The marked and peculiar character of the society and population of the great Asian cities, amid which the

local Churches were built up, is present in the writer's mind throughout the Seven Letters; and it is

necessary to form some conception of this subject. Disregarding differences, we shall try to describe briefly

the chief forces which had been at work in those cities during the last three centuries, and the prominent

features that were common to them all about AD 90. Some of them were ancient Greek colonies, like Smyrna

and Ephesus, some were old Anatolian cities, like Pergamum and Sardis; but all these had recently

experienced great changes, and many new cities, like Laodicea, Philadelphia, Thyatira, had been founded by

the kings.

The successors of Alexander the Great were Greek kings, ruling Oriental lands and peoples. To maintain

their hold on their dominions it was necessary to build up a suitable organisation in the countries over

which they ruled. Their method everywhere was similar: it was to make cities that should be at once

garrisons to dominate the country and centres of Graeco-Asiatic manners and education, which the kings

were desirous of spreading among their Oriental subjects. The rather pedantic adjective Graeco-Asiatic is

used to describe the form which Greek civilisation was forced to assume, as it attempted to establish itself in

Oriental lands: it did not merely change the cities, it was itself much altered in the attempt. Sometimes those

kings founded new cities, where previously there seem to have been only villages. Sometimes they

introduced an accession of population and change of constitution in already existing cities, a process which

may be described as re -founding. In both cases alike a new name, connected with the dynasty, was almost

invariably substituted for the previous name of the village or city, though in many cases the old name soon

revived, e.g., in Ephesus and in Tarsus. Commonest among them were the Seleucid names Antioch and

Laodicea, and the Macedonian Alexandria.

The new population consisted generally of colonists brought from foreign countries, who were considered

intruders and naturally not much liked by the older population. The colonists were granted property and

privileges in their new cities; and they knew that the continuance of their fortunes and rights depended on

the permanence of the royal government which had introduced them. Thus those strangers constituted a

loyal garrison in every city where they had been planted. With them were associated in loyalty the whole

party that favoured the royal policy, or hoped to profit by it. It would appear that these constituted a

powerful combination in the cities. They were in general the active, energetic, and dominating party.

How important in the New Testament writings those Asian foundations of the Greek kings were, is brought

out very clearly by a glance over the list of cities. Laodicea and Thyatira were founded or refounded by

Seleucid kings: the Ionian Greek cities in general were profoundly modified by them. Ephesus, Smyrna,

Troas, Pergamum and Philadelphia were refounded by other Greek kings in the same period and under similar

Two classes of settlers were specially required and encouraged in the Seleucid colonies. In the first place, of

course, soldiers were needed. These were found chiefly among the mercenaries of many nations--but mostly

of northern race, Macedonians, Thracians, etc.--who made up the strength of the Seleucid armies. The

harsh, illiterate, selfish, domineering tone of those soldier-citizens was often satirised by the Greek writers of

the third and second centuries before Christ, who delighted to paint them as braggarts, cowards at heart,

boasting of false exploits; and the boastful soldier, the creation of Greek wit and malice, has been

perpetuated since that time on the Roman and the Elizabethan stage in traits essentially the same.

But the Greek kings knew well that soldiers alone were not enough to establish their cities on a permanent

basis. Other colonists were needed, able to manage, to lead, to train the rude Oriental peasantry in the arts

on which civilised life must rest, to organise and utilise their labour and create a commercial system. The