The Agora Metroon in Late Roman Athens: A Reexamination of Its Use as a Synagogue

by Jocelyn Burney

Hesperia, Volume 95, Issue 3
Page(s): 465-494
Stable URL: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/1001167
Year: 2026
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ABSTRACT:

A fragment of Pentelic marble incised with a menorah and lulav was discovered in 1933 near the Hellenistic Metroon on the west side of the Athenian Agora. Homer A. Thompson proposed that the fragment had originally adorned the Metroon, the northernmost room of which was rebuilt as a basilica-plan hall during the 4th or 5th century CE. This article reevaluates Thompson’s theory, beginning with the marble fragment, which may have come from a funerary marker, followed by the reconstruction of the Metroon, which is dated to the early 5th century. Ultimately the fragment cannot be connected to the Metroon based on stratigraphy, and there is no positive evidence that the building was a synagogue.