(probably Smyrna in particular) began to contest its right to be the official port of entrance, the Emperor

Caracalla confirmed the custom of "First Landing" at Ephesus by an Imperial rescript.

The drawing in Figure 15 expresses the Ephesian pride in this right. It shows a Roman war-vessel, propelled

by oars, not sails, lightly built, active and independent of winds. The legend "First Landing" marks it as the

ship that conveys the Proconsul to h is landing-place in Ephesus. The coin was struck under Philip, AD 244-

8; but the right was of great antiquity.

Figure 15: Ephesus--the first landing place

The type of a ship occurs in another form with a different meaning on Ephesian coins. A ship under sail,

which is shown in Figure 16, is a merchant vessel; and indicates the maritime trade that frequented the

harbour of Ephesus. Even if no other evidence were known, this type would furnish sufficient proof that

Ephesus possessed a harbour. The same type occurs on coins of Smyrna, but not of any other of the Seven

Cities; because none of the others had harbours.

Not only was Ephesus the greatest trading city of the Province Asia, and also of all Asia north of Taurus (as

Strabo says); it derived further a certain religious authority in the whole Province from the Great Goddess

Artemis. The Ephesian Artemis was recognised, even in the first century after Christ, as in some sense a

deity of the whole Province Asia. This belief was probably a creation of the Roman period and the Roman

unity; and it deserves fuller notice as an instructive instance of the effect produced by a Roman idea

working itself out in Greek forms.

Figure 16: The sea-borne commerce of Ephesus

The Roman administrative idea "Province" was expressed by the Greek word "Nation": in Strabo "the Nation

Asia" corresponds to the Latin Asia Provincia. This Greek rendering shows a truly creative instinct: in place

of a mere external unity produced by conquest and compulsion it substitutes an intern al and organic unity

springing from national feeling. But the "Nation" must necessarily have a national religion: without the

common bond of religion no real national unity was possible or conceivable to the Greek and the Anatolian

mind. As the bond the Imperial policy set up the State religion, the worship of the Majesty of Rome and of

the reigning Emperor as the incarnate God in human form on earth (praesens divus) and of the deceased

Emperors who had returned to Heaven--after the fashion described in chapter 10. But while the Province

loyally accepted this religion, it was not satisfied with it. There was a craving after a native Asian deity, a

more real Divine ideal: the Imperial religion was after all a sham religion, and no amount of shows and

festivals and pretended religious form could give it religious reality or satisfy the deep-seated religious

cravings of the Asian mind. A deity who had been a power from of old in the land was wanted, and not a

deity who was invented for the purpose and the occasion.

In the circumstances of the country, and in conformity with the ideas of the time, such a deity could be

found only in the tutelary divinity of some great, leading city; and practically only two cities were of

national Asian standing, Pergamum and Ephesus. As we have seen in chapter 10, the Pergamenian gods,

Dionysos the Leader (Kathegemon) and Asklepios the Saviour (Soter), were being pushed towards that

position, and the towns of Asia were encouraged to adopt the worship of these two deities alongsid e of

their own native gods. But the Ephesian goddess had a stronger influence than the deities of Pergamum, for

every city of Asia was brought into trading and financial relations with Ephesus, and thus learned to

appreciate the power of the goddess. Every city became familiarised with transactions in which the gods of

the two parties were named, the Ephesian Artemis and the god or goddess of the city to which the other

contracting party belonged. In this way Artemis of Ephesus was in AD 55 the deity "whom all Asia and the

civilised world worshipped." A commentary on these words of Acts 19:27 is furnished by an inscription of

Akmonia in Phrygia, dated 85 AD, recording the terms of a will, in which the testator invokes as overseers

and witnesses a series of deities, the Divine Emperors and the gods of his country, Zeus and Asklepios the