A massive rectangular gymnasium is part of the ruins of the ancient Greek settlement of Cyrene – in now days Libya -, which was founded in 700 BC as a center of learning and was later absorbed into the Roman Empire.
THE GYMNASIUM OF CYRENE AND ITS TRANSFORMATIONS BETWEEN HELLENISTIC AGE AND LATE ANTIQUITIY
The public Gymnasium (dimosion Gymnasion – Ptolomaion) of Cyrene, built by and named after
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (around mid-2nd century BC), replaced the houses built in that area since the Archaic period. The monument had a large portico (about 8000 m•), eleven service rooms along the North side (among which aloutron and anephebeion were identified) and a race track, known as the “Portico of the Herms”.
The Gymnasium was turned into a Forum during the 1st century AD, when the construction of a Basilica replaced the Northern rooms; in the 2nd century AD a Corinthian temple (probably dedicated to the Emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius) was built in the centre of the square. The occupation of the area, despite its abandonment as a public complex, continued during Late Antiquity, after devastating earthquakes between 262 and 365 AD, with the building of several houses in both the porticoes and the central square.
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