Ephesus (Ancient Greek , Turkish Efes) was an
ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia
, near
present-day Selçuk
, Izmir Province
, Turkey
. It
was one of the twelve cities of the
Ionian
League during the
Classical
Greek era.
In the Roman period, it was for many years
the second largest city of the Roman
Empire; ranking behind Rome
, the
empire's capital. Ephesus had a population of more than
250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also made it the second
largest city in the world.
The city
was famed for the Temple of Artemis
(completed around 550 BCE), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World. The Temple was destroyed in 401 CE by a mob led
by St.
John Chrysostom. Emperor
Constantine I rebuilt much of the city
and erected new public baths. The town was again partially
destroyed by an earthquake in 614. The city's importance as a
commercial center declined as the harbor was slowly silted up by
the
Cayster River (
Küçük
Menderes).
Ephesus was one of the
seven
churches of Asia that are cited in the
Book of Revelation. The
Gospel of John may have been written here. It
is also the site of a large
gladiators'
graveyard.
Today's
archaeological site lies 3 kilometers southwest of the town of
Selçuk
, in the
Selçuk district of İzmir Province
, Turkey
.
The
ruins of Ephesus are a favorite international
and local tourist attraction, partly owing to their easy access
from Adnan Menderes
Airport
and via the port of Kuşadası
.
History
Neolithic age
The area surrounding Ephesus was already inhabited during the
Neolithic Age (about 6000 BCE), as was revealed by the excavations
at the nearby
hoyuk (artificial mounds known as
tells) of Arvalya and Cukurici.
Bronze age
Excavations in recent years have unearthed settlements from the
early
Bronze Age at the Ayasuluk Hill. In
1954 a burial ground from the
Mycenaean era (1500-1400 BCE) with ceramic
pots was discovered close to the ruins of the basilica of St. John.
This was
the period of the Mycenaean Expansion when the Achaioi
(as they were called by Homer)
settled in Ahhiyawa during the 14th and
13th centuries BCE. Scholars believe that Ephesus was
founded on the settlement of Apasa (or
Abasa), a
Bronze Age-city noted in 14th-century BCE
Hittite sources as in the land of
Ahhiyawa.
Dark age
The city of
Ephesus itself was founded as an Attic-Ionian
colony in the 10th century BCE on the Ayasuluk Hill, three
kilometers from the center of antique Ephesus (as attested by
excavations at the
Seljuk castle during the
1990s).
The mythical founder of the city was a prince
of Athens
namedAndroklos, who had to leave
his country after the death of his father, King Kadros.
According
to legend, he founded Ephesus on the place where the oracle of
Delphi
became reality ("A fish and a boar will show you
the way"). Androklos drove away most of the native
Carian and
Lelegian inhabitants
of the city and united his people with the remainder. He was a
successful warrior and, as king, he was able to join the twelve
cities of
Ionia together into the
Ionian League. During his reign the city began
to prosper.
He died in a battle against the Carians when
he came to the aid of Priene
, another
city of the Ionian League. Androklos and his dog are
depicted on the Hadrian temple frieze, dating from the second
century. Later, Greek historians such as
Pausanias,
Strabo and the poet Kallinos, and the historian
Herodotos however reassigned the city's
mythological foundation to Ephos, queen of the
Amazons.
The Greek goddess
Artemis and the great
Anatolian goddess
Kybele were identified
together as
Artemis of Ephesus.
The many-breasted
"Lady of Ephesus", identified with Artemis,
was venerated in the Temple of Artemis
, one of the Seven Wonders of the World and
the largest building of the ancient world according to Pausanias (4.31.8). Pausanius
mentions that the temple was built by Ephesus, son of the river god
Caystrus. before the arrival of the
Ionians. Of this structure, scarcely a trace remains.
Archaic period
About 650 BCE, Ephesus was attacked by the
Cimmerians, who razed the city, including the
temple of Artemis. A few small Cimmerian artifacts can be seen at
the archaeological museum of Ephesus.
When the Cimmerians had been driven away, the city was ruled by a
series of tyrants. After a revolt by the people, Ephesus was ruled
by a council called the
Kuretes. The city prospered again,
producing a number of important historical figures, such as the
iambic poets
Callinus
and the satirist
Hipponax, the philosopher
Heraclitus, the great painter
Parrhasius and later the grammarian
Zenodotos, the physicians
Soranus and Rufus.
About 560 BCE Ephesus was conquered by the
Lydians under the mighty king
Croesus. He treated the inhabitants with respect,
despite ruling harshly, and even became the main contributor to the
reconstruction of the temple of Artemis.
His signature has
been found on the base of one of the columns of the temple (now on
display in the British
Museum
). Croesus made the populations of the
different settlements around Ephesus regroup (
synoikismos) in the vicinity of the Temple
of Artemis, enlarging the city.
Later in the same century, the Lydians under Croesus invaded
Persia. The Ionians refused a peace offer from
Cyrus the Great, siding with the Lydians
instead. After the Persians defeated Croesus the Ionians offered to
make peace but Cyrus insisted that they surrender and become part
of the empire. They were defeated by the Persian army commander
Harpagos in 547 BCE. The Persians then
incorporated the Greek cities of Asia Minor into the
Achaemenid Empire. Those cities were then
ruled by
satraps.
Ephesus has intregued archaeologists for the main reason that for
the Archaic Period, there is no definite location for the
settlement. There are numerous sites to suggest the movement of a
settlement between the Bronze Age and the Roman period but the
silting up of the natural harbors as well as the movement of the
Kayster River meant that the location never remainded the
same.
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 , an event
which instigated the
Greco-Persian
wars.
In 479 BCE, the Ionians, together with
Athens
and Sparta, were able to oust the Persians
from Anatolia. In 478 BCE, the Ionian cities entered with
Athens and Sparta into the
Delian
League against the Persians. Ephesus did not contribute ships
but gave financial support by offering the treasure of
Apollo to the goddess
Athena,
protectress 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, rule over
the kingdoms of Anatolia was ceded again to Persia.
These wars did not much affect daily life in Ephesus. The Ephesians
were 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 the Elder mentioned having seen at
Ephesus a representation of the goddess
Diana by Timarata, the daughter of a
painter.
In 356 BCE the temple of Artemis was burned 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 at once set about
restoring the temple and even planned a larger and grander one than
the original.
Hellenistic period
When
Alexander the Great
defeated the Persian forces at the
Battle of Granicus in 334 BCE, 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 when he entered Ephesus in triumph. When Alexander saw that
the temple of Artemis was not yet finished, he proposed to finance
it and have his name inscribed on the front. But the inhabitants of
Ephesus demurred, claiming that it was not fitting for one god to
build a temple to another. After Alexander's death in 323 BCE,
Ephesus in 290 BCE came under the rule of one of Alexander's
generals,
Lysimachus.
As the river
Cayster silted up the harbor,
the resulting marshes caused malaria and many deaths among the
inhabitants. The people of Ephesus were forced to move to a new
settlement two 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 BCE, 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
BCE. 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,
pharaoh
Ptolemy III invaded the Seleucid
Empire and the Egyptian fleet swept the coast of Asia Minor.
Ephesus came under Egyptian rule between 263-197 BCE.
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 BCE. As a
result, Ephesus came under the rule of the Attalid king of
Pergamon Eumenes II
(197-133 BCE). When his grandson
Attalus
III died without male children of his own, he left his kingdom
to the
Roman Republic.
Roman period

Theater.
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 BCE 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 BCE. 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 BCE, he
made Ephesus instead of Pergamum the capital of
proconsular Asia, which covered
western 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 CE.
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 temple were destroyed by the
Goths in 263. This marked the decline of the city's
splendor.
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 center declined as the
harbor was slowly silted up by the river (today, Küçük Menderes)
despite repeated dredging 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
Ephesus in 1090,Foss, Clive (1979)
Ephesus after antiquity: a late antique, Byzantine,
and Turkish city, Cambridge University Press, p.
121.
Gökovalı, Şadan; Altan Erguvan (1982)
Ephesus, Ticaret
Matbaacılık, p.7. 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
Menteşoğulları principality.
Shortly
afterwards, it was ceded to the Aydınoğulları principality that
stationed a powerful navy in the harbour of Ayasuluğ
(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 in 1425.
Ephesus was eventually completely abandoned in the 15th century and
lost her former glory. Nearby Ayasuluğ was renamed Selçuk in
1914.
Ephesus and Christianity
Ephesus was an important center for
Early Christianity from the AD 50s. From
AD 52-54,
Paul lived here, working
with the congregation and apparently organizing missionary activity
into the hinterlands. 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 AD 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, while he was in prison in Rome
(around 62 AD)
Anatolia was associated with
John,
one of the chief apostles, and the Gospel of John might have been
written in Ephesus,
c 90-100. 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
, about 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
Ephesus contains the largest collection of Roman ruins in the
eastern Mediterranean. Only an estimated 15% has been excavated.
The ruins that are visible give some idea of the city's original
splendor, 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
, the façade of which has been carefully
reconstructed from all original pieces, was built ca. CE 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,
Basilica of St. John, was
built in the 6th century CE, 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 theater constructed
by Vedius Antonius and his wife in around 150 CE 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 theater 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 Theodosius
I with his wife and eldest son. The temple was depicted on the
reverse of the Turkish 20
million lira banknote of 2001-2005 and
of the 20 new lira banknote of 2005-2009. Central Bank of
the Republic of Turkey. Banknote Museum: 8. Emission Group -
Twenty New Turkish Lira - I.
Series.
Announcement on the Withdrawal of E8 New Turkish
Lira Banknotes from Circulation, 8 May 2007. – Retrieved on 20
April 2009.
- 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 CE 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.
Seven sleepers
Ephesus is believed to be the city of the
Seven Sleepers. The story of the Seven
Sleepers, who are considered saints by
Catholics,
Orthodox
Christians and
Muslims, tells that they
were persecuted because of their belief in God and that they slept
in a cave near Ephesus for centuries.

Image of Ephesus on the reverse of the
20 new lira banknote (2005-2008)
Archaeology
The
history of archaeological research in Ephesus stretches back to
1863, when the British architect John
Turtle Wood, sponsored by the British Museum
, began to search for the Artemision
. In 1869 he discovered the pavement of the
temple, but since further expected discoveries were not made the
excavations stopped in 1874. In 1895 German archaeologist
Otto Benndorf, financed by a 10,000 guilder
donation made by the Austrian Karl Mautner Ritter von Markhof,
resumed excavations. In 1898 Benndorf founded the
Austrian Archaeological
Institute which plays a leading role in Ephesus until
today.
Notable persons
See also
References
- Quezi:
Ephesus
- Oklahoma Christian University: Ephesus
- John Freely, The Western Shores of Turkey: Discovering the
Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts, 2004, p. 148.
- 2:1–7
- Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the
Bible, Palo Alto, Mayfield, 1985.
- [VIII. Muze Kurtrma Kazilari Semineri ] Adil Evren - Cengiz
Icten,pp 111-133 1997
- [Arkeoloji ve Sanat Dergisi - Cukurici Hoyuk sayi 92 ] Adil
Evren 1998
- Herodotus i. 141
- Strabo . Geography (volume 1-7) 14.1.24. Cambridge: Loeb
Classical Library, Harvard University Press
- "Paul, St." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the
Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- Durant,
Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster.
1972
- Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the
Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "The Gospels" p. 266-268
- Keskin, Naci. Ephesus. ISBN 975-7559-48-2
- Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. Banknote
Museum: 7. Emission Group - Twenty Million Turkish Lira - I. Series. – Retrieved on 20 April 2009.
- Ephesus. Distributed by Rehber Basım Yayın Dağıtım
Reklamcılık ve Tic. A.Ş. and Revak publishers. ISBN
975-8212-11-7,
External links
- lib.utexas.edu/maps, Map of Asia Minor (modern
Turkey) which shows Ephesus in the province of Lydia close to the
Aegean Sea.
- unc.edu, Map of the Roman Empire at the end of
the second century.
- lib.utexas.edu/maps, Map of the eastern half of
the Roman Empire.
- online.mq.edu.au, Coinage of Ephesus, Macquarie
University, Australia.
- whitman.edu/theatre, The Theater at Ephesus,
The Ancient Theater Archive, Theater specifications and virtual
reality tour of theater.
- asiaminorcoins.com, Asia Minor Coins - Greek
and Roman coins from ancient Ephesos.
- fotopedia.com, Selected photos of Ephesus.