Listed 7 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "EFESSOS Ancient city TURKEY".
The city, in the delta region of the Kayster, was in ancient times
the most important metropolis in Ionian Asia Minor, and the most important of
the seven Apocalyptic cities. It was founded on an older settlement of Carians
and Leleges, which had a sanctuary to the Mother Goddess of Asia Minor. Under
King Androklos immigrants from the Greek mainland built the first fortified city
1200 m W of the Artemision, on the slopes of Panayir-dagi, and erected a shrine
to Apollo Pythios. Under Croesus the first town on the Koressos harbor was abandoned
before the mid 6th c. B.C. and a second founded inland, near the earlier Artemision.
About 290 B.C., because of land subsidence, the town was moved by Lysimachos to
the area between the mountains of Bulbul-dagi and Panayir-dagi. It was fortified
with a turreted wall over 9 km long and laid out on the Hippodamian system; the
only deviation was the socalled Kouretes Street, which follows an older path.
Lysimachos' city, called until his death after his wife Arsinoe, remained inhabited
until ca. A.D. 1000; The Byzantine-Selcuk city, which grew up on and around the
Ayasouk hill (Selcuk), was captured in 1426 by the Ottoman Turks.
The Artemision. The scanty remains of this temple, one of the Seven
Wonders of the World, lie today on a swampy plain NE of the city, from which the
sea receded only ca. 1000 B.C. The earliest shrine, at the beginning of the 6th
c. B.C., consisted of two platforms, the W one with an altar, the E one with the
goddess's cult image and possibly a naos open to the W. A hoard of votive offerings,
found under the limestone paving, is now in the Istanbul Museum. After its destruction
by invading Kimmerians, the platforms were enlarged and surrounded by a wall;
later they were united to form the podium of a small temple, and finally the building
became a roofless temple in antis, possibly prostyle, around a freestanding central
core. About 560 B.C., the great Artemision was built by the Cretan architects
Chersiphron and Metagenes. On the stylobate, 115.14 by 55.1 m, stood the sekos,
probably roofless, with the goddess's image in the center, surrounded by two rows
of columns with a third across the front. In the pronaos were four pairs of columns,
the lowest drums with reliefs like those of the entrance facade (some of them
donated by Croesus). The columns, with superb, painted volute capitals, supported
the first marble architrave in the Greek world, bridging the widest span yet mastered
(the middle architrave weighed 24 T); the inner architrave, ceiling cofferings,
and roof beams were of cedar. This temple is the only early Ionic building securely
dated (completed ca. 500 B.C.), and almost entirely capable of reconstruction
on paper.
In 356 B.C. the temple was burnt by Herostratos, and subsequently
rebuilt by the Ephesians, after they had refused the help of Alexander the Great.
The original dimensions were retained, new columns and walls rose upon the old,
but on a base 2.68 m higher; the form of the older column bases and their sculptural
decorations were also retained. Such artists as Skopas and Apelles collaborated
in the work; the altar ornament was reputed to be the work of Praxiteles. The
building was completed toward the middle of the 3d c. B.C., except for isolated
elements. It was burnt in A.D. 263 by plundering Goths, and completely destroyed
in the Christian era. Architectural remains from both temples are in the British
Museum. The goddess's cult statue from the older temple was said to be the work
of the Athenian Endoios, at the end of the 6th c. B.C. Surviving copies, all Roman,
show an archaic type, but with richly jeweled ornament which would not have been
part of the prototype. The recently discovered foundation of the altar (39.7 m
wide), lying W of the temple and on its axis, is U-shaped and closed on the E.
It consists of two courses of polygonal limestone blocks. Beneath the stone bedding
of the altar court, which is paved with polygonal marble slabs, lie fragments
of the columns of the archaic temple. There are also two separate archaic foundations
within the court, approached by an open ramp of later date.
The route followed below leads from the Magnesian Gate to the State
Agora. A short diversion to a N-S street W of the Agora passes in front of the
Temple of Domitian. The route then proceeds NW along Kouretes Street as far as
the Library of Celsus and N along Marble Street to the Theater and the Theater
Baths, where it turns W past the great market or Commercial Agora, along the Arkadiane
to the Harbor Baths complex. Returning to Marble Street it goes N past the Stadium
and the Baths of Vedius. The theater, which is a frequent point of reference,
is set against a cliff at the W side of the hill called Panayir-dagi (Mt. Pion),
which occupies the NE quarter of the city.
The bounds of Lysimachos' city, with ruins of Hellenistic and Roman
times, are indicated by two city gates: to the W the Koressos Gate (which led
to Koressos, the quarter supposedly located on the site of the old town near the
Artemision; see below, Baths of Vedius), and SE of this, on the road to Magnesia,
the Magnesian Gate. A stretch of the 3d c. wall constructed by Lysimachos can
be seen on the slope of Panayir-dagi, and a longer one on Bulbul-dagi; the Magneseian
Gate lies between them. According to an inscription on the E wall of the S theater
entrance, the Festival procession proceeded from the Artemision to the Magnesian
Gate, thence to the theater, next to the Koressos Gate and back to the Artemision.
The Magnesian Gate consisted of three entrances, the central one for wheeled traffic;
flanking these were two fortification towers. The superstructure of the gate,
which survives in part, probably dates according to its inscription, from Vespasian.
Inside the gate to the SW is the so-called Tomb of Luke, originally a round building
faced with marble with 16 niches on the exterior, and later changed into a church.
The East Gymnasium lies to the N, a splendid complex open to the public
with exercise rooms and halls for social gatherings. In front of the main building
was a palaestra with an auditorium to the E, and another room, comparable to the
so-called Imperial chamber of the Baths of Vedius (see below), with a statue of
Septimius Severus in an apsidal niche. This was apparently built by the Ephesian
Sophist Flavius Damianus and his wife Phaedrina, members of Vedius' family.
The State Agora was over 160 m long, bounded on S and E by marble
benches and on the N by a basilica, which was 20 m wide excluding its S steps.
In its central nave were columns with deeply set foundations and Ionian bull's-head
capitals, between which additional support was provided in the Late Empire by
Corinthian columns set directly on the stylobate. To the W was the Chalcidicum
of the basilica, a rustic building. The dedication of the basilica to Artemis
of Ephesos, the Demos, and Augustus and Tiberius, is recorded on a partly preserved
Greek and Latin inscription in bronze letters set into the wall. Later eradication
of the goddess's name testifies to the building's survival into the Christian
era. Its donors were possibly C. Sextilius Pollio and his wife Offilia Bassa,
builders of the aqueduct in Dervend Dere. Beneath the basilica are the remains
of a Hellenistic stoa as long as the basilica, 8.60 m deep, with a single nave;
older remains were also found beneath the Chalcidicum and the Bouleuterion.
Just N of the basilica is the Prytaneion, the religious and political
center of the city, with the sanctuary of Hestia Boulaia and the state apartments.
Here were found three statues of Artemis of Ephesos, now in the museums of Selcuk
and Izmir. The sanctuary of Hestia, with the base of the hearth for the sacred
flame, dates from the Augustan period, but was remodeled in the 3d c. A.D. by
the addition of corner columns with Composite capitals. The Doric portico facade
with six columns in antis dates from the first phase. In front of this lies a
courtyard; E of it is a peristyle with Ionic stoas on three sides and a podium
approached by a monumental stair. This podium, formerly known as the state altar,
has now been identified as a podium with two small prostyle temples built by Augustus
in 29 B.C. for Divus Iulius and Dea Roma; it was destroyed in the 4th c. A.D.
Luxurious private houses with frescos and mosaics lay N of the N side of the peristyle,
on both sides of the steps leading up the hill.
Adjoining the Prytaneion on the E is the Bouleuterion (formerly called
an odeion), a small building ca. 46 m wide with a semicircular auditorium for
1400 persons built on two levels; its upper tier consisted of reddish granite
columns. In addition to the radial stairways, two covered stairs led from the
parodoi to the center corridor. Originally no skene was planned. According to
the building inscription, the donors--at least of the twostoried scaenae frons--were
P. Vedius Antoninus and his wife Flavia Papiana, in the mid 2d c. A.D. There were
several gates leading into the Agora, and between the Bouleuterion and the basilica
were an open passageway (for reasons of safety) and a channel to carry off water
from the roofs of both buildings. From this were recovered heads and parts of
colossal statues of Augustus and Livia, and a copy of Lysippos' Eros with the
bow. Adjacent to the basilica on the E was the so-called Bath of Varius. Still
standing are the S wall of the caldarium with seven heated basins, and E of that
other rooms for bathing purposes. The long room on the S side was perhaps a hot
room. The building was erected in the 2d c. A.D. South of the complex a mosaic
floor of the 5th c. A.D., belonging to a stoa, has recently been excavated.
At the E end of the State Agora a section of the archaic necropolis
lies beneath the Roman level, with sarcophagi made of stone, clay (Klazomenian),
or slabs, and a burial without a sarcophagus dated by the grave gifts to the mid
6th-5th c. B.C. There is also, among the interments of the residents of the second
Greek city 3.25 m below the present ground level, a section of the foundations
of a street predating Lysimachos' city; it is 3.5 m wide and bordered by a dry
wall. The necropolis lay on both sides of it.
On the S side of the Agora was the processional street, running W-E
to the Magnesian Gate; S of that and opposite the Bouleuterion was a large fountain,
sometimes called the Great E Nymphaeum, fed by water from the Mamas river in the
Dervend mountains by means of an aqueduct. The original structure, enlarged in
the 2d c. A.D., had a central building, wings, and projecting walls between which
was a large basin with a dipping pool in front of it. It was repaired in the 4th
c. under Constantius II and Constans.
The Hydrekdochion (fountain) erected ca. A.D. 80 by the proconsul
C. Laecanius Bassus stood at the SW corner of the State Agora, where the processional
street makes a right angle to pass E of the terrace of the Temple of Domitian.
This alley is called Domitian Street. The plan of the fountain resembles that
of the Fountain and Nymphaeum of Trajan (see below): a two-storied building with
a collecting basin in front and, in front of that, a dipping pool, the dimensions
of which were later reduced. The decorations included tritons, seahorses, and
river-gods. Adjoining it to the N, near the junction of Domitian Street with Kouretes
Street, is the monument in honor of C. Sextilius Pollio, erected by C. Offilius
Proculus in the Augustan period and enlarged in A.D. 93 by the addition to the
S of a columned apsidal nymphaeum, joined to it by a common entablature. Its late
Hellenistic statuary group portraying Odysseus' encounter with Polyphemos was
adapted into fountain figures by the addition of a system of pipes. Just N of
this is the Chalcidicum of the basilica (see above) with rusticated walls still
standing to a fair height and three doors to the W. On the N side of this the
Clivus sacer, now a footpath, leads through a gate with two socles decorated with
reliefs showing scenes of sacrifice (Hermes leading a ram, youth with a goat,
tripod with Omphalos); the path runs from Kouretes Street directly to the precinct
of the Prytaneion.
Temple of Domitian. On the opposite side of Domitian Street is the
terrace of the temple, with shops in its substructure on N and E, and a monumental
approach from an open square to the N. The temple, built upon ancient foundations
and further transformed in post-Domitianic times, had 8 by 13 columns, and four
across the front; only the foundations remain. Before it stood an altar with socle
reliefs of trophies and scenes of sacrifice, now in the museum at Selcuk. The
temple was originally dedicated to Domitian by the Province of Asia (the first
Neokorie of Ephesos) and after his damnatio memoriae rededicated to his father
Vespasian. The head and one arm of a colossal statue of Domitian, thrown down
after the damnatio memoriae, were found in the cryptoporticus and are now in the
museum at Izmir. In the square before the temple is the foundation of a star-shaped
podium, to which perhaps belonged a cylinder with a frieze of bucrania and a conical
roof. It may be compared with the more or less contemporary structure next mentioned.
Kouretes Street bends, at its junction with Domitian Street. The monument
here was erected in honor of C. Memmius, grandson of Sulla, and has been partly
reconstructed. It consists of a socle, surmounted by a story (?), with niches
and benches on the W, S, and E sides; in front at the sides are animated female
figures in relief, and the whole is surmounted by an attic ornamented with reliefs.
Adjoining it is a Hydreion (fountain) of the 1st c. A.D., remodeled in the early
3d c. In front of it are four pedestals on which stood statutes of Diocletian
and the Tetrarchs. Further along Kouretes Street, beyond a late antique propylaneum
is the Nymphaeum of Trajan (Hydrekdochion) on the N side, dedicated before A.D.
114. The main basin is surrounded on three sides by a two-storied wall resembling
a scaena with columns in the Composite order in the lower story and aediculae
with Corinthian columns above. In the middle, two stories high, was a colossal
statue of Trajan; its base with globe and feet has been restored. The pool was
on the street side.
Next to this was the Temple of Hadrian, a little porticoed temple
with two columns in antis. Its barrel vaulted cella holds the pedestal for the
cult statue, and over its door is a relief of Hadrianic date with a female figure
rising from acanthus rinceaux. The building was restored after earthquakes between
A.D. 383 and 387, and the relief frieze in the pronaos showing the legend of the
founding of the city was added at that time. This frieze, originally made for
another, unidentified building (it was cut down to fit its present setting), is
possibly one of the latest of antique temple friezes. According to the inscription
of P. Quintilius, the temple was dedicated to the emperor during his lifetime;
after the Temple of Domitian, it was the city's second Neokorie (a provincial
sanctuary designated as an Imperial temple). In front of the facade stood memorial
pedestals with the statues of the Tetrarchs: the Augusti in the center flanked
by the Caesares (cf. the bases by the Hydreion).
Behind the Temple of Hadrian, at the SW foot of Panayir-dagi, are
the sprawling Baths of Scholastikia, originally of the 2d c. A.D. and rebuilt
ca. 400 by a Christian, Scholastikia, whose statue, with an inscription, stands
in the entrance chamber. Much reused material, especially from the Prytaneion,
was employed. This bath belongs to the ring- or gallery-type and includes an apsidal
apodyterium with changing-cubicles on the sides; the sockets for the curtain-rods
are still in place. In its N section, accessible from Marble Street, is a Paidiskeion
or brothel.
Opposite the Baths of Scholastikia are two splendid private houses
still being excavated. They rise in several stories against the hillside, and
while the front rooms of the lower stories are aligned with Kouretes Street, the
upper ones are laid out orthogonally, parallel to a street in back which runs
at an acute angle from the Square of Domitian to Kouretes Street. There were shops
in the lower story, and three flights of steps led from the street to the upper
levels. There is a fine peristyle court in the third story of the E house, with
marble floors, wall veneer, and a pool of later date with marble revetment. Ten
main periods are represented, from the Augustan age until destruction in the early
7th c. Adjoining on the S is a square chamber with three niches on the W side.
In House 2 to the W there are apartment suites, each grouped around a peristyle
court; the surrounding rooms have an upper story (dwelling space of 964 sq. m);
several rooms are decorated with two layers of paintings representing Muses (3d
c.), the figure of Socrates with an inscription (1st c.), theater scenes (the
Sikyonioi and the Perikeiromene of Menander, and the Orestes of Euripides), the
Combat of Hercules and Acheloos, more Muses, and Erotes. Also found here were
a bronze statuette 0.38 m high of a "Sem" priest with inscribed cartouches
of Psammetich II (590 B.C.), a little ivory head of the 3d c. A.D., other figures
and reliefs, and even a frieze, of ivory. From the niche-vault of one of the peristyle
courtyards comes a glass mosaic of the 5th or 6th c. A.D. Some of the finds are
in the Selcuk museum.
To the NW on Kouretes Street are two related buildings, perhaps heroa
from the 1st c. B.C. or A.D.: the Nymphaeum consists of a massive marble base
with Doric half-columns on three sides surmounted by Ionic ones, and a frieze
decorated with garlands. It was rebuilt as a Nymphaeum in the Christian era; the
water flowed into a pool with crosses inscribed on the slabs of its brim. The
Octagon is similar: a marble socle surmounted by an 8-sided structure. The massive
core, with false door, is surrounded by a Corinthian colonnade; above the entablature
is to be reconstructed a stepped pyramid terminating in a cone. The base encloses
a tomb chamber which held a marble sarcophagus containing bones. In A.D. 371-372
decrees were inscribed on the socle slabs. Also related to these buildings is
the Round Building on the SW cliff of the Panayir-dagi: a square dado surmounted
by a two-storied round structure, perhaps a memorial to the governor P. Servilius
Vatia Isauricus, 46-44 B.C. Beside the two buildings mentioned above, the Processional
Way (called Marble Street as far as the theater) turns to the N; on its S continuation
across Kouretes Street, leading up to the cliff, lies a gateway with pedestals
and bases of pillars in situ: a unique combination of half- and three-quarter
columns and pilasters. The second story had a delicate columnar structure comparable
to the nearly contemporary Gate of Hadrian in Athens. Beyond this gate lay a marble-paved
square.
The Library of Celsus lies W of the square. A flight of nine marble
steps 21 m wide leads up to the richly-articulated facade with indented and reentrant
paired columns and aediculae. The niches held female figures, allegorical personifications
of the four cardinal virtues, now in Vienna. Behind this was a large chamber,
built on vaulted substructures and surrounded by an isolating passage (for dryness);
the inner walls and floor were originally veneered with variegated marble slabs.
Around the walls ran three superimposed rows of 10 cupboard-niches for manuscripts.
Opposite the center entrance was an apse beneath which lay the tomb chamber, accessible
from the N, with the sarcophagus of the Senator Tiberius Iulius Celsus Polemaeanus,
Consul in A.D. 92. The Library, which thus also served as a heroon, was dedicated
by his son C. Iulius Aquila, Consul in A.D. 110, and completed by his heirs. In
the Christian period a pool was added in front of the facade, bearing relief plaques
of a monument in honor of Emperor Lucius Verus; these are now in the Neue Hofburg
in Vienna. Opposite the library stood a building, probably a lecture hall, now
almost totally destroyed; and the socle of a round building (heroon?) of late
Hellenistic or early Roman date. In the square in front of the library was an
entrance down to the Commercial Agora, through the Gate of Mazaeus and Mithridates.
The inscription on its attic identifies the donors as two freedmen of Agrippa
who erected the gate in 4-3 B.C. in honor of Augustus, Livia, Agrippa, and his
daughter Julia. It has three entrances between richly articulated side walls,
and the attic was crowned by statues of the Imperial family.
The Agora or Lower Marketplace is a square 110 m on a side, surrounded
by double-aisled stoas with shops behind them. In the center was a horologion,
a water clock and sundial combined. In the 3d c. A.D. the Agora was rebuilt, and
in subsequent alterations much earlier building material was reused. On the E
outer wall, leading to Marble Street, lies a double-aisled Doric colonnade of
the time of Nero. In front of the W side of the Agora stretches a large street-like
open space, ca. 160 by 24 m with colonnades along both long sides; at the W end
is a gate and on the E another entrance to the market, an exedra-like structure
with projecting wings. An open stairway between the wings led up to the level
of the Agora; ramps were added during later alterations.
To the W of the Agora, S of the street-like area, similar steps lead
up to a square surrounded on three sides by arcades. On the S side of the square
lies the Temple of Serapis, of the 2d c. A.D., set on a podium approached by a
monumental stair. The porch in front of the barrel-vaulted cella is formed by
eight monolithic Corinthian columns ca. 15 m high; immense blocks of marble were
also used for the richly decorated entablature, gables, and door frame. A gigantic
door on casters led into the cella.
Marble Street (S part, see above under Kouretes St.; farther N below).
Named for the pavement given in the 5th c. A.D. by Eutropius, whose portrait is
in Vienna, the street lies E of the Commercial Agora, and is reached by the Neronian
arcade mentioned earlier. It runs N to the theater, past a late antique arcade
on the E side, and on to the stadium.
The Theater, site of the Ephesians' protest, "Great is Diana
of the Ephesians!" against the Apostle Paul (Acts 19:34), is set into the
W cliff of the Panayir-dagi and dates in its present state from the Roman era.
It was begun under Claudius, completed under Trajan, and received later additions.
The auditorium seated 24,000 on three levels of 22 rows each (the lowest 6 were
later removed); vaulted stairways led from outside to the upper levels. The well-preserved
scenae frons had three stories; in front of it was the Roman logeion. There are
also some remains of the pre-Roman stage structure. Built into the W terrace-wall
is a fountain house of the 3d or 2d c. B.C.: a niche with two Ionic columns in
antis, with the water flowing from three lions' heads in the back wall. To the
N of the square in front of the theater was the gymnasium, dating from the Empire
and today in ruins; the galleried court in front served as a palaestra.
The Arkadiane ran from the theater to the harbor, a street over 500
m long with a central lane for wheeled traffic 11 m wide, and colonnades 5 m deep
on each side. The colonnades had mosaic floors, and shops in the inner walls.
The remains visible today date from the time of Emperor Arcadius (A.D. 395-408).
According to an inscription, the street was lighted. About halfway along it is
a structure of the 6th c. A.D. consisting of four columns with Composite capitals
on pedestals. The columns probably held statues of the four Evangelists. At the
harbor end, the Arkadiane terminated in an early Roman Harbor Gate, with Ionic
architectural features which were decorative rather than functional; its level
is 0.6 m lower than that of the later street. On the parallel street to the S
lay another two-storied portico of ca. 200 B.C., leading to the harbor. The wall
of the Byzantine period, which still exists E of the Stadium and Theater, runs
down to the harbor S of the Arkadiane.
The Great Baths (Harbor Baths, Harbor Gymnasium, or Porticos of Verulanus)
lay N of the Arkadiane. The site had been set aside for this purpose in the plans
for Lysimachos' city and it was originally the only bath complex. The palaestra
was surrounded by the various sports facilities; to its S was the fine Marble
Hall, and in front of it to the E a great square with triple colonnades. These
consisted of an unroofed central lane between two narrow, roofed halls, and apparently
constituted the xystus for running practice. The marble revetments of Hadrianic
date were added by Pontifex Maximus Claudius Verulanus. The bath building itself
and the swimming pool were rebuilt in the 2d and 4th c. A.D. The bronze statue
of the Apoxyomenos in Vienna came from here.
The Council Church, also called the Church of the Virgin Mary, is
N of this complex. There had previously been a building with three aisles and
apsidal ends, erected over an older structure more than 260 m long. Then, in about
the 4th c. A.D. a triple-aisled columnar basilica with narthex was built on the
site; it had a large colonnaded atrium at the W end and a Baptistery on the N
side. This was the great Church of St. Mary where in A.D. 431 the Third Ecumenical
Council was held. The E section of the old building was apparently used as a Bishop's
palace. Later a domed church was built on the site, and finally a triple-aisled
pillared church with galleries.
The Stadium. Marble Street, E of the preceding complex, runs N from
the theater to the stadium on the NW slope of the Panayir-dagi, where festivals,
athletic contests, and horse- and chariot-races were held. The tiers of seats
on the S were partly built into the hillside, but all seats were removed in the
Middle Ages. The W facade with seven entrances and the gateway in front of it
to the S belong to a rebuilding in the 3d or 4th c.; the older wall still preserved
on the N dates from the extensive reconstruction under Nero, according to an inscription
to Artemis of Ephesos and to Nero. At its E end was a round field for gladiatorial
contests and wild beast fights. Adjoining the Stadium to the N are the baths built
by P. Vedius and his wife Flavia Papiana in the mid 2d c., dedicated to Artemis,
Antoninus Pius, and the City of Ephesos. The plan is symmetrical. On the E is
a colonnaded courtyard, and a lavatory with marble seats at its SW corner. On
the W side of the court is the Imperial cult-chamber with a two-storied interior
colonnade, a niche for the emperor's portrait and, in front of it, an altar. Adjoining
this is a bath building, which was adorned with copies of famous statues now in
the museum in Izmir. The Koressos Gate stood at the E end of the baths.
At the N foot of the Panayir-dagi was the sanctuary of the Mother
Goddess, with niches in the mountainside and votive reliefs showing the Mother
Goddess of Asia Minor. In the N slope was the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers; a
church with catacombs was built here over an older grave area, site of the legend
of the resurrection of seven youths during the period of persecution of the Christians.
In the valley of Dervend-Dere (Marnas) is the aqueduct built in A.D. 4-14 by C.
Sextilius Pollio, a striking series of arches in two stories and one of the best
examples of Roman aqueducts in Asia Minor. Recently part of the remains were carried
away by a flood. The Panayia Kapili (House of Mary), a shrine to the Virgin on
the Aladagi S of the Bulbul-dagi, is thought by some scholars to date from the
Byzantine period.
In Selcuk are the ruins of the Byzantine aqueduct and of the Gate
of the Persecution, probably built in the 6th c. A.D.; in front of it a grave
of the Mycenaean period has been excavated. Here also is the Church of St. John,
originally a mausoleum over the saint's grave, then a church with a wooden roof.
The church was replaced with a domed basilica in the 6th c. A.D. by Justinian.
The citadel on the summit, of the Christian-Byzantine period, has a fortification
wall with 15 towers and a single gate. The Mosque of Isa Bey, SW of the Church
of St. John, is the most important Islamic building in Ephesos, built in 1375
by an architect from Damascus. There are 14 other small mosques, sepulchers, and
baths; there is an excellent museum in Selcuk where the finds since WW II are
kept, and there are two in Izmir.
V. Mitsopoulou-Leon, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 187 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
A city of Ionia, near the mouth of the river Cayster, called
by Pliny alterum lumen Asiae. Mythology assigns, as its founders, Ephesus, the
son of the river Cayster, and Cresus (Kresos), a native of the soil. Another account
makes it to have been settled by Ephesus, one of the Amazons. According to a third
tradition, the place owed its origin to the Amazons. If we follow the better authority
of Strabo, we will find a settlement to have been Bronze first made in this quarter
by the Carians and Leleges. Androclus, the son of Codrus, came subsequently with
a body of Ionian colonists. He protected the natives who had settled from devotion
about the Temple of Artemis and incorporated them with his followers, but expelled
those who inhabited the town above, which the Carians and Leleges had built on
Mount Prion. Pliny enumerates other names for the city, such as Alope, Morges,
Ortygia, Ptelea, Samornia, Smyrna, Trachea, etc.
Lysimachus, wishing to protect Ephesus from the inundations
to which it was yearly exposed by the overflowings of the Cayster, built a city
upon the mountain and surrounded it with walls. The inhabitants were unwilling
to remove into this, but a heavy rain falling, and Lysimachus stopping the drains
and flooding their houses, they were glad to exchange. The port of Ephesus had
originally a wide mouth, but foul with the mud lodging in it from the Cayster.
Attalus Philadelphus and his architect were of opinion that if the entrance were
contracted, it would become deeper and in time be capable of receiving ships of
burden. But the slime, which had before been moved by the flux and reflux of the
tide and carried off, being stopped, the whole basin, quite to the mouth, was
rendered shallow. The situation, however, was so advantageous as to overbalance
the inconveniences attending the port. The town increased daily, and under the
Romans was considered the chief emporium of Asia this side of Taurus. In the arrangement
of the provinces under the Eastern emperors it became the capital of the province
of Asia. Towards the end of the eleventh century Ephesus experienced the same
fate as Smyrna. A Turkish pirate, named Tangripanes, settled here; but the Greek
admiral, Ioannes Ducas, defeated him in a bloody battle and pursued the flying
Turks up the Maeander to Po lybotum. In 1306, it was among the places which suffered
from the exactions of the Grand Duke Roger; and two years after it surrendered
to the sultan Saysan, who, to prevent future insurrections, removed most of the
inhabitants to Tyriaeum, where they were massacred. In the conflicts which desolated
Asia Minor at a subsequent period, Ephesus was again a sufferer, and the city
became at length reduced to a heap of ruins.
Ephesus was famed for its splendid temple of Artemis or Diana.
The statue of the goddess was regarded with peculiar veneration and was believed
by the people to have fallen from the skies. It was never changed, though the
temple had been more than once restored. This rude object of primeval worship
was a block of wood, said by some to be of beech or elm, by others cedar, ebony,
or vine, and attesting its very great antiquity by the fashion in which it had
been formed. It was carved into the similitude of Artemis, not as the graceful
huntress, but an allegorical figure which we may call the goddess of nature, with
many breasts, and the lower parts formed into an Hermaean statue, grotesquely
ornamented, and discovering the feet beneath.. It was gorgeously apparelled, the
vest embroidered with emblems and symbolical devices, and to prevent its tottering
a bar of metal was placed under each hand. A veil or curtain, which was drawn
up from the floor to the ceiling, hid it from view, except while service was in
progress in the temple. This image was preserved till the later ages in a shrine,
on the embellishment of which mines of wealth were consumed. The priests of Artemis
suffered emasculation, and virgins were devoted to inviolable chastity. They were
eligible only from the superior ranks, and enjoyed a great revenue with privileges,
the eventual abuse of which induced Augustus to restrict them.
The reputation and the riches of their goddess had made the
Ephesians desirous of providing for her a magnificent temple. The fortunate discovery
of marble in Mount Prion gave them new vigour. The cities of Asia contributed
largely, and Croesus defrayed the expense of many of the columns. The spot chosen
for it was a marsh, as most likely to preserve the structure free from gaps and
uninjured by earthquakes. The foundation was made with charcoal rammed down and
with fleeces. The base consumed immense quantities of marble. The edifice was
erected on a basement with ten steps. The architects were Chersiphron of Crete
and his son Metagenes (B.C. 541); and their plan was continued by Demetrius, a
priest of Artemis; but the whole was completed by Daphnis of Miletus and a citizen
of Ephesus, the building having occupied 220 years. It was the first specimen
of the Ionic style in which the fluted column and capital with volutes were introduced.
The whole length of the temple was 425 feet, and the breadth 220; with 127 columns
of the Ionic order and of Parian marble, each of a single shaft and sixty feet
high. These were donations from kings, according to Pliny, but there is reason
to doubt the correctness of the text where this assertion is made. Of these columns
thirty-six were carved; and one of them, perhaps as a model, by Scopas. The temple
had a double row of columns, fifteen on either side; but Vitruvius has not determined
if it had a roof, probably over the cell only. The folding-doors or gates had
been continued four years in glue, and were made of cypress wood, which had been
treasured up for four generations, highly polished. These were found by Mutianus
as fresh and as beautiful 400 years after as when new. The ceiling was of cedar;
and the steps for ascending the roof were of the single stem of a vine.
The dimensions of this great temple excite ideas of uncommon
grandeur from their massiveness; but the notices of its internal ornament increase
one's admiration. It was the repository in which the great artists of antiquity
dedicated their most perfect works to posterity. Praxiteles and his son Cephisodorus
adorned the shrine; Scopas contributed a statue of Hecate; Timarete, the daughter
of Micon, the first recorded female artist, finished a picture of the goddess,
the most ancient in Ephesus; and Parrhasius and Apelles employed their skill to
embellish the walls. The excellence of these performances may be supposed to have
been proportionate to their price; and a picture of Alexander grasping a thunderbolt,
by the latter, was added to the superb collection at the expense of twenty talents
of gold. This description, however, applies chiefly to the temple as it was rebuilt,
after the earlier temple had been partially burned (perhaps the roof of timber
only), by Herostratus, who chose that method to ensure to himself an immortal
name, on the very night that Alexander the Great was born. Twenty years after,
that magnificent prince, during his expedition against Persia, offered to appropriate
his spoils to the restoration of it if the Ephesians would consent to allow him
the sole honour and would place his name on the temple. They declined the proposal,
however, with the flattering remark that it was not right for one deity to erect
a temple to another; national vanity was, however, the real ground of their refusal.
The architect who superintended the erection of the new edifice was Dinocrates,
of whose aid Alexander afterwards availed himself in building Alexandria. The
extreme sanctity of the temple inspired universal awe and reverence; and it was
for many ages a repository of foreign and domestic treasure. There property, whether
public or private, was secure amid all revolutions. The conduct of Xerxes was
an example to subsequent conquerors, and the impiety of sacrilege was not suffered
by the Ephesian goddess; but Nero deviated from this rule in removing many costly
offerings and images and an immense quantity of silver and gold. It was again
plundered by the Goths from beyond the Danube in the time of Gallienus--a party
under Raspa crossing the Hellespont and ravaging the country until compelled to
retreat, when they carried off a prodigious booty.
The destruction of so illustrious an edifice deserved to have
been carefully recorded by contemporary historians. We may conjecture that it
followed the triumph of Christianity. The Ephesian reformers, when authorized
by the imperial edicts, rejoiced in the opportunity of insulting Artemis, and
deemed it piety to demolish the very ruin of her habitation. When, under the auspices
of Constantine and Theodosius, churches were erected, the pagan temples were despoiled
of their ornaments or accommodated to other worship. The immense dome of Saint
Sophia now rises from the columns of green jasper which were originally placed
in the Temple of Artemis, and were taken down and brought to Constantinople by
order of Justinian. Two pillars in the great church at Pisa were also transported
thence. The very site of this stupendous and celebrated edifice was long undetermined,
but in 1869 was discovered by Mr. J. T. Wood--an Englishman who found a clue to
its situation in two letters from Antoninus Pius to the Ephesians (A.D. 145-150);
in another letter from Hadrian, dated September 27th, A.D. 120; and in an inscription
which prescribed the order of the processions to the temple. Excavations continued
until 1874 have greatly added to our knowledge of the temple.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ephesus (Ephesos: Eth. Ephesios, Ephesites, Epheseus), a city in Lydia, one of
the twelve Ionian cities (Herod. i. 142), on the south side of the Caystrus, and
near its mouth. The port was called Panormus. The country around Ephesus was an
alluvial plain, as Herodotus observes (ii. 10). The name of Ephesus does not occur
in the Homeric poems, and there is no proof, says Strabo, that it was so old as
the Trojan War. According to a myth (Steph. B. s. v. Ephesos), the place was originally
called Smyrna, from Smyrna the Amazon: it was also called Samorna, and Trecheia,
and Ortygia, and Ptelea. The name Ephesus was said to be from one of the Amazons.
The name Ptelea appears in an inscription of the Roman period which was copied
by Chishull at Ephesus. Pliny (v. 29) has also preserved this legend of the Amazonian
origin of Ephesus, and a name Alope, which the place had at the time of the Trojan
War; a story found in Hyginus also. Pliny also. mentions the name Morges. The
legend of the Amazons is connected with the goddess Artemis, the deity of Ephesus.
Pausanias (vii. 2. § 6) has a legend about the temple of Ephesus being founded
by Ephesus, the son of the river Caystrus, and Cresus an autochthon.
Strabo, who had been at Ephesus, gives a pretty good description of
it (p. 639). As a man sailed northward through the channel that separates Samos
from Mycale, he came to the sea-coast of the Ephesia, part of which belongs to
the Samii. North of the Panionium. was Neapolis, which once belonged to Ephesus,
but in Strabo's time to the Samii, who had received it in exchange for Marathesium.
Next was Pygela, a small place with a temple of Artemis Munychia, a settlement
of Agamemnon,. according to a legend; and next the port called Panormus, which
contained a temple of Artemis Ephesia; and then the city. On this same coast,
a little above the sea, there was also Ortygia, a fine grove of various kinds
of trees, and particularly cypress. The stream Cenchrius flowed through it. The
stream and the place were connected with a legend of Lato and the birth of Apollo
and Artemis. Ortygia was the nurse who assisted Lato in her labour. Above the
grove was a mountain Solmissus, where the Curetes placed themselves, and with
the clashing of their arms prevented the jealous Hera, who was on the watch, from
hearing the cries of Lato. There were several temples in this place, old and new:
in the old temples there were ancient wooden statues; but in the later temples
others (skolia erga1 There, was Lato holding a staff, and Ortygia standing by
her with a child on each arm. The Cares and Leleges were the settlers of Ephesus,
according to one story (Strabo), and these two peoples or two names are often
mentioned together. But Pherecydes (Strab. p. 632) says that the Paralia of Ionia
was originally occupied by Carians from Miletus to the parts about Mycale and
Ephesus, and the remainder as far as Phocaea by Leleges. The natives were driven
out of Ephesus by Androclus and his Ionians, who settled about the Athenaeum and
the Hypelaeus, and they also occupied a part of the higher country (tes Paroreias)
about the Coressus. Pausanias preserves a tradition that Androclus drove out of
the country the Leleges, whom he takes to be a branch of the Carians, and the
Lydians who occupied the upper city; but those who dwelt about the temple were
not molested, and. they came to terms with the Ionians. This tradition shows that
the old temple was not in the city. The tomb of Androclus was still shown in the
time of Pausanias, on the road from the temple past the Olympieium, and to the
Pylae Magnetides; the figure on the tomb was an armed man (vii. 2.. § 6, &c.).
This place on the hill was the site of the city until Croesus' time, as Strabo
says. Croesus warred against the lonians of Ephesus (Herod. i, 26), and besieged
their city, at which time during the siege (so says the text) the Ephesii dedicated
their city to Artemis by fastening the city to the temple by a rope. It was seven
stadia between the old city, the city that was then besieged, and the temple.
This old city was the city on the Paroreia. After the time of Croesus the people
came down into the plain, and lived about the present temple (Strabo) to the time
of Alexander.
King Lysimachus built the walls of the city that existed in Strabo's
time; and as the people were not willing to remove to the new city, he waited
for a violent rain, which he assisted by stopping up the channels that carried
off the water, and so drowned the city, and made the people glad to leave it.
Lysimachus called his new city Arsinoe after his wife, but the name did not last
long. The story of the destruction of the old city, which was on very low ground,
is told by Stephanus (s. v. Ephesos) somewhat differently from Strabo. He attributes
the destruction to a violent storm of rain, which swelled the river. The town
was situated too low; and, as the Caystrus is subject to sudden risings, it was
damaged or destroyed, as modern towns sometimes have been which were planted too
near a river. Thousands were drowned, and valuable property was lost. Stephanus
quotes a small poem of Duris of Elaea made on the occasion, which attributes that
calamity to the rain and the sudden rising of the river. Nothing is known of Duris,
and we must suppose that he lived about the time of the destruction of Ephesus,
or about B.C. 322. (Comp. Eustath. ad Dionys. v. 827, who quotes the first two
lines of the epigramma of Duris.) Pausanias (i. 9. § 7) states that Lysimachus
removed to his new Ephesus the people of Colophon and Lebedus, from which time
the ruin of these two towns may be dated.
The history of Ephesus, though it was one of the chief of the Ionian
towns, is scanty. As it was founded by Androclus the son of Codrus, the kingly
residence (basileion, whatever the word means) of the lonians was fixed there,
as they say (Strab. p. 633), and even to now those of the family are named kings
(basileis) and have certain honours, the first seat in the games, and purple as
a sign of royalty, a staff instead of a sceptre, and the possession or direction
of the rites of Eleusinian Demeter (comp. Herod. i. 147). Ephesus was it seems
from an early period a kind of sacred city, for Thucydides (iii. 104), when he
is speaking of the ancient religious festival at Delos to which the Ionians and
the surrounding islanders used to go with their wives and children, adds, as now
the Iones to the Ephesia. Strabo has also preserved the tradition of Ephesus having
been called Smyrna, and he has a very confused story about the Smyrnaei leaving
the Ephesii to found Smyrna Proper. He quotes Callinus as evidence of the people
of Ephesus having been once named Smyrnaei, and Hipponax to prove that a spot
in Ephesus was named Smyrna. This spot lay between Trecheia and the Acte of Lepra;
and this Lepra was the hill Prion which was above the Ephesus of Strabo's time,
and contained part of the wall. He concludes that the Smyrna of old Ephesus was
near the gymnasium of the later town of Ephesus, between Trecheia and Lepra. The
old Athenaeum was without the limits of the later city.
The Cimmerians in an invasion of western Asia took Sardis except the
acropolis (Herod. i. 15), in the reign of the Lydian king Ardys; and it seems
that they got into the valley of the Caystrus and threatened Ephesus. (Callinus,
Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci, p. 303.) Callinus also speaks of a war between the
Magnetes or people of Magnesia and Ephesus his native city (Strab.), which war
of course was before that inroad of the Cimmerii by which Magnesia was destroyed:
for there was a tradition of mere than one Cimmerian invasion. Ephesus fell successively
under the dominion of the Lydian and Persian kings. In B.C. 499, when the Athenians
and Eretrians with the Ionians went against Sardis, they sailed to Ephesus and
left their ships at Coressus. Some Ephesii were their guides up the valley of
the Caystrus and over the range of Tmolus. After the lonians had fired Sardis
they retreated; but the Persians overtook them at Ephesus and defeated the confederates
there. (Herod v. 102.) This is all that Herodotus says about Ephesus on this occasion.
After the naval battle before Miletus, in which the Ionian confederates were defeated,
some of the Chii, who had escaped to Mycale, made their way by night into the
Ephesia, where the women were celebrating the Thesmophoria, and the Ephesii, who
knew nothing of what had happened to the Chii, fell upon them supposing they were
robbers, and killed them or made a beginning at least. (Herod. vi. 16). The Ephesii
had no ships in the fight before Miletus; and we must conclude that they took
no part in the revolt. When Xerxes burnt the temple at Branchidae and the other
temples (Strab.), the temple of Ephesus was spared. Near the close of the Peloponnesian
War, Thrasyllus, an Athenian commander, who was on a marauding expedition, landed
at Ephesus, on which the Persian Tissaphernes summoned all the country to Ephesus
to the aid of Artemis. The Athenians were defeated and made off. (Xen Hell. i.
2. § 6.) Lysander, the Spartan commander, entered the port of Ephesus (B.C. 407)
with a fleet, his object being to have an interview with Cyrus at Sardis. While
he was repairing and fitting up his ships at Ephesus, Antiochus, the Athenian,
who was stationed at Notium as commander under Alcibiades, gave Lysander the opportunity
of fighting a seafight, in which the Athenians were defeated. (Xen. Hell. i. 5.
1, &c.) After the battle of Aegos Potami the Ephesians dedicated in the temple
of Artemis a statue of Lysander, and of other Spartans who were unknown to fame;
but after the decline of the Spartan power and the victory of Conon at Cnidus,
they set up statues of Conon and Timotheus in their temple, as the Samii also
did in their Heraeum. (Pans. vi. 3. § 15.)
There is no notice of Ephesus taking any active part in war against
the barbarians from the time of Croesus, who attacked this town first of all the
Ionian towns, and probably with the view of getting a place on the sea. For Ephesus
was the most convenient port for Sardis, being three days'journey distant (Xen.
Hell. iii. 2. 11), or 540 stadia (Herod. v. 54). It was the usual landing-place
for those who went to Sardis, as we see in many instances. (Xen. Anab. ii. 2.
6)
The Ionian settlers at Ephesus, according to tradition, found the
worship of Artemis there, or of some deity to whom they gave the name of Artemis.
(Callim. in Dian. 238.) A temple of Artemis existed in the time of Croesus, who
dedicated in the temple the golden cows and the greater part of the pillars, as
Herodotus has it (i. 92). Herodotus mentions the temple at Ephesus with that of
Hera at Samos as among the great works of the Greeks (ii. 146), but the Heraeum
was the larger. The original architect is named Chersiphron by Strabo, and another
architect enlarged it. The architect of the first temple that the lonians built
was a contemporary of Theodorus and Rhoecus, who built the Heraeum at Samos. When
Xenophon settled at Scillus, he built a temple to Artemis like the great one at
Ephesus; and he placed in it a statue of cypress like that of Ephesus, except
that the Ephesian Artemis was of gold. There was a stream Selinus near the temple
at Ephesus, and there was a stream so called at Scillus, or Xenophon gave it the
name. Xenophon was at Ephesus before he joined Agesilaus on his march from Asia
to Boeotia, and he deposited there the share that had been entrusted to him of
the tenth that had been appropriated to Apollo and Artemis of the produce of the
slaves which the Ten Thousand sold at Cerasus on their retreat. This fact shows
that the temple at Ephesus was one of the great holy places to the Ionic Hellenes.
(Xen. Anab. v. 3. 4, &c.) The worship of the goddess was carried by the Phocaeans
to Massalia (Marseille), and thence to the Massaliot settlements. (Strab. pp.
159,160, 179, 180, 184.) Dianium or Artemisium, on the coast of Spain, was so
called from having a temple of the Ephesian Artemis.
This enlarged temple of Artemis was burnt down by Herostratus, it
is said on the night on which Alexander was born. The, temple was rebuilt again,
and probably on the same site. The name of the architect is corrupted in the text
of Strabo, but it is supposed that the true reading is Dinocrates. Alexander,
when he entered Asia on his Persian expedition, offered to pay all that had been
expended on the new temple and all that it would still cost, if he might be allowed
to place the inscription on it; by which, as the answer of the Ephesii shows,
who decined his proposal, was meant his placing his name on the temple as the
dedicator of it to the goddess. The Ephesii undertook the building of their own
temple, to which the women contributed their ornaments, and the people gave their
property, and something was raised by the sale of the old pillars. But it was
220 years before the temple was finished.
The temple was built on low marshy ground to save it from earthquakes,
as Pliny says (xxxvi. 14), but Leake suggests another reason. The tall Ionic column
was more appropriate for a building in a plain, and the shorter Doric column looked
better on a height. Leake observes that all the greatest and most costly of the
temples of Asia, except one, are built on low and marshy spots. The Ephesii seem
always to have stuck to the old site of the temple, and it is probable that they
would have placed the new one there, even if their columns had been Doric instead
of Ionic.
The foundations of the new temple were laid on well-rammed charcoal
and wool. The length of the building was 425 feet, and the width 220. The columns
were 127, each made by a king, as Pliny says. The columns were 60 feet high, ad
36 were carved, and one of them by Scopas. The epistylia or stones that rested
over the intercolumniations, or on the part of the columns between the capitals,
and the frieze, were of immense size. It would take a book, says Pliny, to describe
all the temple; and Democritus of Ephesus wrote one upon it (Athen. xii. p. 525).
Leake (Asia Minor, p. 346) supposes that the temple had a double row of 21 columns
on each side, and a triple row of 10 columns at the two ends. This will make 120
columns, for 24 columns have been counted twice. If we add 4 columns in antis
at each end of the building, this will make the whole number 128, for the number
127 cannot be right. Leake has made his plan of the temple in English feet, on
the same scale as the other plans of temples; for he observes that we. cannot
tell whether Pliny used the Greek or the Roman foot. The English foot is somewhat
longer than the Roman, and less than the Greek. For the purpose of comparison
it is immaterial what foot is used. This was the largest of the Greek temples.
The area of the Parthenon at Athens was not one-fourth of that of the temple of
Ephesus; and the Heraeum of Samos, the great temple at Agrigentum and the Olympieium
at Athens were all less than the temple of Ephesus. The area of the Olympieium
was only about two-thirds of that of the Ephesian temple.
After the temple, that is, the construction of the building, was finished,
says Strabo, the Ephesians provided the abundant other ornaments by the freewill
offering of the artists, that is, the native artists of Ephesus. This is the meaning
that Groskurd gives to the obscure passage of Strabo (te ektimesei ton demiourgon):
and it is at least a probable meaning (Transl. Strab. vol. iii. p. 17). But the
altar was almost entirely filled with the work of Praxiteles. Strabo was also
shown some of the work of Thraso, a Penelope and the aged Eurycleia. The temple
contained one of the great pictures of Apelles, the Alexander Ceraunophoros (Plin.
xxxv. 10; Cic. c. Verr. ii. 4 c. 60). The priests were eunuchs, called Megalobuzi.
(Comp. Xen. Anab. v. 3, § 8.) They were highly honoured, and the Ephesii procured
from foreign places such as were worthy of the office. Virgins were also associated
with them in the superintendence of the temple. It was of old an asylum, and the
limits of the asylum were often varied. Alexander extended them to a stadium,
and Mithridates the Great somewhat further, as far as an arrow went that he shot
from the angle of the tiling of the roof (apo tes gonias tou keramou). M. Antonius
extended the limits to twice the distance, and thus comprised within them part
of the city; from which we learn that the temple was still out of the city, and
less than 1200 Greek feet from it. But this extension of the limits was found
to. be very mischievous, and the ordinance of Antonius was abolished by Augustus.
The extension of the limits by Antonius was exactly adapted to make, one part
of the city of Ephesus the rogues' quarter.
The growth of Ephesus, as a commercial city, seems to have been after
the time of Alexander. It was included within the dominions of Lysimachus, whose
reign lasted to B.C. 281. It afterwards was included in the dominions of the kings
of Pergamum. The city, says Strabo, has both ship-houses, and a harbour; but the
architects contracted the mouth of the harbour at the command of king Attalus,
named Philadelphus. The king supposing that the entrance would become deep enough
for large merchant vessels, and also the harbour, which had up to that time been
made shallow by the alluvium of the Caystrus, if a mole were placed in front of
the entrance, which was very wide. ordered it to be constructed. But it turned
out just the opposite to what he expected; for the alluvium being thus kept in
made all the harbour shallower as far as the entrance; but before this time, the
floods and the reflux of the sea took off the alluvium and carried it out to sea.
Strabo adds, that in his time, the time of Augustus, the city in all other respects,
owing to the favourable situation, is increasing daily, for it is the greatest
place of trade of all the cities of Asia west of the Taurus. The neighbourhood
of Ephesus also produced good wine.
After the mouth of the Caystrus, says Strabo, is a lake formed by
the sea, named Selinusia (Groskurd, Transl. Strab. vol. iii. p. 19, note, gives
his reasons for preferring the reading Selenusia); and close to it another lake,
which communicates with the Selinusia, both of which bring in a great revenue.
The kings (those of Pergamum, probably) took them away from the goddess, though
they belonged to her. The Romans gave them back to the goddess; but again the
publicani by force seized on the revenue that was got from them; but Artemidorus,
as he says himself, being sent to Rome, recovered the lakes for the goddess; and
the city of Ephesus set up his golden (gilded) statue in--the temple. Pliny (v.
29) seems to say that there were two rivers Selenuntes at Ephesus, and that the
temple of Diana lay between them. Bet these rivers have nothing to do with the
lakes, which were on the north side of the Caystrus, as the French editor of Chandler
correctly observes; and Pliny has probably confounded the river and the lakes.
The mountain Gallesus (Aleman) separated the territory of Ephesus, north of the
Caystrus, from that of Colophon. When Hannibal fled to Asia, he met king Antiochus
near Ephesus (Appian, Syr. c. 4); and when the Roman commissioners went to Asia
to see Antiochus, they had a good deal of talk with Hannibal while they were waiting
for the king, who was in Pisidia. Antiochus, during his war with the Romans, wintered
at Ephesus, at which time he had the design of adding to his empire all the cities
of Asia. (Liv. xxxiii. 38). Ephesus was then the king's head-quarters. The king's
fleet fought a battle with the fleet of the Romans and Eumenes at the port Corycus,
which is above Cyssus (Liv..xxxvi.43); and Polyxenidas, the admiral of Antiochus,
being defeated, fled back to the port of Ephesus (B.C. 189). [CASYSTES]
After the great defeat of Antiochus at Magnesia, near Sipylus, by L. Cornelius
Scipio, Polyxenidas left Ephesus, and the Romans occupied it. The Roman consul
divided his army into three parts, and wintered at Magnesia on the Maeander, Tralles,
and Ephesus. (Liv. xxxvii. 45). On the settlement of Asia after the war, the Romans
rewarded their ally Eumenes, king of Pergamum, with Ephesus, in addition to other
towns and countries, When the last Attalus of Pergamum died (B.C. 133) and left
his states to the Romans, Aristonicus, the son of an Ephesian woman by king Eumenes,
as the mother said, attempted to seize the kingdom of Pergamum. The Ephesii resisted
him, and defeated him in a naval fight off Cyme. (Strab.). The Romans now formed
their province of Asia (B.C. 129), of which Ephesus was the chief place, and the
usual residence of the Roman governor. One of the Conventus Juridici was also
named from Ephesus, which became the chief town for the administration of justice,
and of a district which comprised the Caesarienses, Metropolitae, Cilbiani inferiores
et superiores, Mysomacedones, Mastaurenses, Briullitae, Hypaepeni, Dioshieritae.
(Pliny, H.N. v. 29).
When Mithridates entered Ionia, the Ephesii and other towns gladly
received him, and the Ephesii threw down the statues of the Romans. (Appian, Mithrid.
c. 21). In the general massacre of the Romans, which Mithridates directed, the
Ephesii did not respect their own asylum, but they dragged out those who had taken
refuge there and put them to death. Mithridates, on his visit to western Asia,
married Monime, the daughter of Philopoemen of Stratonicea in Caria, and he made
Philopoemen his bailiff (episkopos of his town of Ephesus. But the Ephesii, who
were never distinguished for keeping on one side, shortly after murdered Zenobius,
a general of Mithridates, the same who carried the Chians off. L. Cornelius Sulla,
after his victories over Mithridates, punished the Ephesii for their treachery.
The Roman summoned the chief men of the Asiatic cities to Ephesus, and from his
tribunal addressed them in a speech, in which, after rating them well, he imposed
a heavy contribution on them, and gave notice that he would treat as enemies all
who did not obey his orders. This was the end of the political history of Ephesus.
Ephesus was now the usual place at which the Romans landed when they
came to Asia. When Cicero (B.C. 51) was going to his province of Cilicia, he says
that the Ephesii received him as if he had come to be their governor (ad Att.
v. 13). P. Metellus Scipio, who was at Ephesus shortly before the battle of Pharsalia,
was going to take the money that had been deposited from ancient times in the
temple at Ephesus, when he was summoned by Cn. Pompeius to join him in Epirus.
After the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, M. Antonius paid a visit to
Ephesus, and offered splendid sacrifices to the goddess. He pardoned the partisans
of Brutus and Cassius, who had taken refuge in the temple, except two; and it
may have been on this occasion that he issued that order in favour of the rogues
of Ephesus which Augustus repealed. Antonius summoned the people of Asia, who
were at Ephesus represented by their commissioners, and, after recapitulating
the kindness that they had experienced from the Romans, and the aid that they
had given to Brutus and;Cassius, he told them that he wanted money; and that as
they had given his enemies ten years' taxes in two years, they must give him ten
years' taxes in one; and that they should be thankful for being let off more easily
than they deserved. The Greeks made a lamentable appeal to his mercy, urging that
they had given Brutus and Cassius money under compulsion; that they had even given
up their plate and ornaments, which had been coined into money before their eyes.
Antonius at last graciously signified that he would be content with nine years'
taxes, to be paid in two years. (Appian, B.C. v. 4, &c.) It was during this
visit that Antonius, according to Dion Cassius (xlviii. 24), took the brothers
of Cleopatra from their sanctuary in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and put them
to death; but Appian (B.C. v. 9) says that it was Arsinoe, Cleopatra's sister,
and that she was taken from sanctuary in the temple of Artemis Leucophryne at
Miletus. Appian's account is the more trustworthy, for he speaks of the priest
of Ephesus, whom they call Megabyzus, narrowly escaping the vengeance of Antonius,
because he had once received Arsinoe as a queen. Before the sea-fight at Actium
the fleet of M. Antonius and Cleopatra was collected at Ephesus, and he came there
with Cleopatra. After the battle of Actium, Caesar Octavianus permitted Ephesus
and Nicaea, the chief cities of Asia and Bithynia, respectively to dedicate temples
to the deified dictator Caesar.
Strabo terminates his description of Ephesus with a list of the illustrious
natives, among whom was Heraclitus, surnamed the Obscure; and Hermodorus, who
was banished by the citizens for his merits. This is the Hermodorus who is said
to have assisted the Roman Decemviri in drawing up the Tables. (Dig. 1. 2. 2.
§ 4.) Hipponax the poet was also an Ephesian, and Parrhasius the painter. Strabo
also mentions Apelles as an Ephesian, but that is not certain. Of modern men of
note he mentions only Alexander, surnamed the Light, who was engaged in public
affairs, wrote history, and astronomical and geographical poems in hexameter verse.
Strabo does not mention Callinus, and it would seem, that as he speaks of him
elsewhere, he did not take him to be an Ephesian; and, among the men nearer his
own time, he has not mentioned the geographer Artemidorus in this passage, though
he does mention Artemidorus, the same man, as being sent to Rome about the lakes
and the revenues from them. Accordingly, Koray and, Groskurd suppose that the
name Artemidorus has dropped out of the MSS. of Strabo, and that Strabo must have
mentioned him with Alexander the Light.
When Strabo was at Ephesus, in the days of Auguastus, the town was
in a state, of great prosperity. The trade, of Ephesus had .extended so far, that
the minium of Cappadocia, which used to be carried to Sinope now went to Ephesus.
Apameia, at the source of the Marsyas,. was the second commercial place. in. the
Roman. province of Asia, Ephesus being the first,. for it was the place that received
all. the commodities from Greece and Italy. (Strab.. pp. 540, 5.77.) There was
a road from Ephesus. to Antiocheia on the Maeander, through Magnesia on the Maeander,
Tralles, and Nysa. From Antiocheia the road. went to Garura [CARURA], on the borders
of Caria and Phrygia. From Carura. the road. was continued to Laodiceia, Apameia,
Metropolis, Chelidonii (a corrupt word, which is supposed to represent Philomelium),
and Tyriaeum; then it ran through Lycaonia through Laodiceia, the Burnt, to Coropassus;
and from Coropassus, which was in Lycaonia, to Garsaura in Cappadocia, on the
borders; then through Soandus and Sadakora to Mazaca, the metrotropolis of the
Cappadocians; and from Mazaca through Herphae to Tomisa in Sophene. (Strab. pp.
647, 663.)
It does not appear from, Strabo how the Ephesii managed the affairs
of the town in his time. He speaks of a senate (gerousia) being made by Lysimachus,
and the senate with certain persons called the Epicleti managed the affairs of
the city. We may conclude that it had a Boule, and also a Demus or popular assembly.
A town clerk of Ephesus (grammateus), a common functionary in Greek cities, is
mentioned. (Acts of the Apost. xix. 35.); An imperfect inscription, copied by
Chishull (Travels in Turkey, &c. p. 20), shows that there was an office (archeion)
in Ephesus for the registry of titles within the territory.
In the time of Tiberius there were great complaints of the abuses
of asyla., The Ephesii (Tacit. Ann. iii. 61) were heard before the Roman senate
in defence of the asylum of Artemis, when they told the whole mythical story of
the origin of the temple; they also referred to what Hercules had done for the
temple; and, coming nearer to the business, they said that the Persians had always
respected it, and after them the Macedonians, and finally the Romans. Plutarch
(De vitando aere alieno, c. 31) says that the temple was an asylum for debtors,
and it is probable that the precincts were generally well filled. In the reign
of Nero, Barea Soranus, during his government of Asia, tried to open the port,
which the bad judgment of the king of Pergamum and his architects had spoiled.
(Tacit. Ann. xvi. 23.)
When St. Paul visited Ephesus (Acts of the Apost. xix.), one Demetrius,
a silversmith which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto
the craftsmen. He called his men together, and showed them that their trade was
in danger from the preaching of Paul, who taught that they be no gods, which are
made with hands; so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought;
but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her
magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. The
town clerk, by a prudent and moderate speech, settled the tumult. Among other
things, he told them that the image of Diana fell down from Jupiter. Pliny (xvi.
40) mentions an old wooden statue of Diana at Ephesus. Licinius Mucianus, a contemporary
of Pliny, had examined it, and he said that it had never.been changed, though
the temple had been restored seven times. The representative of the Asiatic .goddess'
was not that of the huntress Artemis of. the Hellenes. Miller observes that, Artemis,
as the guardian of the Ephesian temple, which, according to the myth, was founded
by the Amazons, appears in an Asiatic Amazonian costume. The worship of. her image,
which was widely spread, and in the later imperial period repeated innumerable
times in statues and on coins, is connected with the Hellenic representations
of Artemis by no visible link. (Handbuch der Archaeologie.) The old statue that
fell down from Jupiter may have been a stone, an aerolite; and the wooden statue
that Mucianus saw, some very rude piece of work. According to Minucius Felix (c.
21), the Ephesian Diana.was represented with many breasts. (See the notes on Tacit.
Ann. iii. 61, ed. Oberlin.)
The apostle established a Christian church at Ephesus, and we learn
from what he said to the elders of the..church of: Ephesus, when they met him
at Miletus (Acts, xx. 17--31), that he had lived there, three years. He afterwards
addressed a letter to the Ephesians, which forms part of the canonical New Testament.
In the book of Revelations (ii. 11 &c.) the church of Ephesus is placed first
among the seven churches of Asia. The heathen and the Christian church of Ephesus
subsisted together for some time. The great festival called to koinon Asias was
held in several of the chief towns in turn, of which Ephesus was one. In A.D.
341 the third general council was held at Ephesus. The Asiarchs who are mentioned.in
the Acts of the Apostles (xix. 31), on the occasion of the tumult in Ephesus,
are probably, as Schleusner says, the representatives from the cities of Asia,
who had the charge of the religious solemnities.;. or they may have been the Asiarchs
of Ephesus. only. Under the Christian emperors Ephesus has the title of he prote
kai megiste metropolis tes Asias.
The remains of Ephesus are partly buried in rubbish, and overgrown
with vegetation. They are near a place now called Ayasaluk. These remains have
been visited and described by many travellers, but it is difficult without a plan
of the ground to understand the descriptions. Spon and Wheler visited the place
in 1675, and described it after the fashion of that day (vol. i. p. 244). The
ruins have also been described by Chishull (Travels in Turkey, &c. p. 23,
&c.), and at some length by Chandler (Asia Minor, c. 32, &c.), and by
many other more recent travellers. The disappearance of such a huge mass as the
temple of Diana can only be explained by the fact of the materials having been
carried off for modern buildings; and probably this and other places near the
coast supplied materials for Constantinople. The soil in the valley has also been
raised by the alluvium of the river, and probably covers many old substructions.
The temple of Ephesus, being the centre of the pagan worship in Asia, would be
one of the first to suffer from the iconoclasts in the reign of Theodosius I.,
when men in black, as Libanius calls them, overturned the altars, and defaced
the temples. When the great Diana of the Ephesians was turned out of her home,
the building could serve no other purpose than to be used as a stone quarry.
Chandler found the stadium of Ephesus, one side of which was on the
hill which he identifies with Prion, and the opposite side which was next to the
plain was raised on arches. He found the length to be 687 feet. He also describes
the remains of the theatre, which is mentioned in the tumult which was caused
at Ephesus by St. Paul's preaching. Fellows (Asia Minor, p. 274) observes that
there can be no doubt about the site of the theatre. Chandler saw also the remains
of an odeum or music hall. There are the remains of a temple of the Corinthian
order, which was about 130 feet long, and 80 wide. The cella was built of massive
stones. The columns were 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, and the whole height, including
the base and capitals, above 46 feet. The shafts were fluted, and of a single
piece of stone. The best preserved of these columns that Chandler saw was broken
into two parts. The frieze contained a portion of bold sculpture, which represented
some foliage and young boys. The quarries on Prion or Pion, for the name is written
both ways, supplied the marble for the temples of Ephesus. Prion, was Strabo has
it, was also called Lepre Acte; it was above the city of Strabo's time, and on
it, as he says, was part of the wall.
Hamilton (Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 24), one of the latest travellers
who has visited Ephesus, spent several days there. He thinks that the site of
the great temple is in some massive structures near the western extremity of the
town, which overlook the swamp or marsh where was the ancient harbour. This is
exactly the spot where it ought to be according to Strabo's description. The place
which Hamilton describes is immediately in front of the port, raised upon a base
thirty or forty feet high, and approached by a grand flight of steps the ruins
of which are still visible in the centre of the pile. Hamilton observes that brick
arches and other works have also been raised on various portions of the walls;
but this was probably done by the Christians after the destruction of the temple
and the removal of the columns by Constantine when a church was erected on its
ruins. The supposition that the basement of the temple has been buried by the
alluvium of the Cayster is very properly rejected by Hamilton, who has pointed
out the probable site. Pliny describes a spring in the city and names it Callipia,
which may be the Alitaea of Pausanias. Hamilton found a beautiful spring to the
north of the harbour; the head of the spring was about 200 yards from the temple.
The distance of the temple, supposed. to be near the port from the old city on
the heights seems to agreeU with: the story in Herodotus (i. 26). The position
of the tomb of Androclus, as described by Pausanias is quite consistent with this
supposed site of th great temple. Hamilton observes that the road which Pausanias
describes must have led along the valley between Prion and Coressus, which extends
towards Magnesia, and is crossed by the line of walls erected by Lysimachus. The
Magnesia Gates would also have stood in this valley, and must not be confounded
with those which are in the direction of Aiasaluck. Hamilton supposes that the
Olympieium may have stood in the space between the temple of Artemis and the theatre
in the neighbourhood of the agora, where he found the remains of a large Corinthian
temple, which is that which Chandler describes.
Hamilton describes the Hellenic wall of Lysimachus as extending along the heights
of Coressus for nearly a mile and three quarters, in a SE. and NW. direction,
from the heights immediately to the S. of the gymnasium to the tower called
the Prison; of St. Paul, but which is in fact one of the towers of the ancient
wall, closely resembling many others which occur at various intervals. The portion
which connected Mount Prion with Mount Coressus, and in which was the Magnesian
Gate, appears to have been immediately to the east of the gymnasium. The wall
is well built. Hamilton gives a drawing of a perfect gateway in the wall, with
a peculiar arch. He observed also another wall extending from the theatre over
the top of Mount Prion, and thence to. the eastern extremity of the stadium.
He thinks that this may be the oldest wall. Besides this wall and that supposed
to be Lysimachus', already described, he found another wall, principally of
brick, which he supposes to have been built by the Byzantines when the town had diminished in size: considerable remains of this
may still be traced at the foot of Mount Coressus, extending from near the theatre
westward to the port and temple of Diana. There are remains of an aqueduct at
Ephesus. Spon and Wheler also describe a series of arches as being five or six
miles from Ephesus on the road to Scala Nova, with an inscription in honour
of Diana and the emperors Tiberius and Augustus.
Hamilton copied a few inscriptions at Ephesus (vol. ii. p. 455). Chandler
copied others, which were published in his Inscriptiones Antiquae, &c. In
the Antiquities of Ionia, vol. ii., there are views of the remains of Ephesus,
and plans. Some of the coins of Ephesus of the Roman period have a reclining figure
that represents the river Cayster, with the legend Ephesion Kaustros. Arundell
(Discourses in Asia Minor, vol. ii.) has collected some particulars about the
Christian history of Ephesus. The reader may also consult the Life and Epistles
of St. Paul by Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. p. 66, &c.
The name of the village of Aiasaluck near Smyrna is generally said
to be a corruption of Agios Theologos, a name of St. John, to whom the chief Christian
church of Ephesus was dedicated (Procop. de Aedif. v. 1). But, as Arundell observes,
this is very absurd: and he supposes it to be a Turkish name. Tamerlane encamped
here after he had taken Smyrna. The name is written Ayazlic by Tamerlane's historian
Cherefeddin Ali (French Translation, by Petis de la Croix, vol. iv. p. 58). It
has been conjectured that Tamerlane destroyed the place, but his historian says
nothing about that. Ephesus had perished before the days of Tamerlane.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A titular archiespiscopal see in Asia Minor, said to have been founded in the eleventh century B.C. by Androcles, son of the Athenian King Codrus, with the aid of Ionian colonists. Its coinage dates back to 700 B.C., the period when the first money was struck. After belonging successively to the kings of Lydia, the Persians, and the Syrian successors of Alexander the Great, it passed, after the battle of Magnesia (199 B.C.), to the kings of Pergamum, the last of whom, Attalus III, bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman people (133 B.C.). It was at Ephesus that Mithradates (88 B.C.) signed the decree ordering all the Romans in Asia to be put to death, in which massacre there perished 100,000 persons. Four years later Sulla, again master of the territory, slaughtered at Ephesus all the leaders of the rebellion. From 27 B.C. till a little after A.D. 297, Ephesus was the capital of the proconsular province of Asia, a direct dependency of the Roman Senate. Though unimportant politically, it was noted for its extensive commerce. Many illustrious persons were born at Ephesus, e.g. the philosophers Heraclitus and Hermodorus, the poet Hipponax, the painter Parrhasius (all in the sixth or fifth century B.C.), the geographer Artemidorus, another Artemidorus, astrologer and charlatan, both in the second century of the Christian Era, and the historian and essayist, Xenophon. Ephesus owed its chief renown to its temple of Artemis (Diana), which attracted multitudes of visitors. Its first architect was the Cretan Chersiphron (seventh to sixth century B.C.) but it was afterwards enlarged. It was situated on the bank of the River Selinus and its precincts had the right of asylum. This building, which was looked upon in antiquity as one of the marvels of the world, was burnt by Herostratus (356 B.C.) the night of the birth of Alexander the Great, and was afterwards rebuilt, almost in the same proportions, by the architect Dinocrates. Its construction is said to have lasted 120 years, according to some historians 220. It was over 400 feet in length and 200 in breadth, and rested upon 128 pillars of about sixty feet in height. It was stripped of its riches by Nero and was finally destroyed by the Goths (A.D. 262).
It was through the Jews that Christianity was first introduced into
Ephesus. The original community was under the leadership of Apollo (I Cor., i,
12). They were disciples of St. John the Baptist, and were converted by Aquila
and Priscilla. Then came St. Paul, who lived three years at Ephesus to establish
and organize the new church; he was wont to teach in the schola or lecture-hall
of the rhetorician Tyrannus (Acts, xix, 9) and performed there many miracles.
Eventually he was obliged to depart, in consequence of a sedition stirred up by
the goldsmith Demetrius and other makers of ex-votoes for the temple of Diana
(Acts, xv111, 24 sqq.; xix, 1 sqq.). A little later, on his way to Jerusalem,
he sent for the elders of the community of Ephesus to come to Miletus and bade
them there a touching farewell (Acts, xx, 17-35). The Church of Ephesus was committed
to his disciple, St. Timothy, a native of the city (I Tim., 1, 3; II Tim., 1,
18; iv, 12). The Epistle of St. Paul to the Esphesians was not perhaps addressed
directly to them; it may be only a circular letter sent by him to several churches.
The sojourn and death of the Apostle St. John at Ephesus are not mentioned in
the New Testament, but both are attested as early as the latter part of the second
century by St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., III, iii, 4), Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus
(Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., V, xxi), Clement of Alexandria, the "Acta Joannis", and
a little earlier by St. Justin and the Montanists. Byzantine tradition has always
shown at Ephesus the tomb of the Apostle. Another tradition, which may be trustworthy,
though less ancient, makes Ephesus the scene of the death of St. Mary Magdalen.
On the other hand the opinion that the Blessed Virgin died there rests on no ancient
testimony; the often quoted but ambiguous text of the Council of Ephesus (431),
means only that there was at that time at Ephesus a church of the Virgin. (See
Ramsay in "Expositor", June, 1905, also his "Seven Cities of Asia".) We learn,
moreover, from Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., V, xxiv) that the three daughters of the
Apostle St. Philip were buried at Ephesus.
About 110 St. Ignatius of Antioch, having been greeted at Smyrna by
messengers of the Church of Ephesus, sent to it one of his seven famous epistles.
During the first three centuries, Ephesus was, next to Antioch, the chief centre
of Christianity in Asia Minor. In the year 190 its bishop, St. Polycrates, held
a council to consider the paschal controversy and declared himself in favour of
the Quartodeciman practice; nevertheless the Ephesian Church soon conformed in
this particular to the practice of all the other Churches. It seems certain that
the sixth canon of the Council of Nicaea (325), confirmed for Ephesus its ecclesiastical
jurisdiction over the whole "diocese" or civil territory of Asia Minor, i.e. over
the eleven ecclesiastical provinces; at all events, the second canon of the Council
of Constantinople (381) formally recognized this authority. But Constantinople
was already claiming the first rank among the Churches of the East and was trying
to annex the Churches of Thrace, Asia, and Pontus. To resist these encroachments,
Ephesus made common cause with Alexandria. We therefore find Bishop Memnon of
Ephesus siding with St. Cyril at the Third Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus
in 431 in condemnation of Nestorianism, and another bishop, Stephen, supporting
Dioscorus at the so-called Robber Council (Latrocinium Ephesinum) of 449, which
approved the heresy of Eutyches. But the resistance of Ephesus was overcome at
the Council of Chalcedon (451), whose famous twenty-eighth canon placed the twenty-eight
ecclesiastical provinces of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace under the jurisdiction of
the Patriarch of Constantinople. Henceforth Ephesus was but the second metropolis
of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, nor did it ever recover its former standing,
despite a council of 474 in which Paul, the Monophysite Patriarch of Alexandria
restored its ancient rights. Egyptian influence was responsible for the hold which
Monophysitism gained at Ephesus during the sixth century; the famous ecclesiastical
historian, John of Asia, was then one of its bishops. The metropolis of Ephesus
in those days ruled over thirty-six suffragan sees. Justinian, who imitated Constantine
in stripping the city of many works of art to adorn Constantinople, built there
a magnificent church consecrated to St. John; this was soon a famous place of
pilgrimage.
Ephesus was taken in 655 and 717 by the Arabs. Later it became the
capital of the theme of the Thracesians. During the Iconoclastic period two bishops
of Ephesus suffered martyrdom, Hypatius in 735 and Theophilus in the ninth century.
In the same city the fierce general Lachanodracon put to death thirty-eight monks
from the monastery of Pelecete in Bithynia and other partisans of the holy images.
In 899 Leo the Wise transferred the relics of St. Mary Magdalen to Constantinople.
The city was captured in 1090 and destroyed by the Seljuk Turks, but the Byzantines
succeeded in retaking it and rebuilt it on the neighbouring hills around the church
of St. John. Henceforth it was commonly called Hagios Theologos (the holy theologian,
i.e. St. John the Divine), or in Turkish Aya Solouk (to the Greeks the Apostle
St. John is "the Theologian"); the French called the site Altelot and the Italians
Alto Luogo. At the beginning of the thirteenth century its metropolitan, Nicholas
Mesarites, had an important role at the conferences between the Greeks and the
Latins. The city was again plundered by the Turks in the first years of the fourteenth
century, then by the Catalonian mercenaries in the pay of the Byzantines, and
once more by the Turks. The church of St. John was transformed into a mosque,
and the city was ruled by a Turkish ameer, who carried on a little trade with
the West, but it could no longer maintain its Greek bishop. A series of Latin
bishops governed the see from 1318 to 1411. The ruin of Ephesus was completed
by Timur-Leng in 1403 and by nearly a half-century of civil wars among its Turkish
masters. When at the council of Florence in 1439 Mark of Ephesus (Marcus Eugenicus)
showed himself so haughty toward the Latins, he was the pastor of a miserable
village, all that remained of the great city which Pliny once called alterum lumen
Asiae, or the second eye of Asia (Hist. nat., V, xxix; also Apoc., ii, 5; cf.
W. Brockhoff, "Ephesus vom vierten christlich. Jhdt. bis seinem Untergang:, Jena,
1906).
Today Aya Solouk has 3000 inhabitants, all Greeks. It is situated
in the caza of Koush Adassi, in the vilayet of Aiden or Smyrna, about fifty miles
from Smyrna, on the Smyrna-Aidin railway. The ruins of Ephesus stand in the marshy
and unhealthy plain below the village. There are the remains of the temple of
Diana, the theatre, with a capacity of 25,000 spectators, the stadium, the great
gymnasium, and the "Double Church", probably the ancient cathedral, one aisle
of which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, the other to St. John, where the
councils of 431 and 449 were held. The Greek metropolitan resides at Manissa,
the ancient Magnesia.
S. Vailhe, ed.
This text is cited July 2004 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
