agora

In an ancient Greek town, the public meeting place and market, equivalent to the Roman forum. The limits were marked with boundary stones, and trade there was regulated. The Agora at Athens contained an altar to the 12 Olympian gods, sanctuaries of Zeus, Apollo, and Hephaestus, the mint, administrative offices of state, fountains, shops, and covered arcades (stoas).

The ceremonial Panathenaic Way, on which sacred processions and festival races were held, ran south through the agora to the acropolis.