EPESUS Ephesos IONIA 405BC Bee Stag’s Head Authentic Ancient Greek Coin i47964

Item: i47964

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Greek city of
Ephesus
(Ephesos) in Ionia

Bronze 9mm (0.58 grams) Struck 405-390 B.C.
Reference: SNG Kayhan 147-88; SNG München 34
Bee within circle.
Head of stag right, E – Φ across fields.

Situated at the mouth of the river Kayster, Ephesos was
founded by Ionian colonists under Androklos. It rose to be a place of great
importance in Classical and Hellenistic times, due in the main to the
illustrious sanctuary of the Ephesian Artemis dating from the time of Kroisos of
Lydia. After the end of the Pergamene Kingdom in 133 B.C. Ephesos passed under
the rule of the Romans.

 You are bidding on the exact

Guarantee of Authenticity.

Ephesus (Ancient

Greek Ἔφεσος,

Turkish

Efes) was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of

Anatolia
,

near present-day Selçuk

,

Izmir Province

, Turkey

. It was one of the twelve cities of the

Ionian League

during the

Classical Greek

era. In the Roman period, it was for many years the second

largest city of the

Roman

Empire
; ranking behind

Rome, the empire’s

capital.

Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also

made it the second largest city in the world.

The city was famed for the

Temple of Artemis

(completed around 550 BCE), one of the

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

. The Temple was destroyed in 401 CE by a

mob led by St.

John Chrysostom

.

Emperor

Constantine I

rebuilt much of the city and erected new public baths. The

town was again partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614. The city’s

importance as a commercial center declined as the harbor was slowly silted up by

the Cayster River

(Küçük Menderes).

Ephesus was one of the

seven churches of Asia

that are cited in the

Book of Revelation

.

The Gospel of John

may have been written here.

It is also the site of a large

gladiators
‘

graveyard.

Today’s archaeological site lies 3 kilometers southwest of

the town of Selçuk
,

in the Selçuk district of

İzmir Province

, Turkey

. The ruins

of Ephesus are a favorite international and local tourist attraction, partly

owing to their easy access from

Adnan Menderes Airport

and via the port of

Kuşadası
.

//

 History

 Neolithic

age

The area surrounding Ephesus was already inhabited during the

Neolithic Age (about 6000 BCE), as was revealed by the excavations at the nearby

hoyuk (artificial mounds known as

tells) of Arvalya

and Cukurici.^. Bronze

age

Excavations in recent years have unearthed settlements from

the early Bronze Age

at the Ayasuluk Hill. In 1954 a burial ground from the

Mycenaean

era (1500-1400 BCE) with ceramic pots was discovered close to the

ruins of the basilica of St. John.^[8]

This was the period of the Mycenaean Expansion when the

Achaioi

(as they were called by

Homer
) settled in

Ahhiyawa

during the 14th and 13th centuries BCE. Scholars believe that

Ephesus was founded on the settlement of Apasa (or Abasa), a

Bronze Age
-city

noted in 14th-century BCE

Hittite

sources as in the land of

Ahhiyawa

.

[9]

 Dark

age

The city of Ephesus itself was founded as an

Attic-Ionian colony in the 10th century BCE on the Ayasuluk Hill, three

kilometers from the center of antique Ephesus (as attested by excavations at the

Seljuk
castle

during the 1990s). The mythical founder of the city was a prince of

Athens
named

Androklos

, who had to leave his country after the death of his father, King

Kadros. According to legend, he founded Ephesus on the place where the oracle of

Delphi
became

reality (“A fish and a boar will show you the way”). Androklos drove away most

of the native Carian

and Lelegian

inhabitants of the city and united his people with the remainder. He was a

successful warrior and, as king, he was able to join the twelve cities of

Ionia
together

into the

Ionian League

. During his reign the city began to prosper. He died in a

battle against the Carians when he came to the aid of

Priene
, another

city of the Ionian League.^[10]

Androklos and his dog are depicted on the Hadrian temple frieze, dating from the

second century. Later, Greek historians such as

Pausanias

, Strabo

and the poet Kallinos, and the historian

Herodotos

however reassigned the city’s mythological foundation to Ephos,

queen of the Amazons

.

The Greek goddess

Artemis
and

the great Anatolian goddess

Kybele

were identified together as Artemis of Ephesus. The

many-breasted “Lady of Ephesus”, identified with

Artemis
, was

venerated in the

Temple of Artemis

, one of the

Seven Wonders of the World

and the largest building of the ancient world

according to

Pausanias

(4.31.8). Pausanius mentions that the temple was built by Ephesus,

son of the river god

Caystrus

.^[11]

before the arrival of the Ionians. Of this structure, scarcely a trace remains.

 Archaic

period

About 650 BCE, Ephesus was attacked by the

Cimmerians
,

who razed the city, including the temple of Artemis. A few small Cimmerian

artifacts can be seen at the archaeological museum of Ephesus.

When the Cimmerians had been driven away, the city was ruled

by a series of tyrants. After a revolt by the people, Ephesus was ruled by a

council called the Kuretes. The city prospered again, producing a number

of important historical figures, such as the

iambic

poets

Callinus

[12]

and the satirist

Hipponax
,

the philosopher

Heraclitus
,

the great painter

Parrhasius

and later the grammarian

Zenodotos

, the physicians

Soranus

and Rufus.

About 560 BCE Ephesus was conquered by the

Lydians
under

the mighty king Croesus

. He treated the inhabitants with respect, despite ruling harshly,

and even became the main contributor to the reconstruction of the temple of

Artemis.^[13]

His signature has been found on the base of one of the columns of the temple

(now on display in the

British Museum

). Croesus made the populations of the different settlements

around Ephesus regroup (synoikismos)

in the vicinity of the Temple of Artemis, enlarging the city.

Later in the same century, the Lydians under Croesus invaded

Persia. The Ionians refused a peace offer from

Cyrus the Great

, siding with the Lydians instead. After the Persians

defeated Croesus the Ionians offered to make peace but Cyrus insisted that they

surrender and become part of the empire.

They were defeated by the Persian army commander

Harpagos

in 547 BCE. The Persians then incorporated the Greek cities of Asia

Minor into the

Achaemenid Empire

. Those cities were then ruled by

satraps
.

Ephesus has intrigued archaeologists for the main reason that

for the Archaic Period, there is no definite location for the settlement. There

are numerous sites to suggest the movement of a settlement between the Bronze

Age and the Roman period but the silting up of the natural harbors as well as

the movement of the Kayster River meant that the location never remainded the

same.

 Classical

period

Ephesus continued to prosper. But when taxes continued to be

raised under

Cambyses II

and

Darius

, the Ephesians participated in the

Ionian Revolt

against Persian rule in the

Battle of Ephesus (498 BCE)

, an event which instigated the

Greco-Persian wars

. In 479 BCE, the Ionians, together with

Athens
and

Sparta

, were able to oust the Persians from Anatolia. In 478 BCE, the Ionian

cities entered with Athens and Sparta into the

Delian League

against the Persians. Ephesus did not contribute ships but

gave financial support by offering the treasure of

Apollo
to the

goddess Athena
,

protectress of Athens.

During the

Peloponnesian War

, Ephesus was first allied to Athens^[

neededcitation] but sided in a later phase, called the Decelean War, or

the Ionian War, with Sparta, which also had received the support of the

Persians. As a result, rule over the kingdoms of Anatolia was ceded again to

Persia.

These wars did not much affect daily life in Ephesus. The

Ephesians were surprisingly modern in their social relations. They allowed

strangers to integrate. Education was much valued. Through the cult of Artemis,

the city also became a bastion of women’s rights. Ephesus even had its female

artists. In later times,

Pliny the Elder

mentioned having seen at Ephesus a representation of the

goddess

Diana

by Timarata, the daughter of a painter.

In 356 BCE the temple of Artemis was burned down, according

to legend, by a lunatic called Herostratus. By coincidence, this was the night

that

Alexander the Great

was born. The inhabitants of Ephesus at once set about

restoring the temple and even planned a larger and grander one than the

original.

 Hellenistic

period

When

Alexander the Great

defeated the Persian forces at the

Battle of Granicus

in 334 BCE, the Greek cities of Asia Minor were

liberated. The pro-Persian tyrant Syrpax and his family were stoned to death,

and Alexander was greeted warmly when he entered Ephesus in triumph. When

Alexander saw that the temple of Artemis was not yet finished, he proposed to

finance it and have his name inscribed on the front. But the inhabitants of

Ephesus demurred, claiming that it was not fitting for one god to build a temple

to another. After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, Ephesus in 290 BCE came under

the rule of one of Alexander’s generals,

Lysimachus
.

As the river

Cayster

silted up the harbor, the resulting marshes caused malaria and many

deaths among the inhabitants. The people of Ephesus were forced to move to a new

settlement two kilometers further on, when the king flooded the old city by

blocking the sewers.

This settlement was called after the king’s second wife,

Arsinoe II of Egypt

. After

Lysimachus

had destroyed the nearby cities of

Lebedos

and Colophon

in 292 BCE, he relocated their inhabitants to the new city. The

architectural layout of the city would remain unchanged for the next 500 years.

Ephesus revolted after the treacherous death of

Agathocles

, giving the Syrian king

Seleucus I Nicator

an opportunity for removing and killing Lysimachus, his

last rival, at the

Battle of Corupedium

in 281 BCE. After the death of Lysimachos the town took

again the name of Ephesus.

Thus Ephese became part of the

Seleucid Empire

. After the murder of king

Antiochus II Theos

and his Egyptian wife, pharaoh

Ptolemy III

invaded the Seleucid Empire and the Egyptian fleet swept the

coast of Asia Minor. Ephesus came under Egyptian rule between 263-197 BCE.

When the Seleucid king

Antiochus III the Great

tried to regain the Greek cities of Asia Minor, he

came in conflict with Rome

. After a series of battles, he was defeated by

Scipio Asiaticus

at the

Battle of Magnesia

in 190 BCE. As a result, Ephesus came under the rule of

the Attalid king of

Pergamon

Eumenes II

(197-133 BCE). When his grandson

Attalus

III
died without male children of his own, he left his kingdom to the

Roman Republic

.