Agora of Cyrene
About
Cyrene's open civic square held the tomb of Battos, the city's 7th-century BCE founder, and a monument to the naval victory at Actium. Shops and long colonnaded stoas ran along its sides while assemblies and trials filled the open ground between. The square had served as Cyrene's political heart for more than 700 years by the time Trajan died in August 117 CE. Fires from the 115-116 CE Jewish revolt had scorched its porticoes only months before.
What happened here
Business starts at first light. The magistrates' tribunal opens, cases are called, and the crowd that gathers to listen is half the point of coming. Money-changers work from tables under the porticoes, weighing coin from a dozen mints against the local rate. Notices are painted on the walls and whitewashed over when they go stale: elections, gladiator shows, a lost slave, a house to let. By the sixth hour the heat empties the open square and the arcades fill instead. Statues of the town's benefactors stand between the columns, and the men who paid for them expect to be greeted by name. Public slaves sweep at dusk. The forum is where a Roman town keeps its records, its gossip and its self-regard in the same place.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →