Results for Ephesus
On this page:
 
Dictionary:

Ephesus

  (ĕf'ĭ-səs) pronunciation

An ancient city of Greek Asia Minor in present-day western Turkey. Its temple, dedicated to Artemis, or in Roman times Diana, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Saint Paul visited the city on his missionary journeys.

 

 
 

Ancient Ionian Greek city; its ruins lie near the modern village of Selcuk in western Turkey. It was situated south of the Cayster River and was the site of the Temple of Artemis. Traditionally founded by the Carians, it was one of the 12 Ionian Cities and was involved in the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. It was taken by Alexander the Great c. 333 BC and prospered throughout the Hellenistic period. It passed to Rome in 133 BC and under the emperor Augustus became the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It was an early seat of Christianity, which was visited by St. Paul; the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians was directed to the church there. The Goths destroyed the city and temple in AD 262; neither ever recovered. There are extensively excavated ruins at the modern site.

For more information on Ephesus, visit Britannica.com.

 

Ephesus, one of the principal Ionian Greek cities on the west coast of Asia Minor, at the mouth of the Caÿster. It was founded by Ionian Greek settlers under Androclus, son of the Athenian king Codrus. They were reputed to have found the worship of Artemis (presumably the Asiatic Mother-goddess; see CYBELE) already established there. Ephesus survived the Cimmerian invasions (seventh century BC) but was captured in the mid-sixth century by Croesus, king of Lydia, who contributed to the rebuilding of the great temple of Artemis, the fourth to be built on the site. Fragments of some of the columns dedicated by Croesus are now in the British Museum. In the later sixth century Ephesus, like the rest of the Ionian seaboard cities, passed under the domination of the Persians. In the fifth century, after the defeat of the Persians (see PERSIAN WARS) it became a member of the Delian League, but revolted from Athens c.412 BC and sided with Sparta.

In 334 the city passed into the control of Alexander, and in 133 BC, with the kingdom of Attalus III (see ATTALIDS), to the Romans. In Roman times Ephesus became the chief city (although Pergamum was the capital) of the province of Asia, and the seat of the governor. Strabo in the early first century AD describes it as ‘the greatest place of trade of all the cities of Asia west of the Taurus’ (a mountain range in Cilicia). Acts 19 gives a lively picture of the city in the mid-first century AD. Its famous citizens included the philosopher Heracleitus, the poet Hipponax, and the painter Parrhasius (Apelles too was connected with Ephesus). In AD 391 the emperor Theodosius suppressed all pagan worship, and the temple of Diana (the Roman goddess corresponding to Artemis) was closed.

 
Archaeology Dictionary: Ephesus, Turkey

[Si]

Once a major seaport on the west coast of Turkey in the delta area of the River Cayster, this site is now 8km inland. It is one of the richest and most splendid sites in the world. Excavations by John Turle Wood for the British Museum in the 1860s located the temple of Artemis, and later work by Austrian archaeologists uncovered a good deal of its early history. First occupied in Mycenaean times, tradition describes how the settlement was founded from Athens by King Androklos. Supreme prosperity arrived under Hellenistic and Roman rulers. The centre-piece is the temple of Artemis (Diana to the Romans and perhaps equivalent to the Anatolian god Cybele), one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but later destroyed by Alexander the Great in 356 bc. From the Greco-Roman town there are many public buildings, including seven gymnasia, administrative buildings, baths, and the agora. The theatre, from the Hellenistic period period, could seat 24 000 people and was the setting for St Paul's address set down in the Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 19). The Archaic Greek temple is also important as its foundation deposit includes a hoard of early electrum coins.

[Sum.: G. E. Bean, 1989, Aegean Turkey. London: Murray]

 
(ĕf'əsəs) , ancient Greek city of Asia Minor, near the mouth of the Caýster River (modern Küçük Menderes), in what is today W Turkey, S of Smyrna (now Izmir). One of the greatest of the Ionian cities, it became the leading seaport of the region. Its wealth was proverbial. The Greek city was near an old center of worship of a native nature goddess, who was equated with the Greek Artemis, and c.550 B.C. a large temple was built. To this Croesus, who captured the city, contributed. From Lydian control Ephesus passed to the Persian Empire. The temple was burned down in the 4th cent. B.C., but rebuilding was begun before Alexander the Great took Ephesus in 334. The city continued to thrive during the wars of his successors, and after it passed (133) to the Romans it kept its hegemony and was the leading city of the province of Asia. The great temple of Artemis, or Artemision, called by the Romans the temple of Diana, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. From c.100 B.C. to c.A.D. 100 Ephesus was the world capital of the slave trade. The city was sacked by the Goths in A.D. 262, and the temple was destroyed. The seat of a church council in 431, Ephesus was abandoned after the harbor silted up. Excavations (1869–74) of the ruins of the temple brought to light many artifacts. Later excavations uncovered important Roman and Byzantine remains.


 
Wikipedia: Ephesus

 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "Ephesus" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ephesus" Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!  
Click here to download now. 

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page:   E-mail   print Print  Link  

 

Keep Reading

Mentioned In: