one short end. And that, so it follows in the mode of Greek agoras rather than Roman forum. The, you can see if you look at Google Earth, one can see the forum today. The Roman, here's the stowe of Atalas in the Greek Agoras, so you can see its proximity to this new Roman agora that was added. We're looking at that open space here with the collinades. We're looking at the western entranceway as well as the eastern entranceway up above in this very helpful view. And this is a view I took from the Acropolis looking down on the, on the Roman Agora and showing the back of the western entrance way, which I'll show you from the front in a moment. And there you can see Placca actually pre-gentrification [LAUGH]. You can see the sense of what, I mean it was really crumbling, as you can see with some of the buildings that are surrounding it. But nonetheless it was fun. So here we go. This is a view of the of the gate it's called the Gate of Athena Archegetis as you can see on your monument list. That is the western gate into the Roman Agora. We see it here in two views. And you can see, when you look at this building, you can see what Ward-Perkins and others mean when they say that architecture in Greece under the Ro-, in Athens under the Romans is derivative and uninspired. It's this kind of thing that I believe he's talking about. Because you can see how beholden it is to traditional classical Greek architecture in the way in which we see these great Doric columns looking very similar to those at Propoleo, or the Parthenon. You see them here. You see the triglyphs in Metaphese, you see a, a, triangular pediment. We never see, we never see the Greeks at least the Greeks in the Roman period breaking their pediments. They always have complete pediments. And in that sense of course, very, very conservative approach to architecture during this period. We know that this, the gate was begun by Caesar, completed by Augustus. And there's an inscription that tells us that. And we believe, although this is somewhat speculative, that there may have been a statue or portrait of the of the grandson of Augustus, son of Agrippa, Lucius Caesar in the pediment Lucius Caesar having died in the year 2. Here's a view where we see the Roman Agora as it looks today. The open space, the columns round it. And you can also see this very curious building, that looks very well preserved, rising up on the eastern end. A building in the shape of an octagon. And here's another view of the eastern end showing that octagonal building more clearly. This is the so called Horologion of Andronicus. Or as it is nicknamed the Tower of the Winds. The Tower of the Winds, which is easier to remember. The Tower of the Winds it's very controversial in date. I, I date it here to the second half of the first century B.C. which is when I do believe that it dates, but there are others who think otherwise and I'll tell you about that in a moment. Here's a view that I took from the Acropolis showing the Tower of the Winds, as it looks from up there, as well as a closer view of this amazing structure. Again, you can see how well-preserved it is. You can see that it is indeed eight sided. You can see one of the porches. There are two porches that had temple fronts with a tri-, a triangular pediments column below, on those two sides. There was also a staircase that surrounded the structure. the, what this was, we believe, is some kind of a clock tower. Very inventive clock tower. And although again I think it was probably built in the Cesarean period late republic. John Camp, who's an expert on things Athenian, wrote a book on the archaeology of Athens, who has been excavating the Greek Agora since the 1970's and is a true expert of architecture in this part of the world. He thinks the date is earlier than that. He dates it to 150 to 125 B.C. and he brings it into connection with the Ptolemies of Egypt. The Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt because of their great interest in the telling of time and and the, the fact that they did have important connections with Athens during this period. I think he has a point. He could be right but I would add that connections with Egypt were very strong in the late republic as well. I mean, keep in mind the affair between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. Keep in mind that we know that statues of Cleopatra and Marc Antony were put on the acropolis. We know that there was a lot of interaction. Cleopatra herself came to Athens. So I don't think it's inconceivable that if one wants to connect this to things Egyptian that one couldn't date it also to the Caesarian period. But whatever it's date, it's fascinating in it's own right. Again, because it's octagonal we've talked about the fact that we don't have octagans in Rome until the time of Nero, but we do see them. We saw another example also in Leptis Magna, the market there the Augustan period. It's interesting to see this form emerging possibly under Ptolemaic influence we're not sure. Emerging in the provinces before it seems to emerge in Rome itself, and this, this being another example. Here's a view of the monument again, but also compared to a, an engraving done by Stuart and Revett, Stuart and Revett, Stuart and Revett, who made draws of monuments that were in better shape in Athens in the 18th century. And what this tells us besides showing us what the porch looked like and you can see it well here. It also shows us that there was a weather vane on the top that would have, would have gone in the direction of the prevailing winds. And the reason that we call this the Tower of the Winds is not only because of that weather vane that once stood there, but also because of the depictions of male personifications of the winds on all eight sides of the structure. And those are extremely well preserved, as you can see here. A frieze of these male winds. And if you look carefully at the Stuart and Revett drawing, you also see the, that there was a sun dial on all eight sides of the monument. So its purpose, needless to say, to tell time. The capitals from, from those porches are these, these lotus leaves growing out of acanthus leaves. So another Egyptian touch here. This looking back to Egyptian Egyptian type capitals. Using them here. The same kind of capitals that we noted turned up much later at the Severan forum in Leptis Magna. A detail of those winds, and here a better detail of at least one of them to show you what they look like close up. And each one of them has a different attribute, which has led scholars obviously to speculate about which particular wind which of the cardinal points of the compass, which wind they were in actuality. We won't get into those arguments here but there's been a lot of time spent by scholars on trying to sort that out. What is also interesting is also the interior of the building, which is also extremely well preserved. And you can see here, all in stone the way in which the octagon becomes a dome. And it is done extremely well. And one, one, this goes way beyond any kind of stone dome that we see either in Etruscan or Roman architecture in Italy. And it shows us once again, it underscores more than anything else I could show you the talent of these particular architects, who had been carving this Greek stone for centuries. and, and the way in which they are able to make this transition from octag-, octagonal shape to regular dome here is, is extraordinary. They did not need concrete to create a great dome in this wonderful structure, the Horologion of Andronicus or the Tower of the Winds in, in Athens.
