What City Is Ephesus?
Around 80 kilometers south of Izmir, Turkey, Ephesus is situated close to the western beaches of modern-day Turkey, where the Aegean Sea meets the old estuary of the River Kaystros.
According to tradition, Ephesus was established in the eleventh century B.C. by the Ionian ruler Androclos. According to mythology, Androclos sought advice from the Delphi oracles while looking for a new Greek town. He would be shown the new place by a boar and a fish, according to the oracles.
One day, as Androclos was cooking fish over an open flame, a fish flopped out of the pan and fell in some bushes not far away. A wild boar fled out after a spark set the bushes on fire. Androclos established his new town, which he named Ephesus, on the site where the bushes had been, remembering the wisdom of the oracles.
Another tradition claims that the Amazons, a band of female warriors, established Ephesus and that their queen, Ephesia, is the inspiration for the name of the city.
The Artemis Temple
Ancient Ephesus has a mostly undocumented and hazy past. What is known is, is that Ephesus came under the control of the Lydian Kings in the seventh century B.C. and grew into a prosperous metropolis, where men and women had equal chances. Additionally, Heraclitus, a famous philosopher, was born there.
The reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was made possible by the Lydian King Croesus, who reigned from 560 to 547 B.C. The goddess of the hunt, virginity, childbirth, wild creatures, and the wilderness was named Artemis.
One of the most respected Greek goddesses, she was also. Three minor Artemis temples existed before the Croesus-Tempel, according to contemporary investigations.
Herostratus, a madman, destroyed the Temple of Artemis in 356 B.C. The temple was expanded upon by the Ephesians. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, it was thought to be four times bigger than the Parthenon.
Later, the temple was demolished and never reconstructed. Even if there are still some of its vestiges such as a column with Croesus’ signature, not much of it is left today.
Lysimachus
Along with the rest of Anatolia, Ephesus succumbed to the Persian Empire in 546 B.C. Even as other Ionian cities resisted Persian authority, Ephesus prospered.
Alexander the Great conquered the Persians in 334 B.C. and invaded Ephesus. One of his generals, Lysimachus, gained control of the city and changed its name to Arsineia when he passed away in 323 B.C.
Ephesus was relocated two miles away, and Lysimachus also constructed a new harbor and fortifications. But until Lysimachus forcibly moved them, the Ephesian people refused to leave their houses. After Lysimachus was slain at the Battle of Corupedium in 281 B.C., the city was once more called Ephesus.
Ephesus and a large portion of the Seleucid Empire were subjugated by Egypt in 263 B.C. Ephesus was retaken by the Seleucid monarch Antiochus III in 196 B.C., but six years later, after Antiochus III’s loss at the Battle of Magnesia, Ephesus was annexed by Pergamon.
Ephesus during the Roman era
Ephesus became the home of the provincial Roman governor after King Attalos of Pergamon bequeathed it to the Roman Empire in 129 B.C. Ephesus saw its greatest period of prosperity under the reign of Caesar Augustus, which lasted until the third century A.D.
The vast amphitheater, the Library of Celsus, the common area (agora), and the aqueducts are only a few examples of the Ephesian ruins that were constructed or reconstructed during Augustus' rule.
Ephesus experienced a period of prosperity as a port city under Tiberius. To handle the large volumes of cargo coming in or going out of the artificial harbor and from caravans traversing the Old Royal Road, a commercial area was established about 43 B.C.
https://www.highcpmrevenuegate.com/et08tr06u9?key=1f02d85034e7486ac606af70fc504de1Some accounts claim that Ephesus was at the time the second-largest cosmopolitan hub of culture and trade after Rome.
Religion in Ephesus
Christianity was greatly aided in its Spread by Ephesus. Beginning in the first century A.D., revered Christians like Saint Paul and Saint John traveled to and denounced the cults of Artemis, converting a large number of people to Christianity.
It is believed that Mary, Jesus’ mother, spent her final years living with Saint John in Ephesus. It is still possible to see John's tomb and her home there.
The biblical book of Ephesians, which was written around 60 A.D., is believed to be a letter from Paul to Ephesian Christians, however, some scholars dispute the authenticity. Ephesus is referenced several times in the New Testament.
Paul's Christian Message was not received favorably by all Ephesians. The Book of Acts Chapter 19 describes a disturbance that a man by the name of Demetrius caused. Silver coins with Artemis' visage were produced by Demetrius.
Demetrius planned a riot and persuaded a sizable crowd to turn against Paul and his followers because he was sick of Paul’s attacks on the goddess he worshipped and afraid that the introduction of Christianity would harm his business. However, Ephesian authorities shielded Paul and his adherents, and soon Christianity became the city’s recognized religion.
Ephesus' Decline
The Goths devastated Ephesus in 262 AD, which included the Temple of Artemis. The city underwent some rehabilitation, but it never fully recovered its magnificence. The Virgin Mary's status as the mother of God was reaffirmed in a council in the Church of Saint Mary in the year 431 A.D.
During his rule, the emperor Theodosius exterminated all remnants of Artemis. He outlawed the freedom of religion, shut down schools and temples, and denied women many of the liberties they had previously enjoyed. The Temple of Artemis was demolished, and Christian churches were constructed out of its rubble.
Constantine the Great established Christianity as the city-state of Rome's sole official religion throughout the Byzantine era and made Constantinople the center of the Roman Eastern Empire. Diese left Ephesus, a city already experiencing deterioration as a result of the buildup of silt in its harbor, more on its own.
The city primarily relies on its famous sites of worship to draw tourists and boost its faltering economy. Still, there was only so much that could be done to physically keep Ephesus afloat because it was a port city with a failing harbor.
After a devastating earthquake and the harbor’s continued deterioration in the sixth and seventh century A.D., the majority of Ephesus’s people were compelled to leave the city and found a new colony. Even though Ephesus briefly expanded and underwent rebuilding in the fourteenth century, when under the control of the Seljuk Turks, it continued to decline.
In the fifteenth century, the Ottoman Empire finally gained control of Ephesus, but by that time the city was in terrible shape and its harbor was all but worthless. Ephesus was abandoned by the end of that century, leaving its legacy to archaeologists, historians, and the tens of thousands of tourists who come to the area every year to see the historic remains.