Stoa
（
στοά). The Greek term for a colonnade, such as those built
outside or inside temples, around dwelling-houses, gymnasia, and marketplaces. They were also
set up separately as ornaments of the streets and open places. The simplest form is that of a
roofed colonnade, with a wall on one side, which was often decorated with paintings. Thus in
the market-place at Athens the
στοὰ ποικίλη (Painted
Colonnade) was decorated with Polygnotus's representations of the destruction of Troy, the
fight of the Athenians with the Amazons, and the battles of Marathon and Oenoe. The
στοὰ βασίλειος, also in the market-place, in which the Archon
Basileus sat as judge, was probably divided longitudinally into three parts by two rows of
columns, and was the pattern for the Roman
basilica (q. v.). Zeno of
Citium taught in the
στοὰ ποικίλη, and his adherents
accordingly obtained the name of Stoics. See
Stoici.
Among the Romans similar colonnades attached to other buildings, or built out in the open,
were called
porticus. They were named from the neighbouring edifices (e.
g.
porticus Concordiae, close to the Temple of Concord); from their
builders (e. g.
porticus Pompeia); also from the pictures set up in them (e. g.
porticus Argonautarum); and from the business chiefly carried on in them, as
porticus Argentaria, the hall of the money-changers. These halls were the
chief places for public intercourse among the ancients. See
Porticus.
