From the mole and past the entrance control there is a short road leading to an open space surrounded by shops, in some cases ruined, some of them with their walls preserved to maybe their full height. It is the so-called Agora (market and meeting place) of the Competaliasts, a union of freedmen and slaves worshipping as patron deities the 'Lares Compitales' (=gods of the crossroads); the same site, however, was previously (2nd century BC) used also by the Hermaists and the Apolloniasts. As our photos show, there are marble altars, votive offerings and pedestals all over the place. Around the two central buildings (one round and one rectangular) bases of monuments erected by bankers, ships' pilots and merchants are to be seen. The whole complex is dated to the last quarter of the 2nd century B.C.
The shops around the square were used to store goods, but the actual market activities took place in the open, exactly in the same way such market places function in modern Greece! The necessary shade was provided by provisional awnings supported by wooden poles secured in holes still visible in the granite flagstones which pave the square. This was the main grain market, but Strabo mentions that also a thriving slave market was active here!