Points of interest

Agonothetes

Discovered by the French archaeologist Leon Rey, this set of public buildings was an important center in the life of the people of Apollonia in the Hellenistic and the Roman periods. It is composed of a two-storied portico with 17 niches, a portico with apses, Bouleuterion, Prytaneion, Diana’s Temple, Library and Odeon.

The symbol of Apollonia is the Roman the monument of Agonothetes which would be its bouleuterion, constructed in the course of the IIth century. City states in ancient Greece called their City Council meeting room the "Bouleuterion". In Apollonia this is located in the city centre near the Agora(the central meeting and marketplace of a city). It was built in the last quarter of the 2nd Century BC, during the Roman period.

In ancient Greece, an agonothetes was the president or superintendent of the sacred games. At first the person who instituted the games and defrayed the expenses was the Agonothetes; but in the great public games, such as the Olympic Games and Pythian Games, these presidents were the representatives of different states.

The structure had the form of a semicircle and served as an assembly place of the council of the city - the Bule. The front part of the structure was decorated in a special manner: there are 6 pillars crowned with capitals of the Corinthian style. An inscription dating from the middle of the 2nd century AD tells that the building was constructed by high-ranking officers of the city, a monument with the purpose of commemorating the death of their soldier brother.