The Stoa of Hadrian at Athens

M. A. Sisson

doi:10.1017/S0068246200011740

The Stoa of Hadrian at Athens

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2013

M. A. Sisson

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Because there exists no complete survey or accurate record of the important ruin of Roman date commonly known as the Stoa of Hadrian, it has seemed worth while to make a detailed examination and conjectural reconstruction of the remains in order to settle, if possible, the still disputed question of identity and, with the aid of relevant literary material, to throw further light on the purpose and history of the structure.

The ruin in question lies in the lower part of the modern town at the foot of the northern slope of the Acropolis and slightly to the north of the Roman Agora and the Gateway of Athena Archegetis. Between the streets of Ares and Aeolus lofty walls, in part preserved, enclose on three sides a rectangular space, half of which has been excavated, revealing the foundations of an internal colonnade or stoa and various rooms, while the remainder is occupied by roads, houses, shops, barracks and a military prison. The wall on the fourth or southern side is unexcavated, but it is evident from the disposition of those now visible that the building was symmetrical about an axis running approximately east and west. The only entrance to the enclosure was in the west wall, which was of marble and decorated with columns of the Corinthian order. Of this façade only the northern half and one column of the entrance portico are now visible. On the north, east, and doubtless on the south, the area was enclosed by blank, rusticated walls of limestone.

Type: Research Article
Information: Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 11 , November 1929 , pp. 50 - 72

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068246200011740 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © British School at Rome 1929

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References

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^{page 51 note 3} Laborde, , Athènes aux XV, XVI, XVII siècles, Vol. I. p. 167.Google ScholarOmont, , Athènes au XVII Siècle, Pl. XX.Google Scholar (reproduction). The columns shown in Carrey's drawing were erroneously thought by Laborde and Mommsen to be those incorporated in the church of the Megale Panagia (see below).

^{page 51 note 4} Mommsen, , At. Christ. p. 112Google Scholar; Couchard, p. 13, Pl. III. (dome); Murray, , Handbook for Greece (1884), Pl. I. p. 250.Google Scholar

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^{page 51 note 7} Antiquities of Athens, Vol. I. (1762).

^{page 51 note 8} Tour through Greece (1819), p. 377.

^{page 52 note 1} Pausanias, i. 18, 9:—

Schubart's emendation of for has been accepted, on account of in the description of the gymnasium. Otherwise the reading of the MSS. has been followed, except in the substitution of ἀυτά for αὐτό, though ἐσ αὐτό (in the building) would be a possible reading. Schubar's alteration of to which seems needlessly far from the text, would merely refer to the attached building as a whole rather than to its component rooms.

^{page 52 note 2} Travels in Greece (1776), p. 97.

^{page 52 note 3} Topography and Buildings of Athens, 1816, p. 164.

^{page 52 note 4} Topography of Athens, 1821, p. 120.

^{page 52 note 5} Mus. Wors. (1824), pp. 51, 53; Michaelis, Ancient Marbles, p. 227, Nos. 2, 7.

^{page 52 note 6} L'Ancienne Athènes (1835), p. 97.

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^{page 53 note 4} Pittakis, of. cit., note 6, p. 52; Nicolaides, Ἐφ. Ἀρχ., 1888, p. 57.

^{page 53 note 5} Cf. Curtius, , Stadtgeschichte von Athen (1891), p. 265.Google Scholar

^{page 54 note 1} Illustrations of capitals: Stuart, and Revett, , see above. Jahrbuch XXIX. (1914)Google Scholar, Taf. 4; Do. XXXVI. (1921), p. 44 ff.

^{page 54 note 2} S. and R., Vol. I.

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^{page 55 note 2} Durm, , Baukunst der Griechen, p. 218, Abb. 198.Google Scholar

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^{page 57 note 1} Πραϰτιϰά, loc. cit., note 3, p. 53.

^{page 57 note 2} Πραϰτιϰά, see above; Frazer, , Pausanias, Vol. V., Addenda, p. 492.Google Scholar

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^{page 60 note 1} Jahreshefte, VII. (1904), Beib. 53; VIII. (1905), Beib. 61 (Restoration); VIII. p. 234 (Celsus); IX. (1906), Beib. 59; XI. (1908), p. 118 (façade).

^{page 61 note 1} Armaria; Plin. Ep. ii. 17; Vopisc. Tac. 8. 1; Sid. Ap. Ep. ii. 9; Ulp. Dig. xxxii. 52. § 3, 7.

^{page 61 note 2} Sen. Tranq. an. 9.

^{page 61 note 3} Juv. iii. 219.

^{page 61 note 4} Mart. i. 117; vii. 17.

^{page 61 note 5} Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 9; Suet. Tib. 74.

^{page 61 note 6} Juv. iii. 219.

^{page 61 note 7} Berlin, , Sitzungsberichte, 1893, p. 207.Google Scholar

^{page 61 note 8} Treu, , Athen. Mitt. xiv. p. 161 (1889).Google Scholar

^{page 61 note 9} Not. Scavi, 1912, p. 300.

^{page 61 note 10} Cagnat, , Les Bibliothèques Municipales dans l'Empire Romain; Mém. Acad. Inscr. et Belles Lettres, xxxviii.Google Scholar

^{page 61 note 11} Vitruvius, vi. 7 and 10.

^{page 61 note 12} Jordan, , Forma Urbis Romae, Pl. III.Google Scholar

^{page 62 note 1} Πραϰτιϰά, see above.

^{page 62 note 2} Judeich, , Top. von Athen, p. 334Google Scholar and plan; Weller, , Athens and its Monuments, p. 145.Google Scholar

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^{page 63 note 1} Jordan, , Forma Urbis Romae, Pl. IIGoogle Scholar; Bull. Comm. 1886, p. 270; Röm. Mitt. 1889, p. 78.

^{page 63 note 2} C.I.A. III. i. 637 (see below).

^{page 63 note 3} C.I.A. III. 473, 474, 509, 513, 516, 518 (dedications to Hadrian). For the same reason the dedications to Dexippus, the historian of the Gothic invasion of 269 A.D. (C.I.A. III. i. 716, 717), have no certain bearing on the literary associations of the building.

^{page 64 note 1} Πραϰτιϰά, 1879, p. 15; Do., 1890, p. 108 and plan; Judeich, p. 330.

^{page 64 note 1} Eusebii Chronici Canones (Latine vertit Hieronymus), ccxxvii, Olymp. Cf. M. A. Cassiodorus, Chron. HaDr; Aristides, Or. xiii. Vol. I. p. 306 (Dindorf).

^{page 64 note 3} C.I.A. III. i. 637. Herculius was evidently the governor of the province of Achaea in the diocese of Macedonia, who was of higher rank than most provincial governors in this period, and bore the title of Proconsul. V. Miller, , Essays on the Latin Orient, p. 20.Google Scholar The same man was praetorian prefect of Illyricum later, in 408–412. There is no need to assume a confusion between the two titles as the editors of the Corpus suggest. See also C.I.A. III. i. 638.

^{page 64 note 4} In the Gesta in Senatu de recipiendo Codice Theodosiano the praefectus urbis at Rome is hailed as conservator legum, conservator decretorum. The provincial governor of Achaea would probably be in much the same position at Athens. In C.I.A. III. i. 638, Herculius is called which corresponds with the Latin conservator legum.

^{page 64 note 5} Vita Hadriani, 13. 6.

^{page 64 note 6} Oxyrrhyncus Papyrus XXXIV.

^{page 65 note 1} Ox. Pap. XXXIV. 2. Proclamation of the praefectus Aegypti, Titus Flavius Titianus: ‘… The lawyers in Egypt … deposit their securities anywhere rather than in the Library of Hadrian, which was built for this very purpose of preventing any illegal act from remaining unknown.’

^{page 65 note 2} Ox. Pap. CCXXXVII. (89 A.D.). Decree of the praefectus relating to the administration of the local offices.

^{page 65 note 3} Cassiodorus, , Chron. p. 636Google Scholar; cf. Euseb. Chron. ap. Georg. Synd., p. 659.

^{page 65 note 4} Dio., lxix. 16. 1, 2.

^{page 65 note 5} Cf. C.I.A. III. i. 48 (quoted below, p. 66), and the policy of Theodosius and Valentinian as extinctores delatorum, extinctores calumniarum.

^{page 65 note 6} Dittenberger on C.I.A. III. 18.

^{page 65 note 7} Cf. Aulus Gellius, xi. 17: Edicta veterum praetorum sedentibus forte nobis in bibliotheca templi Traiani et aliud quid quaerentibus cum in manus incidissent legere et cognoscere libitum est. Cf. Vopiscus, , Tac. 8. 1Google Scholar, on senatus consulta and commentaries of emperors (libri lintei), kept in the same building.

^{page 65 note 8} Hist. Aug. Marc. Ant. Phil. ix. 7–9: per provincias tabulariorum publicorum usum instituit, apud quos idem de originibus fieret quod Romae apud praefectos aerarii, ut si forte in provincia natus causam liberalem diceret, testationes inde ferret.

^{page 65 note 9} The first recorded case is that of the wife of Apuleius, born in 118 A.D.; cf. Apul. Apol. 89: ‘pater eius natam sibi filiam, more ceterorum professus est. Tabulae eius partim tabulario publico partim domo adservantur.

^{page 65 note 10} Ox. Pap. XXXIV. Section 1.

^{page 66 note 1} C.I.A. III. i. 48, especially lines 25–36 of remaining fragment. About 120 lines seem to have disappeared.

^{page 66 note 2} Bury, , History of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I. p. 43.Google Scholar

^{page 67 note 1} Πραϰτιϰά, see above.

^{page 68 note 1} Harrison, , Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens, p. 195.Google Scholar

^{page 70 note 1} Πραϰτιϰά, 1889, p. 8 and Plan; Athen Mitt. xiv. p. 327.

^{page 70 note 2} Πραϰτιϰά, 1888, p. 15 and Plan; Judeich, , Tof. von Athen, P. 339.Google Scholar

^{page 70 note 3} Bull, dell Inst., 1846, p. 177 (Ussing).

^{page 70 note 4} Mon. Ant. xxiv. p. 737; Colasanti, , L'Arte Bisantina in Italia, plates 98–100.Google Scholar

^{page 70 note 5} 19191 p. 1 ff.; Jahrbuch xxxvi. (1922), p. 256.

^{page 70 note 6} Πραϰτιϰά, 1916, p. 39 ff. 1918, p. 172 ff.; Jahrbuch xxxvi. (1922), p. 30.

^{page 70 note 7} Πραϰτιϰά, 1916, p. 49 ff.; 1918, p. 16 ff.; 1916, pp. 33, 65; 1917 p. 48; 1918, pp. 28, 34. Jahrbuch Anz. 1916, p. 148 ff.; Jahrbuch xxxvi. (1922), p. 248.

^{page 70 note 8} Strzygowski, , Klein Asien, p. 211Google Scholar; Von Sybel, , Christliche Antike, ii. p. 313Google Scholar and Plan; Holtzinger, , Die Altchristliche Architectur, p. 102Google Scholar, note; Monneret de Villard, , Boll. d'Arte, v. 1911, p. 271.Google Scholar (Drawings by Sangallo and others.)

^{page 71 note 1} Eusebius, , Vita Const. iii. 50.Google Scholar

^{page 71 note 2} Choisy, , Histoire de l'Architecture, Vol. II. p. 41.Google Scholar

^{page 71 note 3} Guide of the National Museum at Sophia, Obp.9, Fig. 9, p. 30.

^{page 71 note 4} Sarre und Herzfeld, , Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft, ii. (1909), p. 103.Google Scholar

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