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not contribute ships, but only
participated with financial support by offering the treasure of
Apollo to the goddess Athena, protector of Athens.
During the Peloponnesian War, Ephesus was first allied to Athens
but sided in a later phase, called the Decelean War, or the
Ionian War with Sparta, which also had received the support of
the Persians. As a result, the rule over the kingdoms of
Anatolia was ceded again to Persia.
These wars didn't affect much the daily life in Ephesus. In
those times, Ephesus was surprisingly modern in their social
relations. They allowed strangers to integrate. Education was
much valued. Through the cult of Artemis, the city also became a
bastion of women's rights. Ephesus even had its female artists.
In later times Pliny mentions having seen at Ephesus a
representation of the goddess Diana by Timarata, the daughter of
a painter.
In 356 BC the temple of Artemis was burnt down, according to
legend, by a lunatic called Herostratus. By coincidence, this
was the night that Alexander the Great was born. The inhabitants
of Ephesus started at once with the restoration and even
planning a larger and grander temple.
Hellenistic period
When Alexander the Great defeated the Persian forces at the
Battle of Granicus in 334 BC, the Greek cities of Asia Minor
were liberated. The pro-Persian tyrant Syrpax and his family
were stoned to death and Alexander was greeted warmly in Ephesus
when he entered it in triumph. When he saw that the temple of
Artemis was not yet finished, he proposed to finance the temple
and have his name as an inscription of the front. But the
inhabitants of Ephesus refused, claiming that it was not fitting
for a god to build a temple for another god. After the death of
Alexander in 323 BC, Ephesus came under the rule of Lysimachus,
one of Alexander's generals, in 290 BC.
As the river Cayster was silting up the harbour, the resulting
marshes were the cause of malaria and many deaths among the
inhabitants. The people of Ephesus were forced to move to a new
settlement 2 kilometers further on, when the king flooded the
old city by blocking the sewers. This settlement was called
after the king's second wife Arsinoe II of Egypt. After
Lysimachus had destroyed the nearby cities of Lebedos and
Colophon in 292 BC, he relocated their inhabitants to the new
city. The architectural layout of the city would remain
unchanged for the next 500 years.
Ephesus revolted after the treacherous death of Agathocles,
giving the Syrian king Seleucus I Nicator an opportunity for
removing and killing Lysimachus, his last rival, at the Battle
of Corupedium in 281 BC. After the death of Lysimachos the town
took again the name of Ephesus.
Thus Ephese became part of the Seleucid Empire. After the murder
of king Antiochus II Theos and his Egyptian wife, pharao Ptolemy
III invaded the Seleucid Empire and the Egyptian fleet swept the
coast of Asia Minor. Ephesus came under Egyptian rule between
263-197 BC.
When the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great tried to regain
the Greek cities of Asia Minor, he came in conflict with Rome.
After a series of battles, he was defeated by Scipio Asiaticus
at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC. As a result, Ephesus came
under the rule of the Attalid king of Pergamon Eumenes II
(197-133 BC). When his grandson Attalus III died without male
children of his own, he left his kingdom to the Roman Republic.
Classical period
Ephesus continued to prosper. But when taxes continued to be
raised under Cambyses II and Darius, the Ephesians participated
in the Ionian Revolt against Persian rule in the Battle of
Ephesus (498 BC), an event which instigated the Greco-Persian
wars. In 479 BC, the Ionians, together with Athens and Sparta,
were able to oust the Persians from Anatolia. In 478 BC, the
Ionian cities entered with Athens and Sparta the Delian League
against the Persians. Ephesus did
Roman Period
Ephesus became subject of the Roman Republic. The city felt at
once the Roman influence. Taxes rose considerably and the
treasures of the city were systematically plundered. In 88 BC
Ephesus welcomed Archelaus, a general of Mithridates the Great,
king of Pontus, when he conquered Western Anatolia. This led to
the Asiatic Vespers, the slaughter of 80,000 Roman citizens in
Asia Minor, or any person who spoke with a Latin accent. Many
had lived in Ephesus. But when they saw how badly the people of
Chios had been treated by Zenobius, a general of Mithridates,
they refused entry to his army. Zenobius was invited into the
city to visit Philopoemen (the father of Monima, the favorite
wife of Mithridates) and the overseer of Ephesus. As the people
expected nothing good of him, they threw him into prison and
murdered him. Mithridates took revenge and inflicted terrible
punishments. However, the Greek cities were given freedom and
several substantial rights. Ephesus became, for a short time,
self-governing. When Mithridates was defeated in the First
Mithridatic War by the Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla,
Ephesus came back under Roman rule in 86 BC. Sulla imposed a
huge indemnity, along with five years of back taxes, which left
Asian cities heavily in debt for a long time to come.
When Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, he made Ephesus instead
of Pergamum the capital of proconsular Asia, which covered the
western part of Asia Minor. Ephesus entered an era of
prosperity. It became the seat of the governor, growing into a
metropolis and a major center of commerce. It was second in
importance and size only to Rome. Ephesus has been estimated to
be in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 inhabitants in the year
100, making it the largest city in Roman Asia and of the day.
Ephesus was at its peak during the first and second century AD.
The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (Diana), who had
her chief shrine there, the Library of Celsus, and its theatre,
which was capable of holding 25,000 spectators. This open-air
theater was used initially for drama, but during later Roman
times gladiatorial combats were also held on its stage, with the
first archaeological evidence of a gladiator graveyard found in
May 2007. The population of Ephesus also had several major bath
complexes, built at various points while the city was under
Roman rule. The city had one of the most advanced aqueduct
systems in the ancient world, with multiple aqueducts of various
sizes to supply different areas of the city, including 4 major
aqueducts.
The city and the temple were destroyed by the Goths in 263. This
marked the decline of the splendour of the city.
Byzantine era (395-1071)
Ephesus remained the most important city of the Byzantine Empire
in Asia after Constantinople in the 5th and 6th centuries. The
emperor Constantine I rebuilt much of the city and erected a new
public bath. In 406 John Chrysostom, archbishop of
Constantinople, ordered the destruction of the Temple of
Artemis. Emperor Flavius Arcadius raised the level of the street
between the theatre and the harbour. The basilica of St. John
was built during the reign of emperor Justinian I in the sixth
century.
The town was again partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614.
The importance of the city as a commercial centre declined as
the harbour slowly filled with silt from the river (today, Küçük
Menderes) despite repeated dredges during the city's history.
(Today, the harbor is 5 kilometers inland). The loss of its
harbor caused Ephesus to lose its access to the Aegean Sea,
which was important for trade. People started leaving the
lowland of the city for the surrounding hills. The ruins of the
temples were used as building blocks for new homes. Marble
sculptures were ground to powder to make lime for plaster.
Sackings by the Arabs first in the year 654-655 by caliph
Muawiyah I, and later in 700 and 716 hastened the decline
further.
When the Seljuk Turks conquered it in 1071-1100, it was a small
village. The Byzantines resumed control in 1100 and changed the
name of the town into Hagios Theologos. They kept control of the
region until 1308. Crusaders, passing through, were surprised
that there was only a small village, called Ayasalouk, where
they had expected a bustling city with a large seaport. Even the
temple of Artemis was completely forgotten by the local
population.
Turkish era
The town was conquered in 1304 by Sasa Bey, an army commander of
the Menteşoğullari principality. Shortly afterwards, it was
ceded to the Aydinoğullari principality that stationed a
powerful navy in the harbour of Ayasluğ (the present-day Selçuk,
next to Ephesus). Ayasoluk became an important harbour, from
where the navy organised raids to the surrounding regions.
The town knew again a short period of flourishing during the
14th century under these new Seljuk rulers. They added important
architectural works such as the İsa Bey Mosque, caravansaries
and Turkish bathhouses (hamam).
They were incorporated as vassals into the Ottoman Empire for
the first time in 1390. The Central Asian warlord Tamerlane
defeated the Ottomans in Anatolia in 1402 and the Ottoman sultan
Bayezid I died in captivity. The region was restored to the
Anatolian Turkish Beyliks. After a period of unrest, the region
was again incorporated into the Ottoman Empire by sultan Mehmed
II in 1425.
Ephesus was eventually completely abandoned in the 15th century
and lost her former glory. Nearby Ayasluğ was renamed Selçuk in
1914.
Ephesus and Christianity
According to the New Testament, Ephesus became an important
center for early Christianity from the 50s AD. Paul used it as a
base and spent there more than two years on his third missionary
journey (Acts 19:8, 19:10, 20:31). He became embroiled in a
dispute with artisans, whose livelihood depended on selling the
statuettes of Artemis in the Temple of Artemis (Acts 19:23–41).
He wrote between 53 and 57 A.D. the letter 1 Corinthians from
Ephesus (possibly from the "Paul tower" close to the harbour,
where he was imprisoned for a short time). Later Paul wrote to
the Christian community at Ephesus, according to tradition,
while he was in prison in Rome (around 62 A.D.)
The Apostle John lived in Asia Minor (Anatolia) in the last
decades of the first century and from Ephesus had guided the
Churches of that province. After Domitian's death the Apostle
returned to Ephesus during the reign of Trajan, and at Ephesus
he died about 100 AD at a great age. Ephesus was one of the
seven cities addressed in Revelation (2:1–7), indicating that
the church at Ephesus was still strong.
Two decades later, the church at Ephesus there was still
important enough to be addressed by a letter written by Bishop
Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians in the early 2nd century
AD, that begins with, "Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus,
to the Church which is at Ephesus, in Asia, deservedly most
happy, being blessed in the greatness and fullness of God the
Father, and predestinated before the beginning of time, that it
should be always for an enduring and unchangeable glory" (Letter
to the Ephesians). The church at Ephesus had given their support
for Ignatius, who was taken to Rome for execution.
The house of the Virgin Mary (Turkish: Meryem Ana, meaning
"Mother Mary"), about 7 kilometers from Selçuk, is believed to
have been the last home of Mary, mother of Jesus. It is a
popular place of pilgrimage which has been visited by three
recent popes.
The Church of Mary close to the harbor of Ephesus was the
setting for the Third Ecumenical Council in 431, which resulted
in the condemnation of Nestorius. A Second Council of Ephesus
was held in 449, but its controversial acts were never approved
by the Catholics. It came to be called the Robber Council of
Ephesus or Robber Synod of Latrocinium by its opponents.
Main sites
The site is large. In fact, Ephesus contains the largest
collection of Roman ruins East of the Mediterranean. Only an
estimated 15% has been excavated. The ruins that are visible
give some idea of the city's original splendour, and the names
associated with the ruins are evocative of its former life. The
theater dominates the view down Harbour Street which leads to
the long silted-up harbor.
The Library of Celsus, whose façade has been carefully
reconstructed from all original pieces, was built ca. AD 125 by
Gaius Julius Aquila in memory of his father, and once held
nearly 12,000 scrolls. Designed with an exaggerated entrance —
so as to enhance its perceived size, speculate many historians —
the building faces east so that the reading rooms could make
best use of the morning light.
A part of the site, St. John's Basilica, was built in the 6th
century AD, under emperor Justinian I over the supposed site of
the apostle's tomb. It is now surrounded by Selçuk.
The Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World, is represented only by one inconspicuous column, revealed
during an archaeological excavation by the British Museum in the
1870s. Some fragments of the frieze (which are insufficient to
suggest the form of the original) and other small finds were
removed – some to London and some to the Archaeological Museum,
Istanbul. Other edifices excavated include:
The Odeon - a small roofed theatre constructed by Vedius
Antonius and his wife in around 150 A.D. It was a small salon
for plays and concerts, seating about 1,500 people. There were
22 stairs in the theater. The upper part of the theatre was
decorated with red granite pillars in the Corinthian style. The
entrances were at both sides of the stage and reached by a few
steps.
The Temple of Hadrian dates from the 2nd
century but underwent repairs in the 4th century and has been
reerected from the surviving architectural fragments. The
reliefs in the upper sections are casts, the originals being now
exhibited in the Selçuk Archaeological Museum. A number of
figures are depicted in the reliefs, including the emperor
Theodisius I with his wife and eldest son.
The Temple of Domitian was one of the largest
temples on the city. It was erected on a pseudodipteral plan
with 8 x 13 columns. The temple and its statue are some of the
few remains connected with Domitian.
The Theater - At an estimated 44,000 seating
capacity, it is believed to be the largest outdoor theater in
the ancient world.
The Tomb/Fountain of Pollio - erected by a
grateful city in 97 AD in honor of C. Sextilius Pollio, who
constructed the Marnas aqueduct, by Offilius Proculus. It has a
concave facade. There were two agoras, one for commercial and
one for state business. |
