NORTH PORTICO OF THE AGORA

 

The north part of the late Roman agora consists of a tribune of seven rows. Behind the tribune is the 5-m-wide portico with a flooring of opus sectile mostly with onyx pieces. The columns of the portico stand on Attic-Ionic bases and comprise usually two pieces; placed at an interval of 2.5 m these columns of white marble reach a height of 3.90 to 4.15 m together with their capitals (Fig. 1). Majority of the columns were uncovered fallen southward (Fig. 2). The western part of the portico served as work-areas by building two rectangular buildings forming an L-shape and abutting the bouleuterion’s north wall (Fig. 3).

 

NORTH TRIBUNE OF THE AGORA

 

The north tribune comprises seven rows with a length of 45 m in the east-west direction, similar to the south tribune of the agora (Fig. 4). However, a wall of 2.75 m width was built on top of the sixth and seventh rows in later periods. Thus, the number of rows fell from seven in the fourth century to five in the beginning of the fifth century (Fig. 5). On the front sides of the rows of seats are letters such as A, M, P, E incised possibly indicating the workshop of origin (Fig. 6).