The Roman Agora has both some very practical, and some very unusual, ruins scattered around its wide grassy square.
Athens is city with an endless past, already ancient when the Romans made it part of their empire in the first century BC. When they saw the state of the Ancient Agora, which was already 500 years old when they arrived, they decided Athens needed a new marketplace. The Roman Agora (or Forum) is the result.
It was Julius Caesar who stumped up the funds to build this new commercial centre. It consists of a large open square, some 100 metres either way, with an impressive pillared arch entrance – the Gate of Athena Archegetis. Double rows of Ionic colonnades marking the outer cloisters, where the square's shops sheltered. While it is not a huge monument, with few well-preserved buildings from that time, it provides a fascinating insight into Greek daily life at the time of the Romans.
And the site is right next to one of the most fascinating constructions in Ancient Athens – Aerides, the Tower of the Winds. This 12-metre octagonal tower was built around 48 BC, and has carved reliefs picturing each of the eight Winds on panels right at the top.
Historians had long puzzled over its purpose, but they now believe it was a combination of clock and weather station. Inside, intricate drainage channels appear to have driven a water-clock. Every face also had a sun-dial, and it's thought that a trident-wielding weather-vane sat on the very pinnacle.
The fascination doesn't stop there – recent excavations have unveiled another intriguing 'facility' close to the Tower of Winds. A large set of drainage pits was revealed, believed to be part of a public lavatory, with room for 68 sitters within its walls. No stalls here, though – the latrines were open, apparently a place to chat and socialise. The Roman and Greek worlds of Athens can seem so very familiar – and yet so very different at the same time.
