Stoa Basileios

It is among the smallest known Greek stoas, but had great symbolic significance as the seat of the Athenian King Archon, repository of Athens' laws, and site of "the stone" on which incoming magistrates swore their oath of office.

[2] It sat just south of the point where the Panathenaic Way and another street enter the Agora and exactly one metre north of the Stoa of Zeus.

[3] On top of the steps, between the second and fourth columns from the northern end of the Stoa is a large block of tan limestone, which is probably "the Stone" (ho lithos) used for oaths.

[5] Several features of the stoa indicate that it was originally built in the Archaic period: its small scale, the use of poros instead of marble, the presence of a Z-shaped metal clamp in the walls, and the polygonal masonry.

Pausanias says that they depicted Theseus throwing Sciron into the sea and Hemera (Day) abducting Cephalus.

[4] Fragments of these stelae survive; they bear a copy of the Athenian law on homicide (OR 183A) and two versions of a calendar of Athens' public sacrifices (AIO 1185 and 1189).

It wears a chiton, girdle, and himation and originally held a long metal object in its left arm, probably a sceptre, spear, key, or measuring stick.

[4] The Stoa Basileios was the headquarters of the King Archon (basileus), who was responsible for organising various festivals, conducting some sacrifices on behalf of the city, and hearing the initial indictments for some types of lawsuit.

[28] In the 5th century BC, the Areopagos council (in charge of religious affairs and murder trials) sometimes met in the Stoa as well and a rope would be set up to keep people from interrupting its proceedings.

The laws of Draco and Solon written on wooden pillars called axones and kyrbeis were probably moved to the Stoa by Ephialtes in the 460s BC,[28][33] perhaps on the low platforms on the inside walls.

[40][41] Since the King Archon was responsible for trials on religious matters, it was at the Stoa Basileios that Socrates was formally charged with impiety by Meletus.

[43][44] According to Philostratus, an overturned statue near the Stoa was knocked over by an evil spirit in the late first century AD, when it was exorcised by the holy man Apollonius of Tyana.

[45][46] The stoa was outside the area of the original excavations of the Athenian Agora by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, being north of the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railway.