The hillock of San Nicola

On the hillock of San Nicola, where actually appears the “Pietro Griffo” Regional Archaeological Museum, there was probably the main square of the ancient city, the agora of Hellenistic Age and the Forum of Roman Age. On the southern side of the hillock, there is a meeting building, characterized by a cavea similar to a theatre, dug into the rock. The building, interpreted as ekklesiasterion (meeting place for citizens’ assembly), seems to have been built in the IV-III century BC. It was later covered and, in the obtained terrace, in the first century BC, it was built the oratory of Phalaris, a small Roman temple on the podium, preceded by stairs, with a cell and a pronao. The transformation into an oratory took place in the Middle Ages. Behind the Museum, there was another public building, known as bouleuterion, the meeting place of boulè (senate). Built in IV-III century BC, it has a mosaic floor of Roman age. Further north, in the II-I century BC, it was created a large square of 60x36 meters with arcades on three sides, in which center rose a Roman temple on the podium.