Square Peristyle

In the early second century BC the building was demolished and the material was reused in South Stoa II, on the southern side of the Agora.

It was a square building with sides of 58.56 metres in length, surrounding a central courtyard, which was lined with columns in the Doric order.

It was the largest of at least seven stoas built in Athens in the late fourth and early third centuries BC,[2] and the second-largest peristyle attempted in Greece up to that time, after the Anactorium at Vergina.

[4] A large entranceway on the west side and a small one on the east were planned, but never built - the spaces were simply left open.

[8] The lower courses were set in the bedrock and made of soft, creamy poros which was meant to be covered over by soil so that it was not visible.

In the north part of the wall, two courses of soft, white poros were preserved, many of them repurposed from a predecessor structure, Building A.

[12] The foundation trench for the east wall is preserved for almost its entire length, but almost all of the stone blocks, which were brick-red conglomerate, have been repurposed.

[11] The foundation trench for the south wall was roughly dug, but then allowed to fill up with dirt by 275 BC; no stones were ever laid.

[19] Several of these blocks are inscribed with single letters (Η, Ι, Ζ, Κ, Μ), which are probably not mason's marks, but rather labels for seating bays.

[24] Above the frieze was the geison; traces of paint show that the mutules were blue, the viae between were red; and the cyma reversa had a leaf pattern.

Two sturdy poros drains ran under the north wing of the peristyle and had their output 0.5 metres above the northern cross-road, where the street's terracotta gutter.

The stones of the drain are barely worn, suggesting that they blocked up and stopped working, as the floor level of the courtyard rose over time.

[35] The Square Peristyle was preceded by a set of structures known as Buildings A-D, built in the late fifth century, replacing earlier private houses.

[39] The structures were probably law courts, since small finds in Building A include bronze voting ballots for jurors.

[37] The construction of A may have been part of the process of Athenian legal reform begun in 410 BC after the overthrow of the regime of the Four Hundred.

[40] An open area to the south of Building A was probably used for the complicated allotment procedure undertaken every morning when the courts were in session.

[44] Townsend suggests construction began in the anti-monarchic, pro-democratic atmosphere after Demetrius left Athens in 302 BC.

[43] Athenian resources were limited in this period and several decisions about the structure were taken for economic reasons, such as the use of mudbrick and Kara limestone for the superstructure and the omission of orthostates from the outer walls.

Townsend argues that this process proceeded at different rates in different parts of the structure and work never even began on the south wing.

He suggests that it was left to last because it was the main entry point to the site during construction and because the height of the bedrock in this area meant that it was necessary to cut it down before the foundations could be laid.

[4] Pfaff argues that there was conscious change of plans early in the building's construction, removing the southern wing.

[45] The failure to bring the project to completion was probably connected with the financial and political troubles that afflicted Athens during the Wars of the Diadochi at the start of the third century.

[47] Townsend considers the failure to complete the structure to be symbolic of the decreased importance of the court system in Athenian politics in the Hellenistic period.

[54] The eastern part of the north wing of the Square Peristyle was used as the basis for a structure behind the Stoa of Attalos at some point.

[12] The Donor's Monument and the Bema took advantage of the terrace wall of the western side of the Peristyle, when they were built in front of the Stoa of Attalos, in the early first century BC.

[1] In the second century AD, the remnants to the west of the Stoa of Attalos were further disrupted when the Hadrianic Basilica and Monopteros were built over the area.

The area of the Stoa of Attalus was first excavated by the Greek Archaeological Society in 1859-1862 and 1898–1902, but only one of their soundings encountered part of the Square Peristyle, which was interpreted as a fountain house.

[56] The excavations of the Agora undertaken by the American School of Classical Studies began 1933, but did not seriously investigate the area in the period before World War II.