. Grove of Dirmn; 5. Temple of Diana; 3. Momi atre; v. SUidiuui ; lu. Odeon ; 11. Castle of AJr Quarries,
Flan of lOphesus and its Environs. t 'of Androclus ; 4. Cily Port ; 5. Great Gymnashiin ; f.. Agora civilis ; 7. Affora venalia ; 8. Tlio. 1-2. Moscjue of Aiasaliik; 13. Arched aqueduct across the valley; 14. Tunuelled aqueduct: 15.
EPHESFS
243
EPHESUS
occasion (Acts xvi, C) he formed the unsuccessful proj- ect of preaching the Gospel in the district of Asia. Two great roads at least, in the Roman times, led east- ward from Ephesus ; one through the passes of Tmo- lus to Sardis (Kev. iii, 1), and thence to Galatia and the N.E.,the other round the extremity of Pactyas to Magnesia, and so up the vallej' of the Mseander to Ico- nium, whence the communication was direct to the Euphrates and to the Syrian Antioch. There seem to have been .Sardian and Jlagnesian gates on the E. side ofE]iliesus corresponding to these roads respect- ively. There were also coast-roads leading north- wards to SmjTna, and southwards to Miletus. By the latter of tliese it is probable that the Ephesian eld- ers travelled when summoned to meet Paul at tlie lat- ter city (Acts XX, 17, 18). Part of the pavement of the Sardian road has been noticed by travellers under the cliffs of Gallesus. (See Leake's Asia Alinor, and
Among the more marked physical features of the peninsula are tlie two large rivers, Hermus and Maean- der, which flow from a remote part of the interior west- ward to tlie Archipelago, Smyrna (I!ev. ii, Sy being near tlie mouth of one, and Miletus (Acts xx, 17) of the other. Between the valleys drained by these two rivers is the shorter stream and smaller basin of the Cayster, called by the Turks Kutschuk-Mendere, or the Little Mteander. Its upper level (often called the Caj'strian meadows) was closed to the westward by the gorge between Gallesus and Pactj'as, the latter of these mountains being a prolongation of the range of Messogis, which bounds the vallcj' of the Maander on the north, the former more remoteh' connected with the range of Tmolus, which bounds the valley of the Ilernius on the south. Be\-ond the gorge and towards the sea the vallej' opens out again into an alluvial flat (Herod, ii, 10), with hills rising abruptly from it. The plain is now about 5 miles in breadth, but formerly it must have been smaller, and some of the hills were once i)robably islands. Here Ephesus stood, parth' on the level ground and partly on the hills.
Of the hills, on which a large portion of the city was built, the two most important were Prion and Co- ressus, the latter on the S. of the plain, and being, in fact, almost a continuation of Pactyas, the former be- ing in front of Coressus and near it, thougli separated by a deep and definite valle^^ Further to the N.E. is another conspicuous eminence. It seems to be the hill mentioned b}^ Procopins (Z>e ^^d)f. v. i) as one on which a church dedicated to the apostle John was built ; and its present name Ayasuluk is absurdly thought to have reference to him, and to be a corrup- tion of his traditionary title o ajiog OtoXoyog. (See generally Cellarii Notit. ii, 80.)
4. Government. — It is well known that Asia was a proconsular province ; and in harmony with this fact we find proconsuls (^avOvTTci-oi, A.V . "deputies") spe- cially mentioned (Acts xix, 38). Nor is it necessary to inquire here whether the plural in this passage is generic, or whether the governors of other provinces were present in Ephesus at the time. Again, we learn from Pliii}' (v, .31) that Ephesus was an assize-town (Jorum or convmtus) ; and in the N.-T. narrative (Acts xix, 3i<) we find the court-days alluded to as actually being held Qtyupciioi ayovrai, A. V. " the law is open") during the uproar ; though perhaps it is not absolutely necessary to give the expression this exact reference as to time (see Wordsworth in loc). Ephesus itself was a "free city," and liad its own asscmlilies and its own magistrates. The senate {yiooviyia, or fiorX))) is men- tioned not only l>y Strabo, but by .Josephus (Ant. xiv, 10, 25 ; xvi, G, -1 and 7) ; and Luke, in the narrative before us, speaks of the ti/}/(oc (ver. 30, 33, A.V. "the people") and of its customary assemblies (hn'ofK'j tK- /C/\?;(7i(r, ver. 39, A.V. "a lawful assembh'"). That the tumultuary meeting wliich was gathered on the occasion ii> question should take place in the theatre
(ver. 29, 31) was nothing extraordinary. It was at a meeting in the theatre at Ciesarea that Agrippa I re- ceived his death-stroke (Acts xii, 23), and in Greek cities this was often the place for large assemblies (Tacitus, JJist. ii, 80 ; Val. Max. ii, 2). We even find conspicuous mention made of one of the most impor- tant municipal officers of Ephesus, the "town-clerk" (q. V.) (ypaf^ifiar(i'c), or keeper of the records, whom we know from other sources to have been a person of great influence and responsibility. It is remarkable how all these political and religious characteristics of Ephesus, which appear in the sacred narrative, are il- lustrated by inscriptions and coins. An apxtlov, or state-paper office, is mentioned on an inscription in Chishull. The ypannaTtix frequently appears; so also the 'Xaia^xai and di'Oinra-oi. Sometimes these words are combined in the same inscription ; see, for instance, Bockh, Corp. Inscr. 2999, 2994, 29<J6. The later coins of Ephesus are full of allusions to the wor- ship of Diana in various aspects. The word viwkoqoq (warden, A.V. "worshipper") is of frequent occur- rence. That which is given last below has also the word arOvTrciToc (proconsul, A.V. " deputy') ; it ex- hibits an image of tlie temple, and, bearing as it does the name and head of Xero, it must have been struck about the time of Paul's stay in Ephesus. The one immediately preceding it bears the name (Cusinius) of the acting ypa/.iij.aTtvg ("town-clerk") at the time.