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Modern Description: The Tholos, recognizable by its round shape, served as the headquarters of the prytaneis (executive committee) of the boule (senate of 500), according to Aristotle (Ath. Pol. 43.3). Here the fifty senators were fed at public expense, and at least seventeen spent the night in the building, available to deal with any emergency, whatever the hour. In a sense, then, the Tholos represents the heart of the Athenian democracy, where citizens serving as senators could be found on duty twenty-four hours a day. Built around 470 B.C., the building was an unadorned drum, with six interior columns supporting a conical roof of large diamond-shape terracotta roof tiles.
[Judith Binder: Tholos: near the Bouleuterion: Paus. 1.5.1; Agora_III, 179-184; Agora_XIV, 41-46, figs. 1, 12, 13 and pls. 3, 5-9, 11-13, 28, 33:A; Camp, J. McK. 1986, 231 (Index), figs. 5 no. 46, figs. 51-53, 66, 68, 71, 91, 129, 139, 151-153, 166 and pl. I]
Wikidata ID: Q9087412
Trismegistos Geo: 364

Info: Agora Excavations

Agora Excavation website agathe.gr

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