Agoranŏmi, ten magistrates at Athens, who watched over the city and port, and inspected whatever was exposed to sale.
Agorānis, a river falling into the Ganges. Arrian, de Indica.
Agoræa, a name of Minerva at Sparta. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 11.
Agoreus, a surname of Mercury among the Athenians, from his presiding over the markets. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 15.
Agra, a place of Bœotia where the Ilissus rises. Diana was called Agræa, because she hunted there.——A city of Susa——of Arcadia——and of Arabia.
Agræi and Agrenses, a people of Arabia. Pliny, bk. 6, ch. 28.——Of Ætolia. Livy, bk. 42, ch. 34.
Agrāgas, or Acragras, a river, town, and mountain of Sicily; called also Agrigentum. The town was built by the people of Gela, who were a Rhodian colony. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 703.—Diodorus, bk. 11.
Agraria lex, was enacted to distribute among the Roman people all the lands which they had gained by conquest. It was first proposed A.U.C. 268, by the consul Spurius Cassius Vicellinus, and rejected by the senate. This produced dissensions between the senate and the people, and Cassius, upon seeing the ill success of the new regulations he proposed, offered to distribute among the people the money which was produced from the corn of Sicily, after it had been brought and sold in Rome. This act of liberality the people refused, and tranquillity was soon after re-established in the state. It was proposed a second time A.U.C. 269, by the tribune Licinius Stolo, but with no better success; and so great were the tumults which followed, that one of the tribunes of the people was killed, and many of the senators fined for their opposition. Mutius Scævola, A.U.C. 620, persuaded the tribune Tiberius Gracchus to propose it a third time; and though Octavius, his colleague in the tribuneship, opposed it, yet Tiberius made it pass into a law, after much altercation, and commissioners were authorized to make a division of the lands. This law at last proved fatal to the freedom of Rome under Julius Cæsar. Florus, bk. 3, chs. 3 & 13.—Cicero, on the Agrarian Law.—Livy, bk. 2, ch. 41.
Agraule, a tribe of Athens. Plutarch, Themistocles.
Agraulia, a festival at Athens in honour of Agraulos. The Cyprians also observed these festivals, by offering human victims.