People, and proceed to discuss business and pass resolutions. Many a meeting convened in an equally

irregular way, simply through a strong common feeling without any formal notice had been held in the great

Greek cities, and passed important resolutions. But this meeting was not conducted by persons used to

business and possessing authority with the crowd. It was a mere pandemonium, in which for more than an

hour the mob howled like Dervishes, shouting their prayers and invocations. Then the Secretary addressed

the assembly, and pointed out that such an irregular meeting was not permitted by the Imperial government,

which would regard this as a mere riot and punish it with the severity which it always showed to illegal

assumption of power.

The death of Lysimachus in 281 BC interrupted and impeded for a moment the development of the new city,

which he had planned on a great scale. But the position was favourable; and it soon became one of the

greatest cities of Asia. Miletus had once been the great seaport of the west coast of Asia Minor; and the

main route for the trade between the interior and the countries of the West came down the Meander Valley

to Miletus, at the southern entrance to a great gulf extending fully twenty miles into the land. But Miletus

had suffered greatly when the Ionian revolt was crushed by the Persians about 500 BC; and Ephesus then

gained an advantage through Persian favour. Moreover, Ephesus was really a nearer harbour than Miletus

even for trade coming down the Meander Valley. Finally, the river Meander was rapidly silting up its gulf,

and the harbour of Miletus was probably requiring attention to keep the entrance open; both the gulf of

Miletus, then so large, and the harbour have in modern times entirely disappeared, owing to the action of

the Meander. Thus Ephesus was heir to much of the trade and prosperity which had belonged to Miletus;

though it was destined in its turn, from a similar cause, to see its harbour ruined, and its trade and

importance inherited by its rival Smyrna.

Lysimachus had called the new city Arsinoe after his wife, thus breaking definitely with the old tradition as

to name and the old Ephesian religious connection; and he indicated the break by making the bust of

Arsinoe the principal type on the city coins. The tradition, however, was too strong; and another change of

name soon occurred, probably at his death in 281 BC. The coins of the city began once more to bear the old

name of Ephesus. But the Greek huntress virgin s till had the place of honour on the silver coins, while the

bee was the principal type on the copper coins. The spirit prevalent in the city expresses itself always on the

Figure 14: A, B. Coin of Ephesus under the name Arsinoe

Another change took place about 196. Ephesus was captured by Antiochus the Great; and the Asiatic spirit

again became dominant through the influence of the Syrian monarch. The bee regained its place as the

characteristic type on the silver coinage. A period of greater freedom under the Pergamenian influence, 189-

133, was marked by an increase in prosperity, and by a great variety in the classes and types of Ephesian

Ephesus formed part of the Roman Province of Asia, which was organised in 133 BC. The Roman

possession of the city was temporarily interrupted by the invasion of King Mithridates in 88 BC. It was from

Ephesus that he issued orders for the great massacre, in which 80,000 Romans (according to Appian, 150,000

according to Plutarch) were put to death in the Province of Asia. The Ephesians did not spare even the

Roman suppliants at the altar of the goddess, disregarding the right of asylum which had hitherto been

universally respected, even by invaders. But Sulla soon reconquered Asia; and Ephesus remained

undisturbed in Roman possession for many centuries, though sacked by the Goths in AD 263.

In the Roman Province of Asia, Pergamum, the old capital of the Kings, continued to be the titular capital;

but Ephesus, as the chief harbour of Asia looking towards the west, was far more important than an ordinary

city of the Province. It was the gate of the Province, both on the sea-way to Rome, and also on the great

central highway leading from Syria by Corinth and Brundisium to Rome. The Roman governors naturally fell

into the habit of entering the Province by way of Ephesus, for there was, one might almost say, no other

way at first; and this custom soon became a binding rule, with uninterrupted precedents to guarantee it.