Asklepion, the most prominent place of Ancient Messina
Asklepion, the most prominent place of Ancient Messina, the centre of the city's public life, dominates in the centre of the Agora. Traveller Pausanias presents the Asklepion as a museum of works of art, mainly statues, and not as an ordinary mosque for the treatment of patients. More than 140 pedestals for bronze figurines, mainly of politicians and five platforms surround the Doric temple and altar, while many are also placed along the arcades. Four arcades internally flank an almost square outdoor area.
Most of the central outdoor area of the Asklepion is occupied by the imposing Doric pavilion temple and its large altar. The total height of the temple was about 9 metres, and it is located on a three-level platform. The nave, entrance and opisthodomos (back room) are built of local limestone, while the wing is made of plastered sandstone. Tributes dedicated to the cult of the healing god Asclepius were not found. Thus, the opinion is confirmed that Asclepius of Messina was not known for his healing capacity but the political one, that of the "Messinian citizen".
On the eastern side of the Asklepion is the complex of three buildings: the small, roofed, theatre-like Church Hall, the Propylaea, the Synedrion or Parliament and the Archive room of the Secretary of the Congresses.
Religious performances and gatherings of a political nature took place in the Church Hall. It is a small theatrical structure with a hollow, inscribed rectangular shell and a circular orchestra. The front part of the stage had three openings and an exit staircase at its eastern end. The hollow is divided by a tier into upper and lower. The lower hollow consists of 11 rows of stone seats and is divided into three stands with two staircases. A strong rampart wall also surrounds it. A covered staircase in the northwest corner of the wall led to the upper part of the hollow from the north side. Finally, during the 2nd century AD, at the eastern end of the orchestra, a large bronze equestrian pedestal was placed in honour of Helladarch, Saithidas.
The Propylaea opens in the middle of the eastern entrance of the Asklepion. At about the middle of its length, it had a transverse wall with three doors, the thresholds of which are preserved with the notches for the latches and faucets. To the east of the wall, there was an arcade of four square bases for supporting Ionic columns. The floor was saved between the outer row of these bases and the transversal wall (with the three doors). Also, the arcade carried two Corinthian-style columns. The two different bases of the columns, preserved in place, come from the later repair of the arcade.
The Synedrion or Bouleuterion was the perfect meeting place for delegates and representatives of the cities of the autonomous Messinia. It has an almost square shape, and a four-pitched roof supported internally on four pillars. Its three sides (north, east and south) were closed, built with a wall, while there was an entrance only on the west side through two large three-door openings. A continuous stone bearing was preserved along the three closed sides. The total length of the platform (56 metres) allowed 76 delegates to sit, i.e. the members of the holy senate.
The large hall of the Secretary of the Conferences Archive was located in the southeast corner of the Asklepion complex and is full of structures from the Early Byzantine period. Given the public political character of the spaces of the eastern wing of the Asklepion, it is rather certain that it had a similar public character. In fact, according to the testimony of an inscription (found in front of the eastern entrance of the hall), it must have housed the Archive of the Secretary of the Conferences.
The northern wing of Asklepion is closed by a large two-sided building built on a high plinth. The two halls of the building (right and left of the north staircase), which are divided identically into five rooms, have been identified with the Sebasteion or Caesarion of the inscriptions. They were dedicated to the goddess Rome and the worship of the emperors.
To the northwest of Asklepion, a temple with an almost square nave, a shallow wider pediment and a ramp in the middle of the four-column facade came to light. Around the front of the temple, votive pedestals and inscribed columns were uncovered. Along the northern side, two hordes of coins (Messina copper and Achaean Commonwealth silver) from the middle of the 2nd century BC were found, as well as several clay figurines, which mainly depict Artemis the Huntress. The fragments found to the north of the temple must belong to the cult marble statue of Orthia.
Northeast and southeast of Asklepion, a densely built residential complex was discovered that is part of a settlement of the 5th - 7th century A.D. The 40 or more Christian tombs that were uncovered with characteristic, for the time, vases and copper buckles as offerings belong to this settlement. Scattered Christian graves were also found among the buildings, where fragments of marble tomb Christian inscriptions were also found. The walls of the Christian buildings were roughly built with all-purpose stones, pieces of architectural members, inscriptions, and sculptures. Among them, the ancient trunks of two female statues from the middle of the 2nd century BC. stand out.
Traveller Pausanias, proceeding south from the Asklepion to the Gymnasium, first mentions the Shrine, a building that housed statues of the twelve gods, a bronze statue of Epaminondas, as well as "ancient tripods", which Homer calls "apyrus". The Shrine must have had a direct relationship with the sacrificial priests, elected annual officials of the city, and responsible for the celebration of the Ithomaia and other religious festivals. After all, on the city’s coins, the tripod usually accompanies the image of Zeus Ithomata, the main deity of Messina.