in Grecian antiquity. See PANATHENAEA.

ATHENÆUM, in antiquity, a public place wherein the professors of the liberal arts held their assemblies, the rhetoricians declaimed, and the poets rehearsed their performances.

These places, of which there were a great number at Athens, were built in the manner of amphitheatres, encompassed with seats, called cunei. The three most celebrated Athenæa were those at Athens, at Rome, and at Lyons, the second of which was built by the emperor Adrian.