This was the
bouleuterion, the building in which the citizens' representatives met in council.
Its temple, agora (market place),
bouleuterion (semi-circular tiered meeting place of the council), theatre and amphitheatre indicate that this was a very important site for the Greeks who were buried in tombs cut into the hillside.
There are remnants of a gymnasion, a Roman bath and a
bouleuterion. The 100-meter long Nysa Bridge, a tunnel-like substruction, was the second largest of its kind in antiquity.
* In Old Greek (10) the suffix -terion is used to form Instrument nouns, such aspoterion 'cup' (from the same root as pino 'drink'), semanterion 'seal' (from semaino 'make a signal') etc., and also to derive Locative nouns, such as
bouleuterion 'council-chamber' (from bouleuo 'deliberate'), dikasterion 'court of justice' (from dikazo 'judge'), etc.
It features the temples of Zeus, Hera, the Stadium, the
Bouleuterion where athletes were sworn in, the Prytaneion (site of the eternal flame) the Treasuries, the Gymnasium and the Leonidaion (a guesthouse dating from 330 BC).
255 pieces of Archaic fine ware in the building fill of the Old
Bouleuterion, dated on the basis of black-gloss and black-figure no later than 500, (65) and only two uncertain fragments were recovered from below the original clay floor of the nearby Building J, which Shear places in the early 5th century.
While Sickinger is generally convincing in his arguments, he often admits that conjecture is involved, and the reader grows accustomed to phrases like "it is not unreasonable to suppose ..." Minor faults include the complete lack of illustrations (e.g., drawings of devices discussed, archaeological plans) and the insufficient attention given to public records kept elsewhere than the
Bouleuterion or Metroon during the classical era; the book's title and broader interests would seem to prescribe greater consideration of them.