Bouleuterion of Aegae

The bouleuterion of Aegae, which is situated to the north of the Agora of Aegae, was built by Antiphanes around 150 BC and was dedicated to Zeus Bollaios, Hestia Bollaia and the People of Aegae. Antiphanes and his family members were honored with sculptures placed in niches on the inner side of the north wall of the building. The dimensions of the building are 23x14,5 m. and it has a capacity of 200 persons. The bouleuterion is placed on an east-west axis and was planned as a theatron placed in a rectangular plan. The 9 m. high façade of the bouleuterion has a two-storied appearance. The first of the two building stages consists of three main sections: an antechamber used as an archive room, a main room with a theatron used as a meeting room and a section with porticoes at the rear end of the building. The entrance to the theatron was provided by two opposing doors on the long north and south sides and an extra door on the west end of the south wall leaded to the portico. The building was extensively repaired after the destruction caused by the earthquake of 17 AD. In this period, which is defined as the second stage of the bouleuterion, the massively damaged north wall was reinforced by a support placed on the outer side and the sculptures in the niches where repaired and restored to their new places. The archive room on the front was divided into eight parts. Two columns of the portico were replaced with new ones after the damage caused by the earthquakes in 2nd century A.D. In 268-272 AD, the Herulian invasion caused a climate of fear, which brought about the abandonment of the city and marked the end of the use of the bouleuterion of Aegae.