The Roman ‘Agora’ of Gytheum appears to be a large compound with an interior peristyle; its width is 52 m and its length at least 61 m. Excavations have revealed the remains of the north-east corner and a portion of the west wing. The extant architectural blocks allow the reconstruction of the colonnades. Column shafts were made of local red limestone and at least some of them were crowned with lotus-and-acanthus capitals. Three different interaxial column spacings are present. A single column must have stood on each corner of the peristyle. The style of the column capital suggests a date after the year ad 100. The entablature is almost identical, in both style and dimensions, to the one found on the Captives' Facade at Corinth. The inscription on two epistyles reveals the private dedication of an exedra to theoi Sebastoi and the city. Most probably the exedra was behind the colonnaded space; the mention of theoi Sebastoi might suggest imperial cult either in the exedra alone or both in the exedra and in the entire colonnaded compound. Quite possibly, and following A. Themos' suggestion, a large part of the colonnaded compound that is conventionally termed the ‘Agora’ can be identified with the Sebasteum/Caesareum of Gytheum; this latter structure is attested in other inscriptions from the city.
Amyklaios is not great in quantity, 1 but significant. The aim of our work 2 is to re-examine the inscriptions of the sanctuary and to find those which are published but we no longer know where they are located. The second aim is the collection and classification of the literary sources about the sanctuary and its operation.The sanctuary of Apollo Amyklaios was one of the most important cult centres of the Lacedaimonians. From Thucydides it is known that the sanctuary was a place for the erection of stelai with texts of political significance (Thuc. V.18.10), such as the stele with the text of the Peace of Nikias in 422/1 BC (Thuc. V.23.4-5). The sanctuary and the festival of Hyakinthia were also chosen by Lacedaimonians as the venue for the exchange of the oaths with the Argives for the proposed treaty of 420 BC (Thuc. V.41.3). The same sanctuary is considered by Matthaiou and Pikoulas as the place for the erection of the stele inscribed with a list of contributions to sparta (IG V1, 1 + SEG XXXIX 370) either in money or in kind, made both by cities and individuals during the Peloponnesian war. 3 Inscriptions that could be attributed to the sanctuary of Apollo Amyklaios were recorded by the French Abbé Michel Fourmont in the early 18th century. However, Fourmont, who did not know the exact location of the sanctuary of Apollo, attributed wrongly to it many inscriptions, such as IG V1 596 and 605, which seem to come from the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Kalyvia sochas. 4 He also attributed to the Amyklaion an inscription (IG V1, 515) which is forged, as spawforth proved. 5 Few inscribed monuments were found during the first excava-
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