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totally
destroyed by the Cimmerian hordes. Rebuilt by Croesus,
king of the Lydians, it was subjugated by the Persian
king Cyrus in the middle of the 6th century. After
varying vicissitudes, Ephesus pacifically and
painlessly passed to the Romans. Evidence of the
importance Ephesus had in the Roman world are the
visits paid by such illustrious figures as Brutus,
Cossius, Antony, and Cicero himself.
In the Augustan age it was a real Asian
capital. The city grew and soon became an active
commercial center, headquarters of the Roman governor
and one of the first five cities of the Empire.
Subsequently the preaching of the apostle John (buried
here in St. John's church) and a tradition according
to which the Madonna chose it as her residence after
the Crucifixion, turned Ephesus into one of the places
that distinguished itself in the history of Christian
thought. Its decline began in the second half of the 3rd
century when it was conquered and sacked by the Goths.
In 431 the Third Ecumenical Council was held here.
During the long dark centuries of the Middle Ages it
was little more than a village, subject to continuous
raids by the Arabs and pirates. After the early years
of Ottoman rule, it fell into complete oblivion.
Abandoned and deserted, all trace of it almost
disappeared until 1869 when the first of the
archaeological excavations which were to restore to
the world the ancient and unforgotten beauty of the
city was undertaken. |
