The Roman forum and Athenian agora were not unlike each other. Both of them, for instance, were on the whole large public spaces where the public gathered in the classical world. However, despite their several similarities, there were in fact a few differences between them and in how they were used. The most noteworthy Greek agora was the one situated in Athens. The Athenian agora was likely laid out in the centre of the city as a public space as early as the 6th century BC, where a citizen named Peisistratus removed the private houses that occupied the area from the agora, closed several wells, and established it as the centre of Athenian government – a place where free born male landowners in Greece used to gather to hear the King’s or the council’s statements and where the courts were held…show more content… Furthermore, along with these governmental uses and religious uses, the agora was a centre of commerce, becoming a market place where makeshift shops were set up, all whilst still maintaining its openness as a public gathering point. As to the Roman forum, it similarly acted as a central point in the city, typically meeting at the intersection of two main roads towards the centre of the city. This is reminiscent of how the Athenian agora was led to by the ‘Panathenaic Way’, - named such after a festival procession that took place though it - which started at the gates of Athens and led into the Acropolis and through the Agora. The forum itself was likely inspired by the Greek agora, which was the case of much of their architecture – their incorporation of the use of the Greek Doric, Ionic and Corinthian order columns being a prime example of this. In fact, the Roman forum included many architectural features of a Greek agora, the use of porticoes being a good example of