It is called in German
Thyatira.
carried off in a foray, conducted jointly by Eumcnes of Pergamos and a force detached by the Roman admiral from Canre, during the war against Antiochus. During the campaign of B.C. 190, Thyatira formed the base of the king's operations; and after his defeat, which took place only a few miles to the south of the city, it sub- mitted, at the same time with its neighbor Magnesia- on-Sipylus, to the Romans, and was included in the ter- ritory made over by them to their ally the Pergamene sovereign.
During the continuance of the Attalic dynasty, Thy- atira scarcely appears in history ; and of the various inscriptions which have been found on the site, not one unequivocally belongs to earlier times than those of the Roman empire. The prosperity of the city seems to have received a new impulse under Vespasian, whose acquaintance with the East, previously to mounting
THYATIRA
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THYATIRA
the imperial throne, may have directed his attention to the (levelopinent of the resources of the Ai^iatic cities. A hilingual inscription, in (ireek and Latin, l)eloni;;ing to tlie latter part of his reign, shows him to have re- stored the roads in the domain of 'i'iiyatira. From others, between this time and that of Caracalla, there is evidence of the existence of many corporate guilds in the city. Bakers, potters, tanners, weavers, robemakcrs, and dyers (ol ^a<ptic) are specially mentioned. Of these last there is a notice in no less than three inscrip- tions, so that dyeing apparently formed an imjwrtant part of the industrial activity of Thyatira, as it did of that of Colossaj and Laodic.ta. With this guild there can be no doubt that Lydia, the seller of purple stuffs (Trop^i'poTToiXic), from whom Paul met with so favora- ble a reception at Philippi (Acts xvi, 14), was connected. The country around this city is fertile and well watered, abounding in oaks and acacias, and in its numberless streamlets are found the leeches used in medicine throughout Austria and the east of Europe in general. The mode of taking them is curious : a number of children are sent to walk barefooted among the brooks, and come back to their employers with their feet covered with leeches. The waters here are said to be so well adapted for dyeing that in no place can the scarlet cloth out of whicli fezzes are made be so brilliantly or so permanently dyed as here. The place still maintains its reputation for this manufacture, and large quantities of scarlet cloth are sent weekly to Smyrna.
Thyatira is at present a populous and flourishing town ; its inhabitants amount to seventeen thousand, and they are on the increase. Its modern name is Ak-kissai; (IT "the white castle." The town consists of about two thousand houses, for which taxes are paid to the government, besides two or three hundred small huts; of the former, three hundred are inhabited by Greeks, thirty by Armenians, and the rest by Turks. The common language of all classes is the Turkish ; but in writing it the Greeks use the Greek, and the Armenians the Armenian characters. There are nine mosques and one Greek church. It exhijjits few re- mains of antiquity, save fragments built into the walls of houses. There is, indeed, an ancient building in a very ruinous condition at a little distance from the city, to which tradition has given the name of the Pal- ace of the Cassars; it is impossible to determine either its date or its purpose. But though there is little that can be identified, yet for miles around Thyatira are precious relics in the form of sarcojihagi, capitals of columns, and similar fragments, used as troughs, cover- ings for wells, and such purposes.
Th%-atira was never a place of paramount political importance, and hence her history is less interesting to the classical student than those of Ephesus, Sanlis, and Pergamos, which were the capitals of great kingdoms. Her chief hold on our consideration is that at Thyatira was seated one of those churches to which the Spirit sent prophetic messages by the beloved apostle. The message itself is one of peculiar interest, but presenting at the same time a remarkable difficulty. After much commendation on the virtues and progress of the Church — or the elder, pastor, bishop, or angel — the epistle con- tinues, "Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou suffcrest that woman (or as the cor- rect text has it, thy wife) Jezebel, which calleth her- self a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols" (Kev. ii, 20). This is followed by threats of judgment upon herself, her lovers, and her children. The question naturally arises. What party is represented by this Jeze- bel? To understand this message rightly, it will have to be borne in mind that Tliyatira was very near Per- gamos. and that the latter was by far the more important city, and probably possessed the more numerous Church ; the influence and example of Pergamos would be like- ly to have a great influence on the smaller citv and
Church. See Pergaxios. Now, at Pergamos, the Ba- laamites, who taught precisely the doctrine here attrib- uted to Jezebel, were numerous, as well as the Nico- laitans (q. v.). We are not, therefore, at all to be sur- prised at finding a party espousing and endeavoring to propagate similar sentiments in Thyatira; but it would be a miserable literalism, and contrary to the whole genius of the Apocalyptic imagery, to suppose the lead- er of this heretical sect to be a woman of the name of Jezebel. We can only understand by this a person holding substantially the same relation to the official head of the Church in Thyatira which Jezebel of old did to the king of Israel ; that is, a party that ought to have been in subjection usurping it, for wicked purposes, over the proper ruler. For this the leader is severely rebuked, and the heaviest judgments threatened both against him and the usurping party unless they re- pent. There was still, however, a faithful portion who stood aloof from the licentious teaching which was propagated. To them the Lord turns with words of encouragement, and exhorts them to hold fast what thej' had received. There is a small error also in the text at the commencement of this address. It should be " But inito yon I say, the rest in Thyatira;" those, namely, who resisted the pollution. The re- ceived text confuses the meaning by putting it, "But unto you I say, and to the rest," as if both parties were alike called to continue steadfast. See Jeze- bel.