ABSTRACT
This chapter takes its lead from anthropological approaches to public space to explore various ways in which violence shaped relations of power in the public spaces, and above all the agora, of the Hellenistic polis. It examines the evidence for measures taken by civic authorities to control the potential for the polis' inhabitants to engage in violence against one another. The chapter considers the extent to which public spaces in Hellenistic cities served as arenas for exacting violent punishments. It also considers the ways in which political power was overtly contested through violence in public, focusing in particular on the evidence for political murders. The power of the statues as symbols of political freedom and as a focal point for Athenian identity in Classical times is well known. The need to take physical control of the city is, of course, an important reason that political violence tended to focus on civic spaces.
