... Agora of Athens was the heart of Athenian life in Ancient times. For centuries it served as a busy marketplace where merchants and artisans had congregated to offer their goods to all who gathered, and it also provided a platform for political and intellectual life. This is the place where Aristocrats and Tyrants enforced their rule on their subjects and where later the concept "direct democracy" was born and flourished. The agora was the physical place where every citizen gathered to conduct their business, participate in their city's governance, decide judicial matters, express their opinion for all who cared to listen, and elect their city officials. For every free citizen, participating in such "common" activities was not merely a duty, but instead it was privilege and an honour. In fact the term "idiot" (idiotis = he who acts on his/her own) was used to mock those who avoided participation in the ...

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