The Market of Caesar and Augustus (fig. 1, no. 79),  also known as the Roman Forum or the Market of Athena Archegetis, occupies a site that probably had been a market area for some time.  Attempts have been made to link the area to the region of the city Strabo in his time (late first century B.C.E./early first century C.E.) called Eretria, but this cannot be confirmed.   More secure evidence that the early site held a market is found in the presence of the Tower of the Winds (fig. 1, no. 80), a horologion donated by Andronikos of Kyrrhos in Syria that surely predated the Market of Caesar and Augustus.   We know the horologion, a public timekeepind device, was built in a heavily trafficked area, possibly the older market.  The best evidence for the dating and thus for identifying the benefactor of the market is the inscription still visible on the architrave of the Doric propylon marking the western entrance to the market.

The People, from the funds given by the divine Gaius Julius Caesar and the Emperor Caesar Augustus, son of the god, (dedicate this) to Athena Archegetis during the archonship of Nikias, son of Sarapion, of Athmonon, when Eukles of Marathon was Hoplite General, and also Ambassador, who had succeeded his father Herodes as Epimelete.

This recorded donation from Julius Caesar has been dated precisely to 51 B.C.E., thanks to a letter written by Cicero to his friend Atticus in 50 B.C.E.:

By the way, has Herodes really extorted Caesar out of fifty Attic talents for you Athenians?  I hear that Pompey has become very angry because of it; he thinks that you have squandered his money and that Caesar will be more attentive with his villa at Nemi. I heard this from P. Vedius; quite a scoundrel, but still a close friend of Pompey's.

The specific occasion for the donation is not known, but undoubtedly some of the money was used to construct the market, and the entire gift must have been intended to sway public opinion in Athens to Caesar's side.  In 62 B.C.E., Pompey had made a donation to Athens of fifty talents, much of which was used to restore the Deigma in the Piraeus.   Despite Caesar's gift, the Athenians had chosen Pompey's side in his wars against Caesar starting in 49 B.C.E.; consequently, Attica was invaded and the Piraeus seized.  When the city surrendered, Caesar spared the Athenians in memory of their ancestors, "remarking that in spite of their many offences, they were saved by the dead" (Cassius Dio 92.14.2.).

After Greece had fallen to Caesar, he forced those cities that had taken Pompey's side in the war to pay reparations.   It is unlikely that Athens escaped this fate and if any of the donated funds survived the war, they surely were confiscated by Caesar in an effort to pay off his legions.   Though Caesar probably made a brief visit to Athens in 47 B.C.E., there is no evidence that a dedication of the market took place during his stay, as has been suggested by some scholars.   I believe the idea of Caesar presiding over a ceremony at the dedication of the market in 47 B.C.E. is pure conjecture.   Caesar did donate fifty talents in 51 B.C.E., as mentioned above, and the dedication on the propylon (though inscribed much later) gives him credit for that, but he probably would have had to furnish more funds during his visit in 47 B.C.E. for any sort of dedication to occur.  It is also just possible that Athens escaped war levies and that some level of construction continued during the war, but this seems unlikely as well.

The most probable series of events, and the simplest, is that Caesar did not make a dedication in 47 B.C.E., and that the Athenians honored him in the inscription on the propylon at a much later time (10/9 B.C.E.),  when their opinion of him would have been very different.  Further evidence that Caesar was not held in high regard in Athens shortly after his 47 B.C.E. visit is found in the warm reception of Brutus after Caesar's assassination and in the dedication of statues to Brutus and Cassius right next to the Tyrannicides' monuments.  The increase in commercial activity in Athens around 50 B.C.E. (which may have brought about the planning of the Market of Caesar and Augustus) subsided after the civil war as other trading centers were favored by the Romans.   The new commercial market was then apparently neglected soon after the war because of this economic decline.

Shortly after Actium, Augustus visited Athens and it might have reflected poorly upon him that a large building project begun by his father 16 years earlier still lay unfinished.   Augustus, at some point, must have donated more money to complete the market, though it seems unlikely that he would have given money to the Athenians to finish the project during his visit of 31 B.C.E., before his army had received payments for their services.   Augustus was later approached by Eukles, son of Herodes of Marathon who had originally appealed to Caesar about the 51 B.C.E. donation.   Graindor suggested that this visit took place between 31 and 20 B.C.E., probably closer to 31 B.C.E.   Yet Hoff's opinion would be more appropriate (that the visit occurred at a later date of ca. 19 B.C.E., when Augustus again stopped in Athens), given the economic instability of the city and the late completion date of the market.

We do know that the final dedication of the market took place around 10/9 B.C.E. and evidence shows that most of the market was constructed in only one building phase.   Nevertheless, the plan of the market and the general design have ties to similar courts built at that time under Caesar across the East,  and it is possible that the plan of the structure, as chosen by Caesar, had been agreed upon or finalized before the construction halted.  It is unknown whether any work had been done at the site before the long lapse in its status, although if an earlier market existed at the site, it probably was still in use during this interval.

The question of an early location for an imperial cult has been raised in regard to the market.  Benjamin and Raubitschek first suggested the market or the "Agoranomion" (fig. 1, no. 81) might have housed a Kaisareion, as did other similar structures of the period.   Hoff expands upon this theory by suggesting that a Sebasteion did exist, although the evidence is inconclusive.   However, Schmalz has recently shown that the "Agoranomion" is most likely a later Julio-Claudian raised roadway with a monumental arched entrance to the market.   Evidence that an imperial cult existed in the market might come to light under future excavations since only half of the site has been examined, but currently no firm proof exists that an imperial shrine existed there or anywhere other than on the acropolis.