When Paul visited Athens, Acts says he was “in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.” The Agora of Rome is probably the marketplace mentioned. As a natural gathering place for the citizens of Athens, who were famous for being intensely interested in the newest gossip or distraction, the appearance of a foreigner preaching a new religion would have probably gathered a large crowd there. This agora has been continuously excavated by the American Schools of Classical Studies since 1931. They discovered evidence of all kinds of merchant activity there including the shops of potters, cobblers, bronze-workers and sculptors.¹ The excavators also found a library and numerous temples (including one dedicated to Hephaestus (Ἡφαιστος), the god of fire and metalwork²) and smaller shrines.³ They also discovered the Odeon of Agrippa in the agora compound, city council chambers, magistrates’ offices, law courts (the Athenians were a notoriously litigious society) and the city mint. Long stoas (covered porches) sheltered shoppers and other people gathered at the agora. One of these, the Stoa of Attalos, has been rebuilt and serves as a museum and the headquarters of the excavation team of the Agora.