The North Peioschimi Stoa
The northern portico of the market, which rests on a three-tiered plinth, is 196 m long. Its rear wall is constructed of tightly jointed corbels using the pseudo-isodom system and survives to a height of approximately 5.00 m at its eastern end. There are no shops opening onto the interior of the stoa, but rather seven rectangular niches (podia) that once housed statues. The outer colonnade was Doric, while the two inner ones were Corinthian and divided the space into three aisles. The presence of a second floor is certain. In its northeast corner, three stone benches—used for measuring liquids and solid goods—were uncovered. The activities of the market merchants were regulated by the market officials, some of whom, upon completing their terms of office, dedicated stone benches to the gods and to the city. Judging by the variety of measures, weights, coins, calendars, and other similar institutionalized Greek standards, one concludes that there were an equally large number of local variations in measurement systems. At the western end of the stoa is the orators’ “Podium,” with a stone seat in front of it.
In the vast rectangular area of 33,000 m², formed between the market’s colonnades, there is ample space for the construction of civic, commercial, and religious buildings. In the marketplace of Messene, Pausanias saw the statue of Zeus the Savior, the sanctuaries of Poseidon and Aphrodite, as well as the statue of the Mother of the Gods.
SACRED TEMPLES
The temple of Zeus Soter, whose statue is mentioned by Pausanias (4.31. 6), has not been located; however, fragments of a pediment made of local sandstone coated with plaster, bearing within a rhomboid frame the winged thunderbolt of Zeus, most likely come from the temple of the same name. From the temple of Poseidon, also mentioned by Pausanias, come scattered Doric stone members and relief metopes, one of which, dating to the 3rd century B.C., depicts Andromeda chained to a rock and the dragon that guards her. Another relief, also from the 3rd century B.C., depicts a sea horse with a colossal, coiled fish tail carrying Triton or a Nereid on its back. The marketplace also housed the temple of Aphrodite and the Mother of the Gods (Cybele). The Doric peripteral temple of the deified first queen of Messene has been unearthed. Pausanias describes the chrysolite cult statue of the goddess and the fresco of Omphalion at the back of the cella. Along the south side of the temple is a row of inscribed pedestals for the installation of bronze statues of Roman emperors (Claudius, Germanicus, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina the Younger, Galerius, and others). Along the northern side of the same temple, seven columns inscribed with decrees regarding land distribution were discovered. Immediately north of the temple of the goddess Messene stand the ruins of the Bouleion, the city’s first council chamber. In front of its southern facade, columns bearing inscriptions honoring Messene judges were discovered.
The Monopteros
A circular structure (tholos), a Monopteros with a Doric colonnade, dating to the late Hellenistic period. Its remains were discovered beneath the foundations of the early Christian basilica, southeast of the Theater. The dating of the Tholos to the 3rd century B.C. is based primarily on the stylistic features of the columns and the Doric capitals. The architectural form of the Tholos’s peristyle structure suggests a temple that housed a cult statue of Aphrodite, analogous to the well-known single-aisled (a dome with a peristyle and no interior wall) temple at Cnidus, inside which stood the famous cult statue of the goddess, the work of the sculptor Praxiteles. Surrounding the central pillar of the Messinian Tholos beneath the apse of the Basilica, at a distance of 3.90 m and 0.30 m higher, lies a second circle, constructed from reused limestone slabs. Adjacent to the outer edge of the slabs in this second circle is a semicircular band, 1.50 m wide and 12 m long, featuring a 3rd-century CE mosaic depicting multiple figures, framed by a plinth. This decorated semicircular band is incorporated into the mosaic floor of a plaza, which spans the area between the Tholos and the butcher’s market portico and features dividers with rhombuses and other geometric motifs. The depiction has mythological content and appears to be related to the pre-Doric past of Messenia, the first mythical, deified Messene, queen of the land who gave her name to the great city founded by Epaminondas in 369 B.C.
PUBLIC SPACES
The Treasury
South of the Temple of Messana, the city’s Treasury was unearthed. It is an underground structure, dark and completely secure, which was hermetically sealed with a heavy stone lid consisting of two rows of slabs, elaborately carved with notches and grooves. This is where the surplus of the city’s treasures was kept: talents of gold and silver, precious vessels, and proceeds from taxes or war booty. Unfortunately, the Treasury was found empty and destroyed. The most significant account of this building comes from the 2nd-century C.E. historian, Plutarch, who links it to the dramatic end of the great general of the Achaean League, Philopoemen of Megalopolis, known as “the last Greek.” The ambitious Messinian general Deinocrates and his like-minded followers made the fatal mistake of poisoning the captive, elderly, and ailing general Philopoemenduring the night, inside the Treasury, where he was being held captive. This barbaric act marked the end not only of Messene’s autonomy but also of its military and political power. Deinocrates committed suicide, while his associates involved in the assassination met a gruesome death by stoning in Megalopolis at the hands of the crowd of citizens accompanying Philopoemen’s funeral procession. The honor of bringing Philopoemen’s remains to his homeland fell to the then-young historian Polybius, son of Lycortas, a general of the Sympoliteia. Among other items found in the disturbed fill of the underground chamber were two folded lead restraints (katares), which bear witness to the fate of the underground “Treasure,” which was abandoned as an object of loathing following the tragic death of Philopoemen and became a repository for objects associated with popular superstition and magic.
The Butcher’s Market
On the western side of the Agora stands a building with a Doric colonnade on its façade, identified as the Butcher’s Market, based on a 1st-century CE repair inscription that mentions the portico “next to the Kreopolion.” Behind the portico, which is located on the western side of the Agora, there were once shops that communicated, through doorways, with a peristyle. On the floor of the peristyle, a mosaic made of broken tesserae survives, featuring geometric motifs on an off-white background, while between the columns there are inscribed pedestals of bronze statues. In its northeast corner, a rough-hewn stone with a through-hole was found, where large animals intended for slaughter would apparently have been tied up.
The Inscribed Pedestal of the Horsemen
A short distance from the northeast corner of the Messana temple, the remains of a large pedestal were uncovered. On the front southern face of the pedestal is engraved a lengthy inscription of 191 lines divided into four columns, in the form of a papyrus scroll. The text refers to the adjudication of a border dispute between Messene and Megalopolis. The people of Megalopolis claimed ownership of borderlands that had been granted to them by the people of Messene for farming and grazing, in exchange for the payment of a sum equal to half the value of the crops. The Messenians persuaded the Achaean League to have the case heard by a panel of 147 judges from Mytilene, which convened in the Karnasion grove of Andania (or Endania). The Messenians ultimately succeeded in winning the case, with one hundred and forty votes in their favor and only seven in favor of the Megalopolitans. At the end of the inscription’s text, it is specified that the verdict on the legal case is to be inscribed at the sanctuary of Messana, on the pedestal near the Bouleion where the horsemen are located. The bronze statues of the two horsemen that adorned the pedestal likely depicted the Dioscuri.
The Bouleion
Along the northern side of the same temple, seven columns were found bearing inscriptions regarding the distribution of land. Immediately north of the temple of the goddess Messene stand the ruins of the Bouleion. It is a rectangular structure, 20 by 40 m, which, according to epigraphic evidence, is identified as the Bouleion, the first assembly hall of the capital in the 4th century B.C. The roof of the assembly hall was supported by sixteen large, built-in columns. Two entrances open onto the south facade of the hall, in front of which stands a portico. The architectural form of the building belongs to the type of columned halls used for religious purposes, such as the Telesteria, or for political purposes, such as the Thersilion of Megalopolis. Furthermore, columns bearing inscriptions honoring Messinian judges were found in front of its southern facade.
SANCTUARY OF DEMETER AND THE DIOSCURI
At the southwestern end of the Agora, near the Asclepieion, a structure measuring 24×24 m was uncovered. Excavation of the interior revealed the foundations of a religious building dating to the 4th–3rd centuries B.C., surrounded by annexes. Beneath the floors of the main building’s rooms, a vast number of clay votive tiles and figurines were uncovered, featuring a wide variety of motifs. The tiles had been discarded along with pottery shards and animal bones inside cavities in the natural bedrock. It is certain that the sanctuary was originally dedicated to the worship of Hero and, subsequently, to a female chthonic deity—Demeter. Pausanias (4.31.10) mentions “the sacred sanctuary of Demeter” and statues of the Dioscuri in Messene, which, according to the order in which the monuments are described, must have been located south of the Agora near the Asclepieion, where the sanctuary we are describing is situated. The architectural inscription from the time of Augustus and Tiberius at the Sebasteion also mentions repairs to the sanctuary of Demeter.
