First ruled by a monarchy , the city is moving towards a democratic transition in a still poorly known. The royal power is progressively weakened by the hunger for power of large families, who themselves had to defend themselves against the whims of emancipation of the masses. Tyrants are so far, as Pythagoras to 600.

The boards take over from tyranny as in the functioning of the city in the organization of the city. The Boule is the body of the city makes decrees and operates the city. The bouleuterion, that is to say where the council seat, is probably the site of the Odeon which exists today .

Unlike Athens, Ephesus does not have an ecclesia : the people gather in the agora at irregular intervals, but no formal Council as is the ball, his role is more advisory that executive. The territory and population are divided into tribes, each bearing a name, themselves subdivided into chiliastyes. During the Hellenistic period, there are five tribes . Each has an equal number to the ball, to be composed of approximately fifty members. This figure is questionable, since the number of tribes and the number of representatives for each was sometimes changed.

Prytaneum ruins of Ephesus

The prytaneum , sort of town hall of the city, faces the bouleuterion. The building is associated with the temple dedicated to Hestia Birch, which burned a perpetual fire . It seems the light sources, it has not seen the day before the time of Lysimachus , suggesting that the functioning of the city in the classical period was significantly different from that of other cities. Still, the powers of the assemblies are quite close to the current model. The large number of decrees granting citizenship to foreigners shows Ephesus was attractive.

The hosts prytaneum important ceremonies, banquets and receptions. It is especially the seat of the council prytaneis , probably two in number. On very rare occasions, one of them could be eponymous. The function is, at Ephesus, a legacy of the ancient royal function: it is the prytaneum that one deals with affairs of state. From the ^third century BC. BC at least, the decisions are subject to prytaneis Blvd.

The grammateus is a magistrate whose functions are close to the mayors present . Its function seems to overlap with that of prytaneis. In fact, prytaneis, head of the deliberative body, deal with regulatory issues and policy, the grammateus, meanwhile, is the guarantor of the implementation and monitoring the proper implementation of decisions. Boasting an aura of excellence, he is the head of the local police, a sort of urban militia, which the Romans used to keep under the High Empire. The name of the function probably reflects the speaking skills which must show the holder of the office.

Like Sparta, found at Ephesus a gerousia , that is to say, a council of elders governs the city . His recruitment is aristocratic tradition, members serve for life and heredity. Their name is entered in a register, which allows to continuously monitor the composition of this meeting. From the beginning of the Hellenistic period and even before, she is a victim of competition from popular recruitment of the ball: deprived of its civil powers, his powers are restricted progressively to the sanctuary , decisions of this council are therefore subject to approval at the ball and the people: this is an instance of proposal and not a decision. It still occupies an important place in Ephesus, to the extent that it serves as a link between the shrine and the city.

The gerousia has its own gymnast , that is to say the magistrate responsible for the proper conduct of competitions held as part of religious ceremonies. It is also, as in all cities of the Greek world, the burden of the gym . Its function may be related to a liturgy , having to bear all costs necessary for the proper functioning of the building and related activities.

Finally, the skills of gerousia are shared by another category of judges, epikletic , intermediate between the people and the council. They do not sit properly speaking.

It is unclear where the gerousia sat, but we know that all of the civic life of the city revolves around a central space that is the agora. In the case of Ephesus, one speaks of "agora State." From classical times, it takes a commercial dimension, confirms that the reference in the sources of agoranomes , that is to say an official in charge of maintaining order and punishing fraud. It is associated with other magistrates to ensure safe streets, and to maintain public order. These judges, whose names are unknown, are the responsibility of grammateus.

The other two titleholders are important to Ephesus Curetes and hellnodiques. The first gave their name to a street of Ephesus, the main road that now serves as reference for guidance on city maps. It then housed the homes and places of meetings of the brotherhood . The Curetes are indeed organized into a kind of social order. Members of high society, they also form an army strong and robust city knows how to use. The defense of their city is especially committed. Thus an area is reserved it in the sanctuary.

The hellnodiques are responsible for chairing the sacred games, to maintain order and discipline. They also take care of the prize. For these purposes, they take an oath and must justify of ten months' residence in hellenodice the building reserved for their accommodation, prior to the Olympics.

The cultural and economic

Cultural activities

The Ephesians are very fond of the "beautiful." So there are two areas in Ephesus artistic oratory, and art "equipment." There are a number of specialists of the expression. From an artistic perspective, there are mostly those in the individual competition that punctuate the life of the city . In the latter there are two kinds of competitions. On the one hand, athletic games, featuring athletes - professional or otherwise - in competitions, athletic competitions and lyrical, which are grappling specialists in speech and song. These two types of competitions are the responsibility of Hellnodiques.

The contest took place in the lyric theater of the city. It lies in the foothills of Panayi Da. All the events taking place in Ephesus, whether Olympia or Artemisia or other contests that are Ephesia the Romai or Balbillea (and later outside our framework time), included two types of competitions. There are several tests within these lyrical competitions. Each falls within the jurisdiction of different areas of language and gesture. Thus, we see the existence of concurrent players . The sources repeatedly mention the actors, sometimes children , or mimes . These could be grouped together and were competitive in competition, and this, throughout the Greek world. Similarly, entries show a large number of pantomimes .

These events, whose outcomes are largely similar to that of the great Panhellenic contests, gave rise to memorable verbal jousting. It was probably during these verbal confrontations that poets Callinus and Hipponax could develop their talent. The latter is a satirist who was expelled from Ephesus around 540 by the will of the tyrant Athenagoras. He then found refuge Clazomenae where he continued his work. Known for his unsightly physical, he was the victim of a joke sculptors Boupalos and Athens , which caricaturrent . His coarseness of thought and feeling and his vulgarity, as well as his obvious lack of taste and constant references to local issues only prevented him from getting any fame in Attica or elsewhere in the Greek world. It is generally considered the inventor of parody - as a literary style - and a particular meter, or the scazon choliambe. This particular meter is to have an imperfect iambic trimeter with a spondee for the final iamb. This type of cutting metric and rhythm produced is then shaped entirely appropriate for the style of burlesque poems Hipponax. At the forefront of his aphorisms, one can cite for the record that has been widely taken up, which reflects the ambiguity of the poet's thought: "There are two days when the woman is a pleasure: the day we wife, and the day we buried. "

Athletic games took place in the stadium, which lies north of the city. That's where were going all sports competitions such as different races , throwing events (javelin, discus, etc..) and for a time later the horse races. Athletes are a "caste" in itself. Some of them came together in guilds . In the same way as lyrical and literary competitors, their victory is a source of pride for the city . Similarly, these victories are a source of fame for athletes themselves. Thus, their victories were recorded mostly on their epitaphs. This special status is still displayed by the presence of several gyms in the city. This building is a symbol of education in the Greek world. Physical education is inseparable from civic education.

Composed of two parts . The gymnasium is under the direction of the gymnast , whose main task is to ensure gymnasiarchie. This liturgy is in the financing of all that is necessary for the normal operation of the gym, whether supply or maintenance of premises. He reports directly to the body which elected him, whether the ball to the municipal gymnasium, or gerousia when the gymnasium of the sanctuary. The role of the gymnast, as guarantor of the proper functioning of the institution "sport", is essential for the city. Indeed, it was through him that the city radiates from the victories of athletes . The gym is dedicated to the god Asclepius .

Besides the poets, and whose Callinus Hipponax are the best known examples, those that are found in large numbers at Ephesus are the sophists who occupy a prominent place in the intellectual activity of the city. Indeed, it is this class of intellectuals that came back in part the mission of education . The Sophists are the founders of all the methods of thought that developed during antiquity. Far from criticism by Plato , stigmatizing and pejorative manner the work of the sophists, they are behind the rhetoric. Sophistic schools have an important role in Ephesus. Beyond education alone Ephesians small, they provide the city an intellectual potential that confers the status of intellectual center. There are various testimonials from other cities sophists asking the ball the right city at Ephesus . The Greeks were the difference between sophrosyne (wisdom - measurement / moderation) and sophia (wisdom - knowledge). Among those interested in the latter, there was first the sophoi (elders, particularly the Seven Sages) and the philosophoi (sophia scientists, philosophers). Unlike sophos or philosophos which tend to turn their disciples sophoi philosophoi and in turn the sophists do not want to train sophistai but, in reality, people are able to reflect, make decisions, to argue and to govern. Their education is quite expensive. Therefore, only a minority could have access to this type of education . This training is essentially practical and the development of this led to the birth of rhetoric right from the ^fourth century BC. AD Thus, in the case of Ephesus, the sophists are gradually disappearing sources from this period, then be replaced by the rhetoricians and workshops . However, their activity does not decrease and that it is not entirely supplanted by the development of rhetoric, since it finds the Sophists in Ephesus even under the imperial era. The fame of these masters was a source of pride for the city and exceeded the limits thereof. Students from around the world flocked to Ephesus to afford their services . This teaching quality was recognized in much of the Greek world .

In addition to these specialists in language and speech, which one and the others formed a brilliant speakers, we find the philosophers. The most famous of them is at Ephesus Heraclitus. His thought and his work reflects the cultural vivacity of Ephesus. Like his colleagues, Heraclitus worshiped the Muses. The location of this devotion, as evidenced in Ephesus , is the Museum or Mouseion . It is not known yet if the building followed the typical trend of Mouseion in the Hellenistic period, namely the transformation into a "research center". From the ^third century BC. AD, most Mouseion focus, in addition to elements necessary for the worship of the Muses, all equipment necessary to ensure that scholars conduct their research.

Lastly there are workshops grammateis . These "grammarians" are responsible for teaching and learning of reading and writing. One example among them that Attalus II tutor who will recruit the education of his nephew.

There is little or no architects or sculptors even to Ephesus , as evidenced by the method in which the city has used for construction and decoration of Artemision, namely the call architects and sculptors from outside the city .

Organisation socio-economic

Heir to the tradition of monarchy, the aristocracy had the Ephesian origin of the ownership and control of land assets of the city. These large families were managing the direction of the city and occupied the key positions of the organization, whether the various magistrates, intellectual professions or the various priesthoods.

Under cover of political reversals ^of the sixth century, namely the successive tyrannies and no less successive reversal, the aristocracy gradually lost its influence. She finds herself gradually dispossessed of his property, entrusted to their culture and the supply of the city to the peasants. Similarly, and in accordance with traditional pattern found throughout the Greek world, the aristocratic regime is replaced by the "institution" of democracy. However, having lost control "total" of the city, the class "aristocratic" nevertheless retains its powerful and prestigious, as well as some influence. Thus, the brotherhoods Curetes they are indicative of the mark of the aristocracy on the Ephesian society. These fraternities recruit exclusively in the great aristocratic families. In the same way as the hoplite would finance its own equipment, members of these brotherhoods were themselves pay the cost of purchasing and maintaining military equipment. Indeed, Curetes mainly function warrior. Faithful to the archetype of the good aristocrat, in doing so, the ideal Greek hero, exercise yards are masters in mastering the techniques of combat, which was before the transition to a democratic system, the strength and prestige of aristocracy. Unlike Athens, Ephesus, we are not witnessing a development of the heavy infantry. Not only will no massive contingent of Ephesus.

If the aristocracy is still present and somewhat influential, most of the Ephesian society is constituted by the categories "medium" whose members carry mostly professions called "liberal." Found at Ephesus a quantity of "small" businesses whose role is fundamental. Thus we find bakers. Valley Cayster is particularly suited for growing wheat. The city was in excess . Many riots related to changes in the price of this wheat took place.

The bakers were the responsibility of agoranome who was in charge of monitoring the agora. This public space was the nerve center of the city, first as a center "politics" of the city, which was meeting the people, but secondly, and perhaps even more pronounced in the case Ephesus, from its role as a center of trade. Located near the port , it was the space devoted to trade, whether the goods arriving in Ephesus, those who stood out, or those that the Ephesians were exchanged between them.

Due to the geographical location of Ephesus, the port occupies a prominent place in economic activity in the city. It was opened by a colossal statue of Poseidon . Ephesus had a number of textile workshops whose production exceeded domestic production while the little tradition. There are also hewers of wood and marble.

Finally, there are a large number of small artisans. The riot caused by the preaching of Saint Paul shows the influence of socio-professional group and its organization. Indeed, it is under the auspices of Demetrius, somehow their "leader" in fact, the richest and most recognized in the profession, they gathered to counter the preacher. We can ask what St. Paul actually annoyed the affairs of these professionals. The famous Demetrius mentioned was a silversmith who made small Artemision Silver and who was trade. Like him, most of the artisans of Ephesus was exploiting the image and reputation of the temple for their benefit. The questioning of Artemis by St. Paul, for his cult, and consequently his temple, is detrimental to these artisans, whose activity decreases gradually as the number of pilgrims is decreasing and the Ephesians themselves same turn away from Artemis. They are a privileged group within the city . The majority of craftsmen were attached to the temple and made a commercial. Their large numbers, making it a popular mass "unstable", requires the city and its administration, both in the classical period qu'hellnistique, to take them into account and to ingratiate them. This involves the granting of certain privileges and benefits such as tax breaks, which in some cases could be an exemption from contribution to public subscriptions which the City may be used. These artisans, as their name suggests, are at the border between artistic and commercial activities. They participate in both economic and cultural enrichment of the city. Downstream of the chain, are the traders who hold their stalls on the Agora ^, . The trade gave rise to the use of money .

Medical practice develops especially in the city. The development of medical schools and the growth of private medical practice and public can be attributed to cultural conditions met in the city. Intellectual crossroads, Ephesus was one of the cities for the development of healing practices. The same climate, related to the location of the city, is no stranger to this efflorescence. The development of medicine at Ephesus has implications both socially and economically. Indeed, the birth of medical schools led to the creation of a new social category in the city. Although much of the trained doctors leave the city at Ephesus, the community of "medical students" form a new caste. The rise of medicine at Ephesus dating from the mid ^sixth century. However, it was during ^the fourth century that we are witnessing a real structure of his teaching and his practice. Indeed, originally, therapy was the fact that isolated teachers, acting individually, sharing their acquired knowledge and accumulated experiences with both practical and theoretical. Ephesus is a renowned center for medical training. In any case, the quality that is recognized Soranus of Ephesus , who practiced in Rome in the ^third century AD. AD is the practitioner who was responsible for shaping the form of a treaty, gynecological techniques. The recruitment and assessment of doctors meet several requirements . Thus, it cares about their scientific level, with a competition involving four subjects: suntaymatos, probleatos, keirourgias organon and .

Religious life

Ephesia Artemis, Ephesus Museum in Selcuk ^(No. 718)

Religious life in Ephesus is organized around the classical Hellenic pantheon. However, the Ephesians worship more particularly to Asclepius and especially Artemis , tutelary deity of the city.

As in the rest of Anatolia , the Ephesian Artemis is not the huntress deity of mainland Greece, but a protective goddess of the city and its inhabitants . Most of the inscriptions found in Ephesus mention the goddess, whether for healing illness, protection of ephebes or extension of credit .

Artemis of Ephesus we are best known under the representation that is required during the ^second century BC. AD: a statue with legs together, stretched out her arms and wearing the chest ornaments resembling breasts, whose exact meaning is controversial. The most likely hypothesis is that of a statue originally very simple, perhaps a xoanon wood, which was covered with ornaments (veils, headdresses, etc..) - These were then integrated directly to representations Image of worship .

A number of other deities, mostly Egyptian, are also emerging with the expansion of the Greek world brought about by the conquests of Alexander the Great.

The Roman

Bronze medallion struck by Ephesus during the reign of Emperor Antoninus ( 138 - 161 AD. ) Law: Hercules and Iolaus

On the death of Attalus III in 133 , all possessions Attalid is under Roman control. Only Eumenes III continues to oppose what he sees as an annexation. After his final defeat in 130 , nothing will challenge the trusteeship of that part of the Roman Mediterranean world.

The officers of the Roman administration are then gradually introduced. Anatolia became a Roman province , under the direction of a proconsul , one of the residences was at Ephesus.

In 129 , a decree of the city, addressed to the Roman senate and found in excavations at the Capitol, said that the Ephesians thank him for offering him the libertas . This gratitude is an expression of gratitude to them vis--vis the removal of guardianship Attalid.

In -88 Vespers took place in Ephesus, episode where all Romans in Asia Minor were murdered - probably on the initiative of Mithridates VI , so as to bind it together with the Greeks in an irreversible way, since they had then to fear the vengeance of the Romans: in fact, it was the beginning of a war against the Romans, which lasted four years.

Late Antiquity

The city is not spared the problems affecting most of the Empire in the mid- ^third century : while its walls are crumbling because they have been maintained, and after being damaged by an earthquake , the city is severely affected in 262 under Emperor Gallienus a raid by sea of Ostrogoths and pirates Heruli : they pillaged and burned the Temple of Artemis, as the Historia Augusta and Jordanes , and probably other ravaged neighborhoods . The city is slowly recovering from this double catastrophe, as evidenced by the paucity of entries in the third quarter of the ^third century, and the apparent arrest of any new major dilitaire.

Government and politics

It was not until the reign of Diocletian , which restores the continued safety of the Empire and profoundly reform the institutions, to see the city enter into a new period of prosperity, which lasted three centuries, until the invasion Persian and Arabic. This is due to its strategic location on trade routes. The city remains an important port on the trade routes of eastern Mediterranean: in the section on sea routes in the edict of Diocletian maximum, three lead to Ephesus from Alexandria, Syria and the imperial capital, Nicomedia. This importance can not be denied after the founding of Constantinople , Ephesus remained a port of call on the road between the capital and Egypt. This central location is also the reason why the city was chosen for the meeting of two ecumenical councils in 431 and 449 .

Statue of the vicar and proconsul of Asia Stephanos Museum of Ephesus (Seluk).

In the administrative reorganization in the establishment Tetrarchy , Ephesus is a provincial capital, seat of the proconsul of Asia , but with a spring whose geographic scope has significantly decreased compared to the old senatorial province: the new province 'Asie s'tend en effet le long de la cte depuis Adramyttion jusqu'au Mandre et inclut dans l'arrire-pays la valle du Caystre ainsi que le territoire au Nord du Mandre. Le proconsul d'Asie, gouverneur et juge de dernire instance pour la province, occupe une place privilgie dans la hirarchie honorifique de l'administration impriale en raison du prestige attach au poste : il vient dans l'ordre de prsance directement aprs les prfets du prtoire et de la Ville , avant les vicaires diocsains . Parmi les titulaires connus du poste, on note la prsence de plusieurs hommes de lettres, tels les historiens Eutrope ( 371 - 372 ) et Festus ( 372 - 378 ) .

phse est galement une capitale ecclsiastique : son vque est mtropolite de la province d'Asie et jouit d'une influence en relation avec l'anciennet et le prestige de son glise. Les prtentions de la mtropole s'lever un rang comparable celui d' Antioche ou d' Alexandrie sont nanmoins dues au Concile de Chalcdoine en 451 , malgr l'appui du patriarche d' Alexandrie. Le mtropolite reoit le titre d'exarque du diocse d'Asie, et doit cder la premire place en Anatolie l'vque de Csare de Cappadoce. Le grand sige ecclsiastique rival de Smyrne gagne aussi son indpendance et est promu archevch autocphale ce mme concile .

La cit conserve ses institutions politiques pendant l'Antiquit tardive, bien qu'elles soient progressivement relgues au second plan par le rle croissant de l'administration impriale. Le Conseil ( ) et le Peuple ( ) sont ainsi toujours attests dans l'pigraphie du IV ^e sicle, avec des inscriptions en l'honneur des proconsuls ou de l'impratrice, jusque sous Thodose II. Le Conseil est toujours en activit en 431 , lorsque le comte Candidianus le convoque pour faire remplacer l'vque , une anecdote qui montre le rle de cette institution dans l'lection et la dposition des vques / Sup>. But the main task of the Council remains that of raising taxes, for which members are personally responsible. The tax burden is even heavier than the ranks of the advisors are cleared by their attempts to escape by entering the clergy. In 400 , the Church of Ephesus and is hit by a scandal that requires action and movement for investigation of the Patriarch of Constantinople , John Chrysostom , himself, the bishop Antoninus is accused of numerous financial wrongdoing, including the sale of the title of bishop to advisers wishing to escape the ranks of the Council and related tax obligations. Significantly, Candidianus convenes in 431, with counselors, honorati ( / axiomatiko), namely leaders, landowners who take de facto control of the management of public affairs of the city, alongside the governor and of Bishop .

The people met in assembly (ekklesia) in the theater, where the public proclamations are displayed, as in 431 the deposition by the Synod Nestorian Orthodox bishops of Alexandria Cyril and Memnon of Ephesus. In late antiquity, on the initiative of the governor or other authorities, such meetings shall carry out cheers that are the preferred means to convey the view popular in a relatively controlled . The alternative is indeed the popular uprising: the regulatory activity of proconsul of Asia to reduce disturbances, including possibly banning the carrying of arms , demonstrates the importance of this phenomenon. Religious quarrels are at that time the main occasion of trouble, judging by the conciliar acts 431 and 449, or the riots accompanying unpopular appointments to the episcopal see . The factions of the theater play a key role in organizing these events and the resulting riots may: Multiple entries in the area of the theater, place of business, reference is made in the Blues and the Greens support respective emperors Phocas and Heraclius in the early ^seventh century . In 441, it was in response to cheers from organized factions such as the proconsul Phlegetius decides to pardon to the citizens of Smyrna for an unknown complaint .

Another political institution survives at Ephesus, at least at the beginning of late antiquity, the Asian Koinon: This meeting brought together provincial representatives of eight cities in Asia bearing the title of metropolis. She was responsible for organizing the imperial cult , with games held in his honor. After the administrative reorganization of Diocletian, one Ephesus continues to host meetings of Koinon. Under Valens a law prescribes that the four cities that hold the title of metropolis must share the cost of games, which are no longer held at Ephesus every four years . These games, which were stripped of their previous pagan connotations, are organized by the high priest, elected by the citizens Koinon among the four cities, the Asiarque or by officials who alytarques. They are very expensive because they are specifically excluded from the Act 409 limit spending on civic games. Part of their funding may be provided by a grant from Imperial, but the bulk is still on the high priest. The exercise of this liturgy is a significant financial burden, which has its counterparts, since it guarantees the rank of senator in Asiarque, at least from 385 . The provincial assembly also plays a political role as an advisory body: composed of honorati the province, she was brought to debate public affairs, vote of thanks to the governors, as well as embassies to the emperor. Still operating under Julien , it is unclear exactly when she disappeared. While it is likely that games continue to be organized, because of their cost, in time, it is possible that the provincial assembly has survived longer, because of his new political role .

The development of Christianity

The origins of the Christian community

Called "House of Mary", or church of the Monastery of the Three Doors ( Monastiri Kapu).

Christianity is growing at Ephesus because of its close association with the apostolic history: the apostle Paul writes, for this community, his Epistle to the Ephesians. His church is a foundation of Timothy , a disciple of Paul of Tarsus : the saint's life, perhaps drawn from the ^fourth century, as the relics were transferred to Constantinople from 356 , describes his martyrdom on Embolos and his burial on Mount Pion, and construction of a martyrium in his honor. Tradition ready to close several of Christ their final residence in the city or its environs, beginning with John : The Apostle would have returned to Ephesus after the death of Emperor Domitian , and died there during the reign of Trajan to 100 - 101. The Book of the Apocalypse Ephesus mentions among the seven churches of Asia , which indicates the existence of an important Christian community at that time. John was buried on the hill Ayasuluk, but the identity of the deceased is being debated since the ^second century : it is whether the author of the Gospel is that of the Apocalypse, a common identity accepted but also challenged by Eusebius of Caesarea . The tomb of the apostle is in any case very early object of veneration, and a church comes monumentalize location from the ^fourth century in all probability (see below).

Shrine of Saint John with the platform over the site of the famous tomb of the apostle.

Under an erroneous interpretation of the Gospel of John, though belied by the text The popular legend is developing very early that the Apostle is not dead, but he is only sleeping in his grave, awaiting the Second Parousia of Christ. As seen from the sign of life by his breath that he would sweep the surface of his grave dust: to 416 , St. Augustine itself gives credence to the rumor, while Gregory of Tours says later, to the late sixth ^century , that this dust is called miraculous manna and used to heal the sick throughout the Christian world .

It is not only in Ephesus that John wrote his gospel , but the Virgin Mary , Christ on the cross had entrusted to his custody, allegedly lived. On a hill to 7 km south of Ephesus, a small Byzantine church of the ^thirteenth century , known as the " House of the Virgin Mary "(Meryemana Evi), would retain the memory of Marian stay, although this tradition can be traced back beyond the ^nineteenth century . But the presence of both John and Mary to Ephesus is recognized by the Church from the ^fifth century, since the acts of the council of 431 state that takes place in town where they resided . Stories on the residence of Mary Magdalene to go back as late antiquity: Gregory of Tours and the Patriarch of Jerusalem Modestus ( 630 - 634 ) relay this legend.

Persecution and the Legend of the Seven Sleepers

Apse of the Church of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus and Christian catacombs.

The history of the Christian community at Ephesus before the Peace of the Church is not very well known, although physical evidence (fragments of sarcophagi, inscriptions, cave shrine on the hill Bulbuldagi ) show progression to ^{Second and} third centuries. The Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople preserved the memory of many martyrs of the past persecution against Christians at the time, unknown elsewhere: St. Myrope under Decius , St. Porphyry mime under Aurelian , St. Andronicus, and his daughter Adauctus holy holy Callisthenes in the last great persecution under Diocletian.

It was also around 250 AD under the emperor Decius, the legend puts the early history of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus : A group of young people prosecuted for their Christian faith took refuge in a cave where they sleep and are walled by their persecutors. They wake up two centuries later, during the reign of Theodosius II , to 430 , and attract the attention of authorities for trying to use coins of the reign of Decius to buy food: the emperor himself visit the location of the miracle on the occasion of a pilgrimage to Ephesus . The miracle is interpreted as a foreshadowing of the resurrection of the dead . Many versions of the miracle move quickly in times Gregory of Tours and Paul Deacon in particular, but the first in Greek, is due to Bishop Stephen of Ephesus ( 448 - 451 ). The Grotto of Seven Sleepers presumed becomes a place of pilgrimage, visited especially to 530 by the pilgrim Theodosios , whose narrative, which provides an initial list of names of saints, is the oldest evidence provided on this legend and cult surroundings. Some historians have found part of the legend must have historical roots, particularly because of the circumstances of its appearance in one of the largest cities of the Empire , at a crucial moment in history of the Church, just before a general council. This story of young people presenting themselves as survivors of persecution was particularly welcome at a time when the controversy Origenist on the resurrection of the body raged . Martyriale a church is built probably during the reign of Theodosius II around the cave, and the great Christian necropolis that develops from the ^fourth century at least .

The Triumph of Christianity

Recognition of Christianity under Constantine does not immediately end the pagan cults that continue to be tolerated for much of the ^fourth century. The Artemision, roughly restored after its destruction by the Goths in 262 , probably continues to welcome the faithful of Artemis to the reign of Constantius II , even to the laws of Theodosius ^I impose Christianity as the official religion . The cult of Serapis is still alive ⁱⁿ the fourth century, judging by inscriptions, as well as the imperial cult: the Temple of Hadrian, restored under the Tetrarchy receives at the end of century dedication to Theodosius, the father of Emperor namesake. Nevertheless, paganism is in decline inexorable, as shown in the ruin of the temples of Rome, Caesar and Isis on the Upper Agora. The great temple often identified as a Srapiion still partly in ruins after the earthquake of 262.

Statue of Augustus with a cross, probably in the late ^fourth century.

The Christianization of the city takes a radical turn at the turn of the ^fourth and ^fifth century. Many traces of violence against pagan buildings reveal the existence of a genuine iconoclasm Christian. Artemis is the name of erasures on the baths of the port and in the portico before the Military Academy. Crosses are engraved on the front of statues of Augustus , of Livia , and others, for Christianity, when they are not simply destroyed and buried, as is the case at the Military Academy. The statue of Artemis, which marked the crossroads of two main streets are slaughtered and replaced by a monumental cross, accompanied by an inscription describing the Christianization symbolic triumph of urban space: "Demeas, after shooting down the misleading image of the devil Artemis raised this sign of truth. He honored God and idols that drives the Cross, the immortal symbol of the victorious Christ. " At this time, about 400 that the Olympian Zeus, the Temple of Hadrian deified, is systematically destroyed to its foundations and its sculptural decoration burned in lime kilns . The symbolic climax of the Christian iconoclasm occurred in 406 when John Chrysostom burn the image worship of Artemis .

Paganism, however, still survives as a private religion, in the city and in its hinterland. According to Pelusium Isidore (d. 435 ), Greeks (that is to say pagans) emerge from the ruins of the Temple of Artemis to revere, and "render divine honors to the graves and ashes pestiferous " . Under Justinian in 542 , John of Ephesus was sent on a mission to combat paganism in Asia Minor, he says have converted 80,000 in the provinces of Asia, Caria , of Phrygia and Lydia , where he built 89 churches and 12 monasteries founded. Although its action is probably mainly affected rural areas, an inscription of Sardis testifies as it passes through the towns .

In Ephesus itself, the triumph of Christianity is manifested first by a plethora of churches in the city, some of which are installed in buildings converted pagans to the Christian faith: this is the case of the southern stoa which Olympeion welcomes first Christian sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin for the Council of 431, quickly rebuilt to become the city's cathedral. The alleged Serapeion west of the agora is a church located in the cella of the temple probably from the late ^fourth century . A rotunda Roman on the lower slopes of Panayi dag, of unknown original function, is also transformed into a church rather late ^(fifth or ^sixth century - is known as fantasy "Tomb of St. Luke "due to first excavator, JT Wood (see below). The churches are also built from scratch: a martyrium then a basilica is built over the location that the local tradition ascribes to the tomb of the apostle John on the hill of Ayasuluk . cimtriale A basilica was probably founded early immediately north of the door of Magnesia , on the remains of the Hellenistic wall. Other churches would still exist, according to the testimony of the conciliar documents, as well as chapels private: the two great late Roman residences, the "Palace of the proconsul and the House portico above the theater were provided .

The councils of Ephesus

The importance of the Christian community at Ephesus is affirmed by the holding of two major councils in the city, metropolis of Asia, during the reign of Theodosius II, the ^3rd Ecumenical Council (known as Ephesus) in 431 , and the second council, known as the Catholic tradition as the Robbery of Ephesus in 449. Conciliar acts are an important source of religious and political history of the city.

Mosaic of the Virgin Theotokos, apse of Hagia Sophia (Constantinople) , 867.

The main purpose of the third ecumenical council, which opens June 22 431 in the newly established Church of Mary, is the settlement of the question of the nature of the Holy Trinity. It brings together about 150 participants at the first session , and opposes the Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius , a supporter of diophysisme to Cyril of Alexandria and Memnon of Ephesus , champions of the doctrine Monophysite. Memnon mobilizes the people to support Cyril and Nestorius attempt to intimidate: the rioters around his home, interrupting a meeting he held with his supporters, churches were closed to him . The imperial representative, the Earl of domestic Candidianus rather in favor of Nestorius, involves the troops to protect him and intimidate his opponents in turn: it forbids followers of Cyril to attend sittings of the council and shall endeavor to vote for the deposition of Memnon. The beginning of the council is still unfavorable to the cause Nestorian since Cyril manages to be laid Nestorius: the crowd of Ephesians ushering the winner in a triumphal procession to his home at night. It is the triumph of the Alexandrian theology, the interpretation of the doctrine of Cyril's Christological Council of Nicaea : in his view, humanity and divinity of Christ are united in a hypostatic union. An important consequence is the long-term recognition to the Virgin Mary as the Theotokos , "Mother of God", that is to say not only the man Jesus, but Jesus as he is recognized by Christians as "true God and true man." The Pelagianism is also condemned as heresy.

But the arrival of the bishop of Antioch , John , an opponent of Cyril, has changed that, he held a session of the council and makes rival condemn the Alexandrians. The emperor comes to his turn, condemns both parties and their leaders is put under arrest, and under house arrest in their homes. The bishops complain about the heat and probably suffering from malaria , an interesting testimony about the unhealthiness of the lowlands of the city . According to Cyril, several members of the council even die during their stay. The closing session of the council involves a brief schism following the dispute between John and Cyril, who are reconciled in 433. But Nestorianism is defeated in the first great ecumenical council ^of the fifth century .

The population of Ephesus continues to play a major role in church affairs in subsequent years as the mass of maneuver for rioters to serve one or the other faction of the Church. In 443 , Bishop of Olympius Theodosiopolis is forcibly taken to the church where he must proceed under duress at the ordination of the new bishop of Ephesus, Bassianus. The election is being questioned at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 , Bassianus was introduced, and a new bishop is appointed to the metropolis of Asia, John. But as the Council Fathers had feared the arrival of Jean causing riots in the population loyal to Bassianus .

The Evangelist John writing to the churches of Ephesus and Smyrna, Bamberg Apocalypse, circa 1000.

In the meantime, from August 8 to 22 449 , has held a second council at Ephesus , called by the Emperor Theodosius II, to settle the case of the Abbot Eutyches , condemned by the patriarch of Constantinople Flavian for teaching that Christ had only a nature after the incarnation. The dominant figure in the debates is now again a patriarch of Alexandria, Dioscorus , which has the support of the crowd Ephesian and monks to rehabilitate Eutyches and file Flavien physically threatening recalcitrant bishops . The agreement negotiated sixteen years earlier by John of Antioch and Nestorius is challenged and the doctrine Monophysite Eutyches emerges strengthened. But representatives of the Pope of Rome, Leo ^I failed to be heard, it refuses to recognize the council as legitimate. Two years later, a new ecumenical council at Chalcedon , just cancel the proceedings of the Second Council of Ephesus, now named in the Roman Catholic tradition as Latrocinium or Robbery of Ephesus .

Despite the unflattering reputation that give the events of 449, the Church of Ephesus continues to weigh a heavy weight at the end of Late Antiquity. During the reign of Justinian, in 531 until his death in 541 , the holder of the metropolitan see is Hypatius , one of the most influential bishops of the era and one of the leaders of the orthodox party in the fight against the Monophysite: he chairs conference convened by the emperor in Constantinople in 531 to resolve this conflict, then it is the voice of Orthodox Bishops in the Council of Constantinople in 536 , where the Monophysite Severus and convicted. Justinian sent in the interval, in 533 , on a diplomatic mission to Rome to Pope John II . It was probably under his episcopacy and through his influence that the construction of the great church of St. John the Theologian (see below) is initiated in the suburbs of Ephesus. A long inscription in the narthex of the church of the Virgin ascribed: it organizes the burial of the poor for free .

Byzantine Empire

The decline in urban ^{seventh-eighth} centuries

The Arab invasions and their consequences

Persecution of the gate called St. John of Ephesus, fortified gate of the medieval citadel.

The prosperity of the ancient city late ends, like all cities in Asia Minor, the ^seventh century , by the combined effects of several factors. A major earthquake struck the city around 614 mainly rich and destroyed houses in terraces on the Embolos . The ruins are quickly abandoned and filled to make way for later constructions function radically different - probably warehouses. It is possible that invasions Persian , which in 616 had reached Sardis and the west coast of Asia Minor, have also played a role in this decline. But the disaster of the first quarter of the ^seventh century is more indicative of the rapid decline of the ancient urban civilization later than it is the root cause: the inability to reconstruct, at least on the same scale, buildings destroyed on this occasion reveals a change in social attitudes and policies in conjunction with a local shrinkage of the economy, probably already hard hit by the pandemic of 542.

The chronic insecurity ^of the seventh century participates fully these phenomena: the Arabs led the first attempt against Constantinople from 654 - 655 , which if it fails to take the capital, leading to return the bag of Ephesus, Smyrna and Halicarnassus . The first great siege of Constantinople between 674 and 678 fleets by Mu `awiyah probably comes as new attacks against the cities of Asia Minor including Ephesus, even if not specifically mentioned in the narrative sources. It's the same for the general Arab assault 716 - 717 through Asia Minor under the direction of Maslama : if Ephesus did not perhaps been the victim directly, in contrast to Pergamum and Sardis example, the devastation caused by the repeated raids of the Arabs still had no less destructive effects on the urban economy. In 781 , a new attack leads to a brief occupation, enslavement and deportation of 7,000 people in the city. A final raid Arabic 798 threatens the city, but it is not certain that it was taken on this occasion .

If the threat disappears almost Arabic for Asia Minor from the ^mid-ninth century because of the Byzantine military reorganization and internal dissension caliphate , Ephesus still suffer further military incursions: the Paulicians plaguing the empire in year 860 under the leadership of their chief Chrysocheir take effect in the city in 868 . Genesios Chrysocheir reports that used the Church of St. John as a stable for his horses .

Sarcophagus reused for the door of Persecution.

The most visible consequence of insecurity, the depopulation and economic decline is the shrinking of the city on an urban area greatly reduced, again defended by a rampart. This fortification is located on both summits Panayirda to the port building on the theater and shops encroaching on the Arkadian the south and along the gymnasium Vedius Olympian Zeus and the North : most of the residential and civic center of the ancient city is abandoned and, outside of this chamber, a process well documented in other cities of that era, such Athens and Corinth. Significantly too, the Church of Mary and the "palace of the proconsul" are found within the walled area. The construction of the wall is badly dated: an inscription found in replacement in a chapel on the Panayirda only mentions the construction of a kastellin it is likely. Dating refortification usually given for this is the ^seventh or ^eighth century, from the perspective of a building to protect the city against Arab raids . Within this small fortified major ancient monuments are abandoned and covered by habitat poor construction, made largely of reused as is the case on Arkadian, abandoned at the floor of the stage theater, or even above the ruins of the gymnasium of the port .

The importance at this time by the Church of St. John, where the episcopal seat was transferred after the sack of 654-655, is manifested by the construction of a fortified hill on separate Ayasoluk intended to protect Cathedral and the residential neighborhood that has been developed between the church and the door, and further north. The hill is therefore the second pole of the Planning Ephesian who gradually supplants the first remote almost more than a kilometer . The second speaker knows at least two phases, the timing remains uncertain. It includes in its first state of many spolia from ruined buildings of the ancient city, and the stage Artemision particular. The southern gate flanked by two towers, first square and then reinforced with a pentagonal plan to an unspecified date, and is topped by several fragments including fragments of carved sarcophagus with the pagan iconographic theme of Achilles at Skyros : it a contradiction of the first passengers on the meaning of this scene showing an armed man running down the middle of young women that the door is named Gate of Persecution .

A new administration Byzantine

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Bema of the church of St. John in the foreground and Turkish citadel in the background.

In the administrative reorganization that follows the abandonment of the Egyptian and Syrian provinces and the withdrawal of the Byzantine Empire over Anatolia, Ephesus retains a leading role. It belongs to the first issue of Anatolian , the most important of these new provinces created military and civilian in the second half of the ^seventh century as a basis for recruitment and financing to the army and divided into several territories. The military power of this theme enables the strategist who command 714 to seize power in Constantinople under the name of Leo III . This area became the subject of Thracsiens , named probably after the origin of the military units stationed there . Among the twenty cities that contains the theme, Ephesus is the most important, but for strategic reasons - proximity to roads leading to the main theater of operations which is the eastern border - the capital is more likely Chona . Ephesus is nonetheless described as "the first city in Asia" in the list of topics compiled by Constantine VII to 933 ^, . This name is not the only anachronistic difficulty with this source on the administrative status of the city, because she appears again as tourmaline theme Naval Samos , which is based strategist at Smyrna , assisted by a Another tourmarque to Adramyttion: either the coastal cities of the region are then detached from the topic of Thracsiens to be aggregated at maritime theme because of their importance as a naval bases or, and this interpretation generally accepted, the authority of the strategist of Samos is limited to sailors and ships based in these ports, while the cities, their territory and even ground troops (especially horsemen, according to the testimony of Constantine VII) that are placed within the garrison strategist Thracsiens . This dual jurisdiction ceases with the dissolution of the fleet theme of Samos ⁱⁿ the eleventh century, while the theme of Thracsiens is still attested in connection with Ephesus in 1143 and from 1200

As a port city and the largest theme Thracsiens, Ephesus is home to several provincial governments. But in the sources from the ^eighth century , it was under the name Hagios Theologos ( ) theologo, later transformed to the Ottoman period by poor pronunciation Ayasoluk, the medieval city and his administration displayed: is found on a seal paraphylax (the commander of the fortress built to protect the cathedral), on another of Archon dated ^eighth or ^ninth century, on the even of a drongaire Naval IX ^century . The ancient name of Ephesus survives but seems reserved for use by the central government and ecclesiastical , where he remains probably used by archaic assignment.

Ephesus is the office of Customs main Asia and other former provinces of Caria , the Lycian and some Aegean islands: a commerciaire is based . The tax administration is represented by a dioikts of gnikon , and Oikonomos responsible for overseeing the financial affairs of the church. Presumably headquarters of a tourmaline Thracsiens, Ephesus also hosts a detachment of the administration theme, military (the tourmarque ) and civilian (a notary ), some characters are attested by the seals .

The role of the church and the pilgrimage of Saint-Jean

Eulogy bulb representing an evangelist, probably John, Ephesus, ^sixth century.

One of the most famous makers of the theme is Lachanodrakn Michel , who is many years at the helm. Appointed by Constantine V in 766 , during the iconoclastic crisis , it is distinguished by the zeal with which he led the crackdown against monks iconophiles Asia, who are spearheading the opposition to the imperial religious policy. In 770 , he gathered all the monks and nuns in the theme of Thracsiens tzykasnistrion of Ephesus, the facts of white dress and forced the monks to take a wife on pain of death, and many refuse to become martyrs for the cause iconophile. It continues the persecution of monks by selling the monasteries in the area with all their possessions, including crockery and liturgical sacred books, and forbidding anyone to receive the tonsure. According to Theophanes the Confessor , a source iconophiles very friendly, there were more monks throughout the province due to its action . Lachanodrakn strategist Thracsiens rest at least until 782 when he won in this theme, Darnos an overwhelming victory against the Arab army of Harun ar-Rashid .

Although the persecution conducted by Lachanodrakn leaves no doubt about the existence of large monastic communities even to Ephesus, one monastery is documented in the literature to that time where he retired as a monk Emperor Theodosius III after abdication he is buried in the church of St. Philip . The Synaxarion Constantinople records the existence of two martyrs iconophiles the reign of Leo Isaurian , Hypatius, suffragan bishop of a place unknown to Ephesus, and Andreas, a priest . But the iconoclastic political supporters are also in the Ephesian church: Bishop Theodosius, son of the Emperor Tiberius III (698-705), is the time of Constantine V one of the leaders of the party iconoclast. He presides over this track, along with bishops Sisinnios Pastillas of Perga and Basil of Pisidia , the first iconoclastic council of Hireia in 754 .

The church of Ephesus therefore maintains its influence during this period, probably in connection with the pilgrimage which goes to St. John the Theologian and the Apostle's tomb, the graves of Mary and Mary Magdalene, and the Cemetery of the Seven Sleepers, and guarantees an influx of travelers in the city: witness the story of the pilgrim Anglo-Saxon Willibald who stopped at Ephesus in goal during his trip to the Holy Land, 721 . It probably also stimulates the local economy: the feast day of St. stands a great annual fair, the hymns. The chronicler Theophanes reported that during a visit to Ephesus, in 794 / 795 , Emperor Constantine VI grant in favor of the Church of St. John of discount kommerkion , which here means the tax on the fair for a value of 100 pounds (or 7200 nomismata ) : This shows the large amount of return business significantly to the late eighth ^century This statement must however be tempered by the near absence of coins from excavations dating from this period , evidence of a sharp decline in the cash economy that persists until the late ninth ^century .

Renewed unrest in the late eleventh ^century

The period of prosperity and security enjoyed by Ephesus since ^the ninth century ends shortly after the defeat of the Byzantines against the Turks Seljuks to Mantzikert and their rapid increase in Anatolia in the following years, facilitated by the Byzantine civil war. From 1080 a sultanate of Turkey is established in Nicaea as independent states were created in the ephemeral Byzantine provinces of the West: the emirate's maritime Tzachi that controls a territory equivalent in part to the theme of Samos since 1081 , and one created by Anne Comnenus by a Tangripermes Tengribirmish or around Ephesus to 1090. It was not until 1,096 - in 1097 for the cons-Byzantine offensive in Asia Minor, aided by the passage of the Crusaders , including re-establish the imperial authority: after again Smyrna, defeated John Doukas Tengribirmish to Ephesus, he left under the command a duke, Petz .

The Turkish threat does not disappear, however, due to the creation of a sustainable Turkish state in the highlands of central Anatolia, the sultanate of Iconium. Crusaders of the Second Crusade make themselves experience in 1147 , when they take the road to the coast, Pergamon , Smyrna and Ephesus, because the interior is in the hands of the Turks. German crusaders first arriving in Ephesus, where they were joined by the French under the command of Louis VII. During their stay in the city, one of the leaders of the expedition, Count Guy II of Ponthieu was killed and buried in a church, which could be St. John. Shortly before Christmas, the French make an exit in Valley Cayster in the hinterland of Ephesus where they successfully fought a Turkish party, before continuing their advance into the valley of the Meander .

After the disaster of Myriokephalon where Manuel Comnenus was defeated by the Turks in 1176 , the central and eastern Anatolia is permanently lost, which increases uncertainty in the coastal provinces: before the inability of the imperial authority to defend, several regions are more or less openly secession in late twelfth ^century, taking advantage of the additional confusion caused by the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and the Latin conquest of the Byzantine Empire. Ephesus does not appear to have belonged to one of them, when in 1206 it recognized the authority of Theodore Lascaris , founder of the empire of Nicaea .

The economic and financial difficulties of the Empire forced Alexius Comnenus to grant broad trade privileges to the Republic of Venice in exchange for their military support naval: the chrysobull of 1082 gives total exemption from the Venetians kommerkion in a series of ports, among which include Ephesus. These privileges were confirmed in 1148 and soon spread to other Italian cities: in 1261 , Michael Palaeologus granted the Genoese favorable treatment in his quest for support for the reconquest of Constantinople. It allows them to establish colonies in the main commercial ports of the Empire, Ephesus, two nationals Genoese gravestones dated 1284 and 1293 have been found in the Church of St. John .

The end of Byzantine rule

The reconquest of Constantinople in 1261 involving a change in military priority, defense of the capital now outweighs that of the Asian territories of the Empire of Nicaea. The result is a rapidly deteriorating military situation in the provinces of Asia Minor: the rot is lost as early as 1260, despite an expedition of John Palaeologus in 1269 , and since the Meander valley, the Turks threaten the rear Country of Ephesus, Miletus and Cayster Valley. At least a day's march of the Turks, Ephesus is therefore practically on the border of the Empire . One of the generals sent against the Turks, Alexis Philanthropnos , is Duke 's theme Thracsiens in 1293 , led a successful campaign in the Meander Valley in 1295 , before rebelling against the Emperor Andronicus II and attempt to establish in the region its own independent state: Ephesus in part because it is in the fortress that imprisons Theodore, the brother of Andronicus sent to end his rebellion . Philanthropnos was arrested and blinded shortly after December 25, 1295 .

Andronicus II then says the fight against the Turkish mercenaries from the Catalan Company , who arrive in the region of Ephesus in the spring of 1304 : Roger de Flor and his troops are staying and some time in Ephesus and are victorious against the Turks premises. These successes notwithstanding any price, because the Catalan mercenaries do not hesitate to pay the liberated areas. Ephesus account with Philadelphia among the cities and Pyrgion victims of their atrocities . Significantly, there is never mention of Byzantine troops in the stories of these operations: the Turkish threat reappears immediately so that Great company leaves the area, recalled to Constantinople in the late summer of 1304.

On 24 October 1304 Sasa Bey, a lieutenant of the clan Mentee , Turks, Oghuz who settled in Caria and the Meander Valley, captured in Ephesus, having gradually taken control of Valley Cayster since the spring, despite the interlude Catalan. The Church of St. John is sacked, part of the city's population was deported in the walled city and the rest of Thyraea massacred. Ephesus finally escapes to the Byzantine Empire, despite an attempt to win back a few years later.

Sasa Bey early entry into conflict with his former ally, the Emir of Aydn , and even allied with the speaker of the Christian, but he is quickly defeated. His field, around the valleys of the Meander and Cayster, then passes into the hands of the emirate of Aydn.

Emirate of Aydn

Pentagonal tower of Byzantine wall in the foreground and Turkish citadel in the background.

After decades under the direct Turkish threat, the city of Ephesus is probably in a state of decline when it finally passes forward under the control of the house of Aydn , Mehmet possession as the son of the founder of the dynasty, between 1308 and 1325 about . An indication of the economic difficulties is the bartered in 1307 , reported by the mercenary Catalan Ramon Muntaner , three precious relics of the city against the grain: a fragment of the True Cross , a woven shirt and a copy of the Virgin manuscript of the Apocalypse of John . Saint Sabas the Younger confirms the account of his pilgrimage of Mount Athos in Jerusalem to 1310 the desolation of the city .

The return of prosperity

However, it is part of Ephesus as a naval force of 29 ships and 2,600 men on 23 July 1319 to attack Chios , a sign that the city keeps port capacity and is an important base of Mehmet. The fleet in question was destroyed by the Knights of Rhodes , but Ephesus for a time became a base of piracy against the Turkish Aegean: the banner Ayasoluk - a black wheel on a red field - is then a sign of terror to the neighboring Christian states .

The Emir Mehmet sharing gradually principality between his son and is the eldest, Hizir, belongs Ephesus in 1325 : he governs until his death in 1360 or so, first under the suzerainty of his father , then under that of his younger brother Umur Bey , who inherited the supreme power on the death of Mehmet in 1334. In 1348 , the death of Umur Hzr left sole master of the emirate, he governs from Ayasoluk, instead of the previous capital Birgi .

During this period, the city finds a prosperous commercial traffic through port, which has problems from the nearby port of Smyrna, whose control is still played by Christians and Turks. Many travelers reflect this adjustment: Ibn Battuta visited the town in 1333 and leaves a laudatory description of his great mosque, which is outside the Church of St. John converted to the Muslim faith . He said he paid 40 dinars of gold a young Greek slave market in the city. The well preserved and still impressive aspect of St. John are also confirmed by Western travelers Wilhelm von Boldensele in 1335 , and Ludolf von Suchem in 1336 or 1341 . The first indicates that Christians were killed or expelled and their churches destroyed with the exception of St. John, transformed into a mosque, while the second was that the Emir is paying for the pilgrims reach the tomb of the apostle. Part of the church at that time was converted into a covered market. Moreover, the old town is completely abandoned.

The existence of a Christian minority in the city and its surroundings is shown by the epistolary writings of Matthew: member of the Archbishop of Ephesus from 1329 to 1351 , it was not until 1339 that he joined his mother After a detour to convince Smyrna, with great difficulty, Umur give him permission to do so. In his letters, Matthew confirms that the Church of St. John was converted into a mosque and market. He asked in vain to Hizir its return and that of the episcopal residence and land holdings of the Church, and grant only sees a small house near the mosque. For the diocese of Asia, it has only six priests and the Christian community is reduced to slaves as well as priests or monks of the region .

Gigliato of Robert of Anjou (1310) imitated by the type of mint Ayasoluk / Aydn.

The commercial importance of Altoluogo , the name under which the merchants Italians know Ephesus at this time appears in the manual banker Florentine Francesco Balducci Pegolotti , La Pratica della Mercatura , written around 1330. The main products sold by the Italians are the dyes for wool Florentine, the blue , the vermilion , the emeralds and pistachios. They buy back the alum , said in Altoluogo, but actually comes from Ktahya in the emirate of Germiyan , cereals, rice, beeswax and hemp. Imports are not taxed, except soap and wine, but exports are subject to a customs duty of 4%, down 2% for wax . The port in which these exchanges are not even in Ayasoluk, a fortress in the interior, nor in the silted up and abandoned the ancient city, but the site of ancient Panormos , nearly 6 km west of the city. It was here that the Italian merchants had established a small town, whose position near the mouth of Cayster, allowed to enjoy the river traffic for the transport of certain goods . The location of this port, which some vestiges remain, in particular the tower acting as a beacon on the hill overlooking, is famous for its references to portolans , textbooks navigation Italian in use between the ^thirteenth and ^fifteenth century, which appears constantly Ephesus.

To facilitate trade with the Italians, the emirs hit currency imitating types monetary Latin: the silver coins, first minted in Ephesus since antiquity, are imitations of gigliati of Robert of Anjou ( in 1309 - one thousand three hundred forty-two ). They are entitled to a king enthroned and on the reverse a cross, with a caption stating Theologos as a place of strikes . A gold coin is also produced in small quantities on the right a picture of John with the caption S. Iohannes, and reverse a lily and the words THEOLOGOS.

The fight with the Latins

Maritime robbery of two brothers from Smyrna and Umur Hzr Ayasoluk since, on the shores of the Aegean, western military has a reaction that takes the form of a first crusade in 1332. Led by the Venetians, she won a decisive naval victory in 1334 that allows Venice Aydn impose a treaty very favorable to business interests: she gets the freedom of commerce, a consul , a church and land for its merchants .

This setback did not slow down the activities of naval Umur that is increasingly sought by the Emperor John VI Cantacuzino to speak with him in the Byzantine civil war in 1342. Its fleet Ayasoluk overwinters in 1 343 - 1,344 after an expedition to Thrace and the Aegean. Venetian colonies having particularly suffered from these raids, the Republic allied powers in 1343 to other Latin while Pope Clement VI proclaimed a crusade against the Turks. Latin forces took the fortress port of Smyrna that year. Umur folds Ayasoluk / Altoluogo where he received the envoys in Latin in 1344 , without result. The war continues and Umur dies there in 1348 in an abortive attempt to take over the citadel of Smyrna .

Hizir is forced to negotiate a treaty with very unfavorable terms: he must deliver half the income of the customs of Ephesus and other ports, renounce piracy, given to the archbishops of Ephesus and Smyrna churches , land and income, allowing Latin powers to appoint consuls in its territories with jurisdiction and right protection of their countrymen, give free access to Christian ships in its ports. The application of such a treaty would have ensured the Latins trade and economic domination in Ephesus and other cities of the emirate, but discord among the victors that it remains a dead letter. Hzr can reconstitute the fleets of the emirate and from 1350 piracy resumed . The terms of the treaty show that trade with the emirate and in particular the port of Ephesus is important for the Latins and Venice in particular.

Hzr profiting from the war of 1351 - 1352 between Genoa and Venice in the first game against the latter. It promotes the Genoese merchants and ships to counter the influence of Venetian: Genoa established a consulate in Altoluogo / Ayasoluk those years and retains at least until 1394. Venice eventually do the same in 1358 because of the importance of the commercial port with Crete.

The climax in Isa Bey

Isa Bey Mosque Ayasoluk (1375).

With the death of Hzr in 1360 , succeeding his brother Isa Bey, who ruled the emirate for thirty years until the advent of the Ottoman Empire. During this period, Ayasoluk continues to be an important trading port from Venice and Genoa, including the importation of grain and alum. A treasure of 2000 silver coins, especially Naples and Rhodes, as well as some imitations Turkey, dated to 1370 and found near the ruins of the temple of Artemis, shows the wealth of some people - probably a local merchant in the case - of Ayasoluk .

The construction of a large mosque in the western hill Ayasoluk, the first major public monument (excluding the walls) to be built in Ephesus since late antiquity, is another sign of prosperity. Built on the plans of an architect of Damascus , the mosque was inaugurated on 30 January 1375. Its impressive size (57 x 51 m) is confused with the Church of St. John by some reviewers . Isa Bey and his wife, Azize Hatun, increasing charitable foundations and buildings in the city and its surroundings.

The Church of St. John and the necropolis of the Seven Sleepers continue to attract pilgrims as evidenced Latin graffiti in these places, dated respectively 1347 and 1381 , and 1351 and 1362 . But the Orthodox Church itself is in deep decline in the territory of the emirate, to such extent as the Synod of Constantinople in January 1368 relates to the Bishop of Ephesus Birgi that, because of financial difficulties they experience and to try to strengthen the archdiocese. Another similar measure enacted in 1387 , with the connection to all the churches of Ephesus which had previously been subordinated and had been able to be separated .

In 1390 , Sultan Bayezid ^I. began to extend its domination over the independent emirates in Asia Minor and receives the submission of Isa Bey Ayasoluk. This keeps the possession of some territories, but the fortress of Ayasoluk now under Ottoman control .

Ottoman Empire

The first governor of Aydn and therefore Ephesus is the eldest son of Bayezid, Sleyman appointed in 1390 , but leaves his place from 1392 to his brother Ertogrul to go govern Sivas. Ertogrul, whose passing has left few traces in the literature, apart from the receipt of the tribute paid by Genoese Chios in 1398 , died about 1400. Sleyman found then control Aydn . Probably worried by the prospect of a succession struggle with his many brothers who would follow the death of Bayezid, he negotiated in advance with the Venetians in return for exemption from customs duties on exports from Ephesus, except for grain , wood and horses. Venetians Genoese had previously taken, upon taking control of the region by the Ottomans, the necessary measures to ensure their commercial interests.

Timur and the eclipse of the Ottoman power in Anatolia

The conquest of Mongolia is, however, upset the situation and stop the progression Ottoman Anatolia for several decades. Some Turkish emirs dispossessed by Bayezid indeed not hesitate to ally himself with Tamerlane , who just won in 1401 a resounding success in Aleppo and Baghdad , and urge him to intervene in Anatolia. The Mongol army crushed the Ottomans at the Battle of Ankara on 28 July 1402 , and Bayezid was taken prisoner. Tamerlane then leads his army to the Asian coast, by the Meander Valley. In late autumn 1402 , he took Ephesus while part of the Turkish people preferred to flee his lead and take refuge with the Venetians at Samos. After taking Smyrna in December of that year, and having massacred the Christian population, Timur overwinter in Ephesus, where he established a rallying point for its general . He left it permanently in the spring, but not before the Turkish emirs restored to their former principalities.

The burning of the village showing Bruyn Ayasoluk with Isa Bey Mosque and the Citadel in 1732.

Musa is the son of Isa Bey died in the meantime, which inherits from Ephesus, but died in turn quickly, and in 1403 , his brother U Wall II succeeded him. Confusion reigns over the campaigns of Tamerlane, the civil war between the son of Bayezid, benefits an adventurer, Cneyd, nephew Isa, who gathered an army around Smyrna, where his brother Hasan had been governor, and s' Ephesus seizes the same year. He persuaded Sleyman Bey to support and Hasan appointed governor of Ephesus . Hasan, however, resists the citadel until the fall, before traveling and being taken captive in Marmaris. Umur and regain control of its capital in ruins, but it is threatened following winter when the Cneyd turn besieged in the citadel and pillaged the area. The conflict was finally settled by negotiation, when Cneyd agrees to marry the daughter of Umur and share power with him. It does not take long to have him assassinated only to preserve the principality .

While the son of Bayezid also continue to dispute the power Cneyd abandons his former patron for his brother Sleyman elebi Mehmed. Sleyman reply in September 1407 by launching a campaign against Ephesus, where Cneyd is supported by the emirs of Germiyan and Karaman. Cneyd prefers to submit to Sleyman who thus takes control of Ephesus and lived there for many months. Cneyd exile in Ohrid , Sleyman appointed as governor of a Serbian town. The disappearance of Sleyman in 1411 Cneyd provides the opportunity to return to Ephesus, he recapture. It then passes to keep the price of its bid to Mehmet Celebi: a mint of money to hit effigies of the two sovereigns reflects their agreement . The arrangement was short lived because, as the emirate's trade Aegean threat by his acts of piracy, Mehmet elebi decided to end it with him and attack again in 1414. Defeated again, Cneyd resumed the road to exile, to command on the border Danube to Nicopolis , and Ephesus receives a Christian governor, Michael son of Tsar of Bulgaria Ivan Shishman. Michel finds death to 1419 in an attempt to quell a heretical movement that had developed in the region of Karaburun west of Smyrna: their army under the leadership of Mustafa Brklce preacher is finally defeated by the young son of Mehmed, the future Sultan Murad II. Captured Brklce Mustafa was taken to Ephesus where he was crucified. The civil war following the death of Mehmed in 1421 provides a final opportunity to attempt a return Cneyd: he raises an army near Izmir and Ephesus returned triumphantly in 1422. His final journey to power last two years: In April 1424 , with the encouragement of the Venetians in the war against the Ottomans, he confronts them to Thyateira and suffered a crushing defeat. After unsuccessfully attempting to continue the struggle, he eventually get to the new governor of Ephesus named by Murad, Halil Bey Yahsi, who enforces and sends his head to the Sultan in spring 1425. His death puts an end to more than two decades of civil war during which Ephesus changed hands more than a dozen times.

A small provincial town Ottoman

The coasts of northern Aegean on the map of Piri Reis (1521).

If the final integration of Ephesus in the Ottoman Empire restores peace to a region hit hard for a quarter of a century, it also marks the end of its progressive political and commercial supremacy. Aydn principality is divided into two provinces under the Ottomans, one for inland around Aydn, and the other Coast, the Sancak acronyms, which belongs to the eyalet Cezaire of Bahr-i Sefid-i, the "province of the Mediterranean islands." The latter includes Ephesus, Smyrna, Miletus and Karaburun. Ephesus there keep a small administrative role as a kaza, seat of a qadi , a judge at the head of local administration.

During the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror ( one thousand four hundred fifty-one - in 1481 ), the description of the fief of Ishak Pasa, the Beylerbeyi Anadolu, provides an estimate important demographic for the city divided into 14 districts, while it has 481 houses in total, is probably around 2000 inhabitants. Three quarters are occupied by Christians with 73 houses, around 300 people may be living around the citadel and around the aqueduct. These figures are consistent with the Ottoman archives, including tax records, which reflect relative population growth in the ^sixteenth century .

In the ^fifteenth century , the city still retains some commercial importance: it is a document cited by Venetian 1446 as a trading port with Murad II, and continues to appear in portolan this time. But the gradual silting of the last port that eventually causes the movement of business toward Scalanova ( Kusadasi ) and Izmir . Significantly, the Kitab- Bahriye , a collection of charts of Turkish Piri Reis in 1521 mentions it as a place in ruins.

Maintaining a business is also indirectly evidenced by the existence of a workshop of coining, which produced a coinage of silver and copper, respectively dated 1431 and 1421 under Murad II and Mehmed II throughout of his reign. General oversight of operations and financial responsibility of the local Cadi. The operation of this workshop also appeared in several measures of Mehmed II in 1455 , an inspector is sent to Ayasoluk and other cities with a workshop for law enforcement on reservations metal bullion and coins withdrawn from circulation, which must be confiscated. Another law of 1470 on the purchase price of money and the legal relationship between the mass of precious metal and the number of coins minted Ayasoluk mentioned in the list of imperial mints .

The first century of Ottoman rule saw a continuation, on a smaller scale, public construction activity. Governor Yahsi Bey gave the city a new mosque and a madrassa . Other mosques are added during the ^fifteenth and the early fifteenth ^century. It lists 14 mosques in Ayasoluk, 5 or 6 baths and several mausoleums in the early twentieth ^century, and the majority of these buildings were dated to the first part of the Ottoman Empire .

Early travelers witnessed the decline of Ayasoluk

Map Count Choiseul-Gouffier showing the remains of Ephesus and Ayasoluk, and the port silted up.

When the first passengers arrive in Ephesus in the ^seventeenth century , first in the prospect of visiting ancient ruins, they find the city in deep decline. The most interesting description of the Ottoman city is due, not surprisingly, Evliya elebi , a Turkish traveler of the mid-seventeenth ^century, whose primary interest was not the ancient city: the city was a kaza of little importance, provided with a garrison in the citadel of 40 soldiers commanded by a colonel of cavalry. The fort has 40 towers and two iron gates. It has 20 houses and a mosque. The streets are paved. The lower part of the fortifications in ruins, but the Gate of Persecution is still in place and to admire its ancient sculptures. Outside the walls lies the village of Ayasoluk where the majority of the population, in a hundred houses, with 20 shops, a mosque, a bath and a caravanserai. Evliya contrast with this state capital moved from the city, which he describes as having had 300 baths, 7 markets, 700 stone houses, 20,000 shops, 800 mosques and 3000 big small, 200 medrese, 1500 and thousands of schools dwellings. This is naturally of imaginary numbers, but they show the impression of deep decline that the author feels. Evliya elebi also leaves a vivid admiration and also exaggerated the Mosque of Isa Bey, he does not hesitate to look at Hagia Sophia . It leaves, however, little information on the ancient site.

Population decline leads to the decrease of cultivated land and fallow the return of the region around the city, which, added to silting continuous product extension marshes that are no longer drained. Malaria is endemic and unhealthy region, exacerbating the decline. Part of the country is now occupied by nomads .

European travelers after and sometimes before Evliya make the same observations on poverty and ruin Ayasoluk. Chishull to note the remains in 1699 from five or six mosques. In the years 1720 , Thompson estimated that 40 to 50 the number of houses in the village. The citadel, however, continues to be maintained and concentrated until the early ^eighteenth century the majority of the Turkish population. At the time of Richard Chandler however ( 1764 ), it is abandoned and the traveler finds the cadi living in the ruins of an Ottoman bath. The mosque of Isa continues to attract the attention of visitors who often confuse it with the Church of St. John (see The burning example Bruyn cons below). The mosque is still in use in the seventeenth ^century, but is often closed .

The total abandonment of the village of Ayasoluk occurs in the early decades of the ^nineteenth century : if it has another 15 to 20 houses and a cadi house when the visited Cockerell 1811 , of Estormel found the deserted village in 1832 .

The primary purpose of travel is obviously the ancient site. Although Chandler has found there in 1764 some Greek peasants living in abject poverty in the ruins, the site seems to have been totally deserted before. Nevertheless, the memory of the primary function of certain buildings and still maintains some superstitious practices: a large basin east of the ruins of the church of the Virgin Mary is considered the font of John the Baptist , and Greeks Area meet there on the day of St. John in procession to celebrate mass. According to the testimony of several authors (Stochov , Jean-Baptiste Tavernier and van Egmond ), the faithful carry with them small pieces of the monument as a relic or miraculous cure. The Greek population probably stems from the Christian village of Kirkinji (irkince or irince) in the hills east of Ephesus .

Urban planning and major monuments

General Plan of the archaeological remains

General plan of the remains of Ephesus, with the area covered by the three detailed drawings (A, B and C) indicated in red. Legend for the numbering of the monuments listed cons.

A detailed plan: administrative district around the Agora Civic.

Detailed Plan C: area called Koressos between theater and the port.

Legend numbers:

1. Artemision 2. "Tribune" near Artemision 3. Port Koressos 4. Rock Sanctuary of the Great Mother Cybele, 5. Byzantine Aqueduct 6. Archaic Rampart (Coressos) 7. Stoa of Damianus 8. Necropolis of the Seven Sleepers, 9. Armenian sanctuary 10. Magnesia Gate 11. Hellenistic wall 12. Former gym 13. Basilica in the East Gymnasium 14. "Tomb of St. Luke"; 15. Fontaine, 16. Baths Agora civic 17. Fontaine, 18. Agora civic 19. South Colonnade "Agora civic and Doric door 20. Agora Temple Location: 21. Stoa Basilica 22. Odeon / Bouleuterion 23. Temenos double the monument 24. Prytaneum; 25. Banqueting House near Prytaneum 26. Cathodos Prytaneum the bases with 27. Chalcidicum 28. Monument Fountain of Pollio and Domitian, 29. Hydrecdocheion of Laecanius Bassus; 30. Temple of Domitian, 31. Monument niche; 32. Monument Memmius 33. Hydreion 34. Monument round 35. Gate of Hercules, 36. Rue Curetes (Embolos) 37. Trajan Gate 38. Nymphaeum of Trajan, 39. Street baths; 40. Temple of Hadrian (Embolos) 41. Varius Bath / Baths Scholasticia; 42. Street Academy, 43. Latrine and "House of Pleasure"; 44. Stoa of Alytarques; 45. Well Hellenistic 46. Hex / nymphaeum; 47. Octagon; 48. Heroon of Androclos; 49. Hadrian's Arch, 50. Terraced houses 1 (Hanghaus 1), 51. Terraced houses 2 (Hanghaus 2), 52. Foundations of an altar, 53. Hellenistic peristyle house, 54. Gate known as the "tube" (?) 55. Library of Celsus, 56. South Gate of the Agora, 57. Tomb of the rhetorician Dionysios; 58. Brick vault (Embolos) 59. Monument to the circular fountain 60. Marble Street, 61. Tetragon Agora (Market), 62. Hall of Nero, 63. Western gate of the Agora, 64. North gate of the Agora, 65. Street West, 66. Door to Medusa 67. Temple (Serapeion) 70. Royal monument (on the Bulbuldagi) 71. Cave known as St. Paul 72. Theatre Square with fountain, 73. Eastern gate of the Arkadian; 74. House Hellenistic West, 75. Theater 76. Byzantine House (Panayrda) 77. Byzantine walls; 78. Street Theatre (Plateia in Coressus) 79. Gymnasium theater 80. Monument to apse; 81. Byzantine palace; 82. Arkadian; 83. Arkadian and adjacent colonnade; 84. Monument to the four columns 85. Church in Southern Arkadian; 86. Exedra, 87. Intermediate gate of the Port; 88. South gate of the Port; 89. North gate of the Port; 90. Market Port 91. Thermarum atrium; 92. Bains du Port, 93. Gymnase du Port, 94. Xystoi / Facilities Verulanus; 95. Church of the Virgin Mary 96. Baptistery of the Church of the Virgin 97. piskopion the church of the Virgin 98. Olympian Zeus, 99. Acropolis 100. Macellum 101. Well Byzantine 102. Peristyle house in late antiquity; pregnant Hellenistic 103. Rock temple, 104. Stage; 105. Church of the stadium; 106. Vedius Gymnasium, 107. Coressos door; 110. Road south from the Gate of Magnesia, 115. Upper Entrance of Ephesus, 116. Lower entrance of Ephesus, 151. Citadel Saint-Jean/Ayasoluk; 152. Basilica of St. John the Theologian, 153. Mycenaean tomb, 154. Tomb classic 155. Area of prehistoric settlement, 156. Byzantine aqueduct, 157. Gate of Persecution, 170. Isa Bey Mosque, 171. Isa Bey Hamam (Hamam II) 173. Hamam III.

Monuments of Greek era

The Temple of Artemis

The patron deity of the city, or divinity Polias , is the goddess Artemis , in honor of three shrines which were erected and a beautiful temple which was one of seven wonders of the world.

The shards of pottery unearthed in excavations in Austria have confirmed the evidence on the antiquity of the ancient cult of Artemis Ephesia. The first device is well attested an open court with the center a canopy formed by two rows of three columns, probably of Eastern inspiration, which is then included in a small temple peripteral facing west, contrary to the custom of mainland Greece. It is replaced from 560 BC. BC Ionic temple with an imposing marble Diptera.

Burned in 356 BC. AD , it was rebuilt in the Hellenistic period , stilted by a podium, expanded and enriched by a new sculptural decoration which, if we may believe Pliny , the famous sculptor contributes Scopas. The temple was destroyed by the Goths in 262 and only a few vestiges remain on site. Some fragments of carved decoration were brought to light, both for the archaic temple for the Hellenistic temple, they are kept at the British Museum.

Theatre

The theater of Ephesus

This monumental marble building measures 145 meters wide and an auditorium with 30 meters high. The construction of the still visible today in the Hellenistic period began and ended in Roman times. However, as Artemision, Hellenistic edifice was built on the basis of the oldest theater, which was used in classical times. The stage of 25 feet on 40 and the auditorium could accommodate up to 24,000 people.

Monuments of Roman

The "District Administration" and the Agora Location

The Library of Celsus

The facade of the Library of Celsus

The library was only revealed by the remains monumental. Burnt by the Goths in 263 AD. AD, all it contained were destroyed. In front of ruins, Ephesians settled marble slabs to build a pond fountain. The facade is currently in place is the fruit of eight years of work. Between 1970 and 1978 , researchers F. Hueber, an architect and VM Strock, an archaeologist, worked almost exclusively for recovery thereof, high over 16 meters wide and 10.

Built from 117 AD. AD, it was dedicated by Mr. Julius Aquila , the governor of the city, Mr. Polemaneus Celsus , his father, who ruled the city before him. House no less than 12,000 rolls, stored in wooden cupboards built into the walls (which is why it was destroyed by fire), it ranked third of the largest libraries in the world, behind those of Alexandria and of Pergamon. Emblematic icon and pride of the city ⁱⁿ the second century AD, this building is even today since it is on some banknotes in Turkey.

The Nymph of Trajan

The Military Academy

The Gymnasium Vedius

Monuments of late Roman and Byzantine

St. John the Theologian (152)

St. John the Theologian, church plan of Justinian.

From the ^second century , Christian tradition attributes to the Evangelist John burial on the hill adjacent to the Artemision, then it seems deserted. Archaeology has confirmed that the tomb dates from this period at least . It is the object of a cult early: a little martyrium is built above under Constantine. It quickly became inadequate to the needs of apostolic worship, and a large church just replace it, before 431 , since it is mentioned in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus. Basilica plan, it is characterized by a cruciform plan probably inherited model of Constantinople of Apostoleion: the four arms of the cross from the center will materialize by the tomb of the apostle and are each divided into three naves .

That, according to Procopius of Caesarea because the original church of St. John is in poor condition that it was largely razed to the ^sixth century during the episcopate of Hypatius, giving way to a new and magnificent church, under the patronage of Emperor Justinian. The new building is a cruciform basilica, but provided with six large domes on a plan similar to that of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople , also reconstructed by Justinian in the same period. The tomb of the apostle still occupies the center of the building, in a crypt accessible by a staircase.

The Church of Mary and the piskopion (95-97)

Main phases of construction of the church of Mary.

In late antiquity, the southern stoa Olympian Zeus who used the imperial cult since the time of Hadrian is gradually converted to the use of the Christian community, it became the cathedral and palace Episcopal. The western part of the covered portico was changed into a church in the early ^fifth century, probably for organizing the council of 431 . This first building is not completed and abandoned after a short period of use .

In a second phase of construction, the external colonnade stoa is closed, thus transforming it into a church basilica with three wings , which is probably shortly after its construction the cathedral of Ephesus, as the canonical "very Holy Church of the Blessed, honored and eternal Virgin Mary , with a baptistery on the north-eastern side. At the same time, the eastern part of the Roman stoa is in turn converted to Christian building, with the installation of piskopion , the episcopal residence .

Probably result in its destruction in a strong earthquake in 557 , the church is deeply split and converted . The colonnade is replaced by pillars and a cross-cuts the narthex of the church previous vessel, limiting the length of the nave . The western part of the old building and hosting a second church, with a domed cover. This device is probably explained by different functions assigned to each building: the Eastern Church is the Episcopal Church, while the Western church would be a parochial function .

This set undergoes extensive destruction ⁱⁿ the seventh century, probably in connection with the raid Arabic 654 - 655. The church loses its status as a cathedral for the benefit of St. John the Theologian and piskopion is abandoned . The whole church nevertheless continued to function until at least the ^eleventh century .

Other churches

The "Tomb of Luke" (14)

Basilica of the stage

The Byzantine Palace (Sarho Hamam) (81)

Byzantine palace.

Approximately 70 m south-east piskopion is a large complex long identified a Byzantine bathhouse. It carries with it an important spa in the north part, inherited from Roman baths of the ^first century , which were added residential space and perhaps administrative, with a large reception room octagonal south, preceded by a long room with two apses on the west. The dating and identification of the complex are very uncertain: it could be the palace of the proconsul of Asia, by analogy with other palaces tetrarchies , or the residence of the strategist 's theme of Thraksion, according to a dating much later .

The terraced houses (50-51)

Islet 1

Block 2

Monuments of Turkish period

The Mosque of Isa Bey (170)

Plan of Isa Bey Mosque (1375).

Isa Bey Mosque is the most important monument remaining from the time of Aydnoullar to Ayasoluk, and reflects the prosperity of the city under their dynasty. The building is located on the slopes of Ayasoluk, the temple of Artemis and Byzantine-Turkish fortification. An inscription indicates it was built in 1374 by architect Ali Samla Dmklolu Damascus , Custom Aydnou Isa Bey, and inaugurated in January 1375 ^, .

It looks like a rectangle near the square, divided into two main areas of unequal size: the North, a courtyard lined with porticoes, and South oblong prayer hall with its two domes. She was provided with two minarets, only one, South West, is partially preserved . The prayer hall is divided into two longitudinally by four huge columns of black granite and covered in its middle part by two domes carried by brick arches.

The steam of Ayasoluk

The Turkish city of Ayasoluk had at least four facilities, bath or steam baths dating from the emirate of Aydn or early Ottoman times, all built using the same technique, small unit with brick domes. The largest and best preserved, the Hamam II, a short distance south of the mosque, is often named Isa Bey Hammam because of an inscription, dated 1364 , which relates the reality may be not . The facility has undergone two phases: the original plan of the building was cruciform and two additional baths (hamam ifte) were added at a later time. It worked at least until the reign of Murad II ( one thousand four hundred and twenty-one - in 1451 ) .

Two other sets resorts, respectively in the west of the Mosque of Isa Bey (Hamam III), and north of the mosque (Hamam IV) are also known . The Museum of Ephesus has meanwhile restored Ottoman complex where there are baths, steam-Saadet Hatun, with a classic cruciform plan .

The rediscovery of the site

Map of Ephesus in the 1880s.

Early travelers

Ephesus attracted early Western travelers, as its temple of Artemis was one of the famous Seven Wonders of the world and was known by the texts of Herodotus , Pausanias and Pliny the Elder. However, they could not solve the fact that he has completely disappeared. They then succeeded in convincing themselves that they had found, most often by confusing it with the ruins of Great Gym .

Interest in the site dates back to the XV ^century : a href = "% Cyriaque_d 27Anc% C3% B4ne" alt = "Cyriac of Ancona"> Cyriac of Ancona visited the site in 1448 and copies several inscriptions, some lost since. Christian pilgrims copy down the graffiti from the cemetery of the Seven Sleepers at that time . Tournefort is convinced he saw four or five columns in the plain. The Comte de Caylus wrote that all the ruins were those of the plain dependencies of the temple .

A British traveler Edward Falkener, lived in Asia Minor in 1844-1845 and spent two weeks at Ephesus. He made a record of all the ruins he saw there, trying to rebuild a city map. He published his hypothesis in 1862. He was identified (correctly) the ruins in the valley between Mount Pion and Mt Coressus like Gate of Magnesia. He was then beginning to suspect (quite rightly) that the temple must be in alignment with the door .

The work of Wood

The architect and engineer English John Turtle Wood had been instructed in 1858 by the Ottoman Empire in the construction of the railway stations of Smyrna to Aydn. There, he developed a passion for finding the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. In 1863, he obtained a firman authorizing him to undertake excavations, but also to export any antiquities found that . Turkey since 1858, Wood had not read the book Falkener, but he speculated quite similar: successfully identify a monument to speculate then the position of the temple . In spring 1863, he hired five workers who had just been dismissed from his yard railway to check your assumptions. He explored the area around the Great Gymnasium, its main source Richard Chandler considered the temple. He also dug at the ancient port. He put a few entries from day . He had dug his own expense and seventy-five holes deep enough on the plateau south-west of Ayasoluk .

In early 1864 , he turned to the British Museum to which he requested funding . He received favorably: Charles Newton , the Curator of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, discovered the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in conditions somewhat similar when he was Vice-Consul of Great Britain to Lesbos. He did not take a dim view this approach. In addition, an agent of the British Museum discovered one second Wonder of the World was not to displease its directors .

Wood got his funding. In 1865, he made clear the Odeon in more than ten meters of earth and discovered a large number of entries. He began to become famous and travelers entering his excavations among the stages of their journey. He was the victim of an assassination attempt . He then searched the area of theater. In 1868, his discoveries were embarked on HMS Terrible. The investment of the museum was bearing fruit. However, problems began to accumulate: malaria , problems recruiting workers, new assassination attempts, robbers, mouse attacking its stamps, financial compensation for higher and higher to be paid to farmers. He even fell in one of her holes .

Excavations at the theater, however, had uncovered an inscription on the statues of gold and silver data and their route from the city to the temple by the Gate of Magnesia. Use this to find the temple door was the idea of Falkener. 1868 and 1869 seasons were spent in clearing the road for almost a kilometer towards Ayasoluk, and the stoa that Philostratus said measuring 600 feet . On 31 December 1869 , the research bore fruit. The temple was uncovered, under six feet of sand and especially under the water table had risen since antiquity. The following year, a mosaic and architectural fragments were identified. In September 1871, part of the frieze of the Amazon was cleared .

From 1872 to 1874, more than 3700 cubic meters of earth had been removed for more than 6,000 resulting in more than 60 tons of sculptures carried from Asia Minor in London .

From 1873, the British Museum sent Robert Lowe to make a site survey. The goal was not for the museum to find the temple, but to have an instrument to increase the collection of artifacts and antiques already provided by Wood .

Excavations following

Otto Benndorf, founder of the Austrian Archaeological Institute and organizer of the first excavations at Ephesus.

In 1895 , the Austrian Carl Humann bought the land near the temple without much result. His compatriot Otto Benndorf that year had obtained permission to dig at Ephesus. First director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute ( sterreichisches Institut Archologisches - OAI), he fumbled at Ephesus regularly until his death in 1907. The British campaign of DG Hogarth in one thousand nine hundred and four - 1905 which sought the high altar is not successful. The Austrians eventually buy the land to the British, and the Archaeological Institute continued almost continuously searches today. The only intervened in cuts in 1909 - in 1910 , when Turkey protested against the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in refusing to issue the permit excavations between 1914 and 1925 then 1936 and 1954 when the two world wars and their immediate consequences rendered further work impossible

Ephesus today

The anastylosis

The concern for the enhancement of the archaeological site is present from the first missions Austrian Ephesus. It translates the will to propose hypotheses for the reconstruction of buildings searched. Thus, the first archaeologist Otto Benndorf and Rudolf Heberdey they took the habit in the late 1890's to do on the site of a building recently reached a tentative and partial recovery by stacking two capitals, an architrave and a cornice to give an idea of its sculptural decoration. The Library of Celsus was one of the most important monuments to benefit from this policy with the temporary installation of a pediment restored .

In the year 1950 , a milestone was reached in this policy of anastylosis with partial reconstruction, including using the pillars of concrete , superstructure of some monuments. O. Schottenhamml done to the church calendar says Hall of Nero, in 1955. Franz Miltner leads to the late 1950 's anastylosis part of a wall of the nave of St. John and the portico of the Temple of Hadrian. It takes careful account of the different phases of construction of the building, and replace the missing parts by elements which are distinguished from originals while integrating them harmoniously, thus anticipating the recommendations of the Venice Charter on restoration and conservation of historical monuments, adopted in 1964. Subsequently, the anastylosis colonnades of the Rue des Couret, the Military Academy and the Stoa Basilica continues the development of search and make the site more accessible to visitors. Nymph to Trajan, the lack of evidence of the colonnade explains the adoption of a particular solution anastylosis where short blocks of concrete separating the capitals bases (see photograph below cons) .

After a pause, where the activity takes precedence over scientific archaeological efforts Enhancement of the remains, the work of anastylosis resume in the years one thousand nine hundred sixty-three - 1,976 under the direction of A. Bammer which makes use of concrete blocks and iron bars to assemble the original blocks in several buildings: the Memmius monument, the monument of Pollio, the fountain of Domitian, the colonnades of the Temple of Artemis and the Terrace of Domitian. These anastylosis evoke further destruction of the monument's original appearance and are temporary in nature .

But the draft anastylosis the largest and most spectacular is that of the Library of Celsus, led by Hermann Vetters and completed in 1978 after nine years of work under the direction of Volker Michael Strock , F. Hueber. New techniques are being implemented due to a better understanding of ancient construction practices, such as using a slight curve at the center of the horizontal elements of a faade to increase the perspective effect . Enhancement of the environment of the Library continues with the reconstruction of the southern gate of the Agora Tetragonos, completed in 1989.

Anastylosis monuments at Ephesus

Nymphaeum Trajan

Temple of Domitian

Library of Celsus

Temple of Hadrian

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge

The museum houses terrace

Terraced houses and shelter covering the block 2.

Meanwhile, the release of two large residential blocks overlooking the street Curetes , between 1960 and 1967 for block 1, then 1967 and 1983 for block 2, under the direction of H. Vetters, reveals structures of exceptional interest for understanding daily life in Ephesus. It is no longer here but anastylosis restoration of buildings preserved on most of their elevation . Block 2 also is the subject of an ambitious program to protect a roof from 1979 , while excavations and restoration work is ongoing .

In 1999 , protection and development of Block 2 have been completed : it is therefore a separate museum, with its own parking and entrance, inside the archaeological site of Ephesus .

The Museum of Ephesus in Seluk

The majority of objects discovered in ancient excavations are divided between the museums of Istanbul ( Istanbul Archeological Museum ) and Izmir , in Vienna ( Kunsthistorisches Museum ) and London (British Museum). In 1929 has created a repository of antiques in Seluk, which became the basis for the future museum expanded in 1964 and 1976 . The museum collections include some 50,000 objects from the ^Fourth Millennium BC. AD until modern times, covering the period of classical antiquity and medieval times are the best represented.

The museum is divided into two separate departments, one devoted to archeology, and one in the ethnography. The latter occupies an ethnographic museum reorganized in 1995 following the restoration of a Turkish bath (Hamam-Saadet Hatun-) in the western part of the museum of Seluk in 1972 .

References

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