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Archive for the Category »Ephesus «
Ephesus owed its prosperity to its position more or less in the middle of the west coast of Anatolia, at the back of a bay sheltered from the north winds, on the mouth of the Cayster (now the Kuchuk Menderes, the Lesser Menderes), one of the rivers that linked the coast of Ionia with the high plateaux of the interior.
At some time before the 1st millennium B.C., one of those rather obscure peoples known as Carians and Leleges settled in the surroundings of the future Artemision, a little way from the sea in the plain between the present Hill of Ayasoluk and Mount Pion (now Panayir Dag). Here they worshipped the great goddess of fertility, who was venerated for millennia in Anatolia and some of whose attributes were transmitted to the Hellenic Artemis.
It was not untilca. 1000 B.C. that the Ionians fleeing from the Greek mainland before the Dorian invaders led by King Androclus settled on the shores of the bay and on the lower slopes of Mount Pion (to the north and west of the future stadium).
The town soon began to flourish thanks to its trade with neighbouring countries, notably Meonia (the future Lydia) for which it provided the outlet to the sea. Throughout its history Ephesus was more anxious to get on with powerful states than to resist them. Towards the middle of the 8th century B.C. it was compelled to resist the incursions of the Cimmerians and in this campaign it was spurred on by the war songs of the poet Callinus. Its bankers foreshadowing the Fuggers of Augsburg lent money to the Lydian princes, backed them in their intrigues, and married their daughters. Its political development, influenced by social upheavals, followed the same lines as that of most Greek cities: monarchy until the 7th century B.C., then oligarchy and tyranny. A little before 550, King Croesus of Lydia who had completed the subjection of the Greek cities of Ionia started by his ancestor Gyges, compelled the Ephesians to recognize his sovereignty and to leave their fortified town near the port and settle to the south and south-west of the Artemision. At the same time, however, he generously helped them with the reconstruction of the temple of the goddess. Aristarchus, an Athenian, was invited to give the city moderate democratic institutions.
Round about 546, after the fall of the Lydian kingdom, Ephesus was taken in its turn by the troops of Cyrus and in corporated in the satrapy of Ionia. Situated on the Aegean, at the end of the royal road from Persia, Ephesus benefited from the trade of the Achaemenids. It also benefited from the destruction of its rebellious rival Miletus by Darius in 494. The philosopher Heraclius, a descendant of Androclus, was one of the most brilliant representatives of the intellectual life of the city. After the victories of the Greeks over Xerxes and the Persians at Salamis (480 B.C.), at Plataea, and at Cape Mycale (479), Ephesus joined the League of Delos. But it was opposed to Athenian claims to predominance and took the part of Sparta and Persia in the Peloponnesian War, contributing to the defeat of the Athenian fleet at Aigos Potamoi. In 396 and the years that followed it was used as a base by King Agesilaus of Sparta and by other generals in their struggle against the Persians satraps, but after the treaty of Antalcidas (386) it came again under Achaemenid rule. The town at that time was governed by an oligarchy.
During the Hellenistic period Ephesus experienced a new age of greatness. In 336 it was taken by the corps of 10 000 Macedonians whom Philip anticipating the expedition of Alexander had launched on an attack on Asia Minor. Memnon of Rhodes, a mercenary in the service of the Achaemenids, put Ephesus again under the rule of the Great King but the town was liberated by Alexander soon after his victory at the Granicus (334). The conqueror established a democratic government in the city.
Lysimachus, the king of Macedonia and the western and central regions of Asia Minor, grasping the potentialities of its site, decided to make Ephesus the main port of Anatolia and part of the Hellenic world. In the bay itself and in the hollow between the Pion and the Coressus (now Bulbul Dag) he built a new town which he ringed with powerful ramparts, about 9 km long and going up to the crests of the mountain. There he trans ferred not without meeting some resistance the population of the old city beside the Artemision, and to this he added the inhabitants of Colophon and of Lebedus which he had just conquered. Lysimachus named this foundation Arsinoeia after his wife, but the old name had become too famous to be supplanted by the new one. Ephesus supported now one, now another, of the Hellenistic princes as its interest dictated, but by an error of judgment it sided with King Antiochus of Syria (223-187) against the Romans. After the defeat of the king at Magnesia ad Sipylum (190 B.C.) it was given to Pergamum. Thus, in 133 B.C., it was bequeathed to the Romans by Attalus III, the last king of Pergamum, together with all his other states.
The taxes levied by the new masters roused the discontent of the Ephesians, and when King Mithridates Eupator of Pontus (111-63) called on the East to rebel and entered Ephesus in 88 B.C., the statues of eminent Romans were knocked down and the Roman residents in the town massacred (these were the “Ephesian Vespers”). After the first set-backs of Mithridates in Greece, Ephesus saw which way the wind was blowing and in 86 rose against him, again siding with the Romans. In 85 B.C., Sulla settled in the town to reorganize the Roman administration in Asia Minor, on which he levied crushing taxes as a punishment for its revolt.
Ephesus became the capital of the province of Asia one of the richest in the Roman Empire and entered on a period of great splendour. After Alexandria, Antioch on the Orontes and Seleucia on the Tigris, it was the largest town in the Hellenistic East. Its peak period like that of most cities in Asia Minor came in the 2nd century A.D. when the Empire experienced a time of peace and of intense commercial activity. Sumptuous buildings, mostly erected by rich citizens, sprang up. Most of the ruins we see today date back to this period. Trajan and Hadrian took measures to prevent the silting-up of the harbour.
Christianity came to Ephesus at an early stage. Paul went there during his third missionary journey, round 54 A.D. and for two years he preached the Gospel there daily. He finally had to flee during riots sparked off by the goldsmiths and silver smiths who manufactured votive reliefs for the Temple of Artemis and were afraid that the progress of the new religion would deprive them of their living. There is a tradition that Saint John the Apostle settled at Ephesus and died there at a very old age. The Christian community of Ephesus became one of the most powerful in the East.
It was inevitable that Ephesus should feel the effects of the crisis through which the Roman Empire passed in the 3rd century A.D. In 263 the Goths devastated and sacked the Artemision which was subsequently restored. But in common with the other pagan shrines the temple became increasingly deserted. The worship of Artemis had to give way to the worship of Mary, the Mother of God.
After the recovery of the Empire under Diocletian and Constantine, Ephesus which played a leading role in the maritime relations between Constantinople, Greece, and Asia Minor again became prosperous. The Byzantine basilei, continuing the work of the Roman emperors, put up large buildings especially churches in the town and repaired the streets. The fame of the shrines of the Virgin and of Saint John equalled that of the ancient Artemision. In 431, the third Oecumenical Council met in the Church of the Virgin and condemned the Nestorian heresy that subordinated the Divine Nature of Christ to His human nature; it defined the Christian dogma of the union of the two natures in a single person and restored to the Virgin Mary the epithet of Theotocus, Mother of God. In 449 another, tumultuous Council met at Ephesus. The violence that accompanied it earned it the name of “Brigandage of Ephesus”. Its decisions condemning the distinction between the two natures of Christ were annulled by the Fourth Oecumenical Council held at Chalcedon in 451.
Ephesus remained a rich city until, at the end of the 7th century, it began to suffer from the crisis caused throughout the Byzantine Empire by the Slav and Arab invasions. It was even directly affected by Moslem incursions. In 688 it was pillaged by the troops of the Omeyyad Caliph Moawiya who was returning from his abortive siege of Constantinople. Maslama, the commander-in-chief of the Caliph Soliman, stopped to winter in Ephesus in 716-717 after a fruitless expedition against Constantinople. To be armed against such attacks in the future, the Ephesians built a rampart in the plain, though on a much smaller scale than that of the Hellenistic period. The harbour was no longer kept in repair and became an unhealthy marsh where no boat could possibly anchor. The town withdrew trom the sea that had brought it prosperity to the height on which stood the Church of Saint John. It took the name of Haghios Theologos which was changed by the Italians into Alto Lugo and to Ayasoluk by the Turks. It became the capital of the Byzantine Theme of Thracesion. From 1090 to 1097 the Seljuk Turks occupied Ephesus but it was restored to the Byzantines during the First Crusade. In 1304, the redoubtable Company of Catalan Mercenaries which Andronicus II Palaeologus had called to his help, attempted unsuccessfully to snatch it from the grasp of the Turks. Ephesus became part of the Emirate of Sasan which comprised also the neighbouring towns of Priene, Miletus and Magnesia ad Maeandrum. It then fell into the hands of the emirs of Aydin (the ancient Tralles) and regained a measure of prosperity as is shown by the mosques built during that period and by travellers’ accounts. In 1390 Ayasoluk was taken by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I. In 1403 it was subjected to the incursions of Tamerlane’s Mongols. Restored to the Ottoman Empire by Murat II in 1426, it was demoted from its place as main town of the region in favour of Aydin of which it became a dependency, declining into a country town. In 1914 it took the name of Selchuk by which it is generally known today, then that of Akincilar which never really came into general use. It now is an important market town for agricultural produce.
This section, which is an integral part of the museum, exhibits commercial life in old Turkish towns, and various handicrafts that face extinction. This area can be found adjacent to the central garden of the museum. The department displays various stages of the cereal grinding process (mills), which played a significant part in agricultural local life as well as various types of copperware and beads produced to avert the evil eye (göz boncuğu). Visitors can also see a 16th century Ottoman Bath, which has been recently restored.
Isa Bey Mosque is located on Ayasuluk Hill. on the western slopes of St John’s Basilica.
The mosque built by Isa Bey In 1375. is a building from the Seljuk Period. The building is the oldest known example of a typical Turkish mosque with its courtyard and Anatolian columns. With its decorative techniques and its main gate’s monumental height it bears the features of traditional Seljuk architecture.