Ephesus the Caretaker

Today I finished reading Twice Neokoros: Ephesus, Asia and the Cult of the Flavian Imperial Family (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World).

In Acts 19:35 we read about an uprising in Ephesus in the first century: “The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: ‘Men of Ephesus, doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian [neokoros] of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven [or Zeus-fallen image]?’”

So Ephesus was known for being the caretaker city of Artemis’s magnificent temple and her cult. And later (around 90 A.D.) the cult of the sebastoi (think emperor worship) was established in Ephesus. That made Ephesus a guardian twice over, or “twice neokoros.” The author of this book assesses the evidence from coins, statues, and literary texts—any source available—and, among other topics, describes the effect of this development on the city and Asia Minor (called simply “Asia” back then). He also assesses what it meant for a man or woman to be titled “high priest of Asia.”

It appears that around the time the imperial temple was erected, Ephesus hosted Olympic games in Domitian’s honor, and an enormous bath complex was also constructed. Domitian, quite an unpopular emperor, was assassinated in 96, and after his death the senate voted to damn his memory (damnatio memoriae). So the Ephesians got to work chipping his name off their inscriptions! They also redirected the focus of worship at the imperial temple to other members of the Flavian family.

If I set my next novel in first-century Ephesus, I need to figure out the exact year it takes place, because I can’t have that bath complex or an imperial temple present if I set the story in A. D. 63. If you've seen the fabulous library facade at Ephesus, I can't have that either, as it's a second-century building. And I certainly can’t have any inscriptions bearing the name “D-------” after the damnatio memoriae!