Summer AD 124 – Hadrian tours Asia (part 3), visits Smyrna and Ephesus and sails to Athens (#Hadrian1900) FOLLOWING HADRIAN

After Pergamon and Sardis (see here), two other great cities of western Asia had their turn to receive Hadrian and his party, Smyrna and Ephesus. Both metropoleis were perennial rivals, competing with each other for first place in the province and the granting of the acclaimed title neokoros. Travelling with Hadrian was one of the most renowned sophists of his time, Marcus Antonius Polemon, who was to use his rhetorical skills for the benefit of his adopted home, the Ionian city of Smyrna (Philostr. VS 530–31).

Born in Laodicea on the Lycus in Phrygia, Polemon attended Smyrna’s schools of rhetoric as a youth, where he received civic honours from the citizens for his services to the city. One of Polemon’s talents was to plead causes before the rulers of the Empire. Trajan granted the orator the privilege of unrestricted travel, a favour later extended by Hadrian. He then became an ambassador to Hadrian and served on many missions for the Emperor, including delivering the inauguration speech at the consecration of the Olympieion at Athens in 131/132. According to Philostratus (VS 1.25.1–4), Polemon persuaded Hadrian to spend ten million drachmae on Smyrna in a single day, from which the city built a “grain market, the most magnificent of all those in Asia” and “a temple that can be seen from afar”.

Smyrna has a long history and is traditionally considered to be the birthplace of Homer (Strabo 14.1.37). It was founded by the Aeolians at the beginning of the first millennium BC and later by the Ionians. Smyrna quickly became an important seaport and a thriving commercial centre on the Aegean coast. It was renowned as one of the most magnificent cities in Asia Minor (Strabo 14.646). Located about forty miles north of Ephesus, it occupied a beautiful territory at the mouth of a gulf. The Ionian city first rose to prominence during the Archaic Period as one of the principal ancient Greek settlements in western Anatolia. The original town, now called “Old Smyrna”, was located northeast of the Gulf of Smyrna. It was known for its magnificent temple, which was dedicated to Athena. However, Old Smyrna was attacked and destroyed by the Lydian king Alyattes around 627 BC, and it remained abandoned for 400 years.

Smyrna was re-established during the time of Alexander the Great. A new and larger city was built on the slope of Mount Pagus. Legend has it that while on a hunting expedition there, the Macedonian king fell asleep under a tree and had a dream in which two Nemeses instructed him to build a city on that very spot. Mount Pagus then became the acropolis of New Smyrna. However, Alexander did not live to carry this plan into effect, which was only accomplished by his successors Antigonus and Lysimachus. Nemesis first appeared on Smyrnean coins in the 1st century AD and became more frequent in the 2nd century, with the introduction of the double Nemesis during the reign of Hadrian. Smyrna’s founding myth of Alexander’s hunt on Mount Pagos must have caught the attention of the Emperor, who had just experienced a successful bear hunt in Mysia (see here). His hunting activities in the area also left such a deep impression on the citizens of Stratonicea-Hadrianopolis that they later worshipped him as Zeus Kynegesios (Zeus the Hunter).

The new Hellenistic city (New Smyrna) was located twenty stadia south of Old Smyrna. It was renowned among ancient writers for its beauty, fine wines, beautiful buildings, and wealth. According to Strabo (Strab. 14.1.37), the streets of Smyrna were well paved with stone, and the city contained several squares, porticoes, fountains, a public library, and numerous temples and other public buildings. A temple dedicated to Zeus Akraios (Zeus dwelling on the tops of mountains) stood on the slopes of Mount Pagus, and the city possessed a harbour where the Temple of the Mother Goddess and the gymnasium stood. Strabo also mentions a “Homereium, a quadrangular portico containing a shrine and wooden statue of Homer. For the Smyrnaeans, above all others, urge the claims of their city to be the birthplace of Homer, and they have a sort of brass money.” The coins, a testament to Homer’s status in Smyrna, show him on the reverse seated, holding a scroll and resting his chin on his hand in a contemplative pose.

After establishing the Roman Province of Asia in 133 BC, Smyrna was rewarded with various grants and privileges, having sided with the Romans against the war with Mithridates. In AD 26, the city became a major centre for the imperial cult and was granted the privilege of building a local temple for Emperor Tiberius, earning the title of first neokoria. Coins struck between AD 29/30 and 34/35 during the administration of the proconsul Publius Petronius depicted Tiberius as pontifex in his completed temple on the reverse with Tiberius’ mother Livia and the personified Senate on the obverse (RPC I, 2469).

Thanks to Polemon’s interventions, Smyrna was allowed to build a second provincial temple dedicated to Hadrian and acquired the title of neokoros for the second time. Hadrian thus became the first emperor to allow more than one city in the same koinon (provincial league) to build a provincial temple to his own cult: first, Cyzicus (see here), then Smyrna, and later Ephesus (Burrell, 2003 & 2004). Hadrian’s generous gifts and benefactions to Smyrna during his visit in the summer of 124 are detailed in Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists and confirmed by an inscription (Smyrna 54).

Polemon so entirely converted Hadrian to the cause of Smyrna [from that of Ephesus] that in one day the Emperor lavished on Smyrna ten million [drachmae], with which were built a corn market a gymnasium—the most magnificent of all those in Asia, and a temple that can be seen from afar, the one on the promontory that seems to challenge Mimas. Philostratos, Lives of the Sophists 1.25.2 (531)

The forty-five-line inscription lists the benefactions of Hadrian, as mentioned by Philostratus, along with twenty-five other men and women, as well as the collective contributions of the Jews and the gifts they gave toward the construction and embellishment of the gymnasium complex (Boatwright, 2000). The grandeur of this building is evident from the mentioned gifts, such as a basilica with bronze doors, a columned anointing room with a gilt roof, a porticoed palm court with gardens, a temple of Tyche, and a sunroom (Burrell, 2004). The passage of Hadrian’s benefactions received through Polemon (lines 33–42) reports the second neocoria, festival games, the appointments of theologoi and hymnodoi, a great sum of money (although it differs from Philoststratos’ account), and columns for the gymnasium itself “… we obtained from the Lord Caesar Hadrian through Antonius Polemo: a second decree of the Senate through which we have become twice neōkoroi, a sacred contest, tax exemption, theologoi, hymnōdoi, one million and five hundred thousand, for the aleiptērion 72 pillars from Synnada, 20 Numidian, 6 of porphyry.”

The granting of the second neokoria is attested by another inscription (Smyrna 93), a presumably imperial letter confirming this special honour and mentioning the Roman consuls in office in AD 124. On this basis, this date is regarded as the terminus post quem for the inscription. The façade of a six-column Ionic temple can be seen on the reverse of the coins of Hadrian issued in Smyrna under the administration of Strategos Sextus (RPC III, 1970). Whether these coins represent the second provincial temple cannot be confirmed as the legend ‘neokoros’ is absent, and the same temple appears on the coins under Nero (RPC I, 2489). The first neokoros legend appears on the coins struck under Caracalla, which specifically identifies the temple of Hadrian among the three for which Smyrna was neokoros and shows his cuirassed figure as the cult image within it. The legend on the reverse of the coin proclaims the city as “three times neokoros of the Augusti” (see here).

Archaeologically, no concrete evidence has been discovered to prove the existence of the temple of Hadrian in Smyrna. However, Philostratus’ topographical remarks may help locate and identify the sacred place. The remains of the temenos of a large east-facing temple and scattered pieces of marble were unearthed directly overlooking the gulf in the Değirmentepe neighbourhood of Izmir in 1824/1825. The placement fits Philostratus’ description. This site could be described as an akra (meaning a height or a cape on the seacoast) and is visible from afar, situated on the city’s northwestern edge, closest to Mimas, a mountain range that runs across the Erythrae peninsula (Boatwright 2000 & Burrell, 2004). The temple’s foundations were dated by the nineteenth-century investigator Graf Anton Prokesch von Osten, who attributed them to the Hadrianic or Antonine period. Von Osten inferred that the temple originally had ten Corinthian columns on its short side and perhaps twenty-three on its long side (dimensions comparable to those of the Temple of Olympieion Zeus).

With no certainty as to whom the temple was dedicated, some scholars have claimed that Asclepius (mentioned by Pausanias 7.5.9), Zeus Akraios, or Hadrian were the deities worshipped there. Mary T. Boatwright suggests that the temple was originally dedicated to Zeus Akraios and was later transferred to belong to the cult of Hadrian when the city gained the second title of neokoros. Burrell, however, argues that the temple was dedicated to the worship of Hadrian himself, “neither with nor as Zeus”, as in Cyzicus and Ephesus (Burrell, 2002).

In addition to the sacred festival granted by Hadrian in 124, in which Polemon served as agonothetes, the city of Smyrna later established the Hadrianeia Olympia athletic games following Hadrian’s second visit to the city. These games included musical and dramatic competitions and were considered very important, as many Smyrnaeans who won were honoured in their city and abroad (Tataki, 2009). The sacred games were held in the stadium of Smyrna, where the Smyrnaeans dedicated altars to Hadrian Olympios (Smyrna 106 & Smyrna 104). Associations, too, honoured the Emperor. The initiate (mystai) of Dionysos Breiseus set up a monument in honour of Hadrian, “Olympios, saviour, and founder”. Smyrna’s gratitude towards Hadrian was further expressed by taking the title Hadriane (Birley, 1997).

The initiates (mystai) of the great Dionysos Breiseus before the city honoured emperor Trajan Hadrian Caesar Augustus Olympios, saviour and founder. This was done under the supervision of Dikaios Heliodoros, son of Alexandros, their own treasurer (tamias).

Polemon continued to act on behalf of Smyrna to the end of his life. Following his appointment as Smyrna’s strategos ca. 134/135, he issued an impressive number of medallions of Antinous, as well as coins for Hadrian as Zeus (RPC III, 1972) and Sabina (RPC III, 1974). The Antinous medallions portray animals associated with the cults of Dionysus, Hermes, and Attis (Men): a female panther, a ram, and a bull, linking the Bithynian boy with these deities.

The rivalry between Smyrna and its neighbours, Ephesos and Pergamon, continued in the following years. Each of the three cities claimed to be metropolis of Asia, and all kept a jealous eye on the others’ honours and titles. In ca. AD 143, Polemon was appointed to defend ‘the temples and their rights’ before the Emperor. This mission was probably ‘necessitated by some question of relationships among rival neokoroi cities in the koinon’ (Burrell, 2004). A letter from Antoninus Pius (see here) further indicates that there was a dispute between the three cities about the proper use of honorific titles. The tense situation continued until the time of Marcus Aurelius when the famous orator Aelius Aristides pleaded before the provincial assembly for the establishment of concord (homonoia) between the three cities (Aristid. Or. 23).

After Polemon’s death, one of the most important orators who made Smyrna his home and his cause was Aelius Aristides (AD 117-181). He pleaded before the provincial assembly for the establishment of concord (homonoia) between Smyrna, Ephesos and Pergamon (Aristid. Or. 23). In AD 178, a major earthquake hit Smyrna, destroying most of the city. Aristides wrote a letter of appeal to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (Aristid. Or. 19) that was so instrumental in securing imperial funds for rebuilding that Philostratus would write, “To say that Aristides founded Smyrna is no mere boastful eulogy but most just and true.” (Philostr. VS 582-583). A bronze statue of Aristides was set up in the marketplace of Smyrna, inscribed, “For his goodness and speeches”.

The rebuilding efforts commenced soon after the earthquake with assistance from Marcus Aurelius, as evidenced by a depiction of his wife, Faustina the Younger, still discernible above an arch of the western colonnade of the Agora (see here). One prominent figure who governed Smyrna in the 3rd century AD was Cassius Dio, the well-known Roman statesman and chronicler famous for his 80-volume Roman History and his account of Hadrian’s reign. Emperor Macrinus appointed him to this esteemed position in AD 218.

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From Smyrna, Hadrian seems to have visited Erythrae on the coast facing Chios, apparently travelling by ship (Birley, 2007). The city founded a festival called the Megala Hadrianeia Epibateria (‘Great Hadrianic Landing Festival’), which, as its name suggests, celebrated Hadrian’s visit to the Erythrae peninsula (Erythrai 94).

The homeland and the sacred theatrical synod honoured Antonia Tyrannis Juliane, who was director of contests for the Great Hadrianeian Epibaterian contests in a glorious and trustworthy manner. They set up the statue from their own resources.

According to Pausanias (7.3.7), Erythrae was founded by Cretan settlers under the leadership of Erythros the Red, son of Rhadamanthys. Afterwards, the city was expanded and improved by the Ionian colonists led by Knopos, a descendent of Kodros, the last legendary Athenian king (Strab. 14.633). The eponymous hero Erythros is explicitly mentioned as such on a coin from the mid-3rd century AD -ΕΡΥΘΡΟΣ ΚΤΙΣΤΗΣ ΕΡΥ (‘Erythros, founder of the Ery(thraeans)- (RPC VI 4720). However, Erythrae had a multi-ethnic population with Lycians, Carians, and Pamphylians, also referred to by literary sources. Erythrae had a proud history to look back on as it belonged to the Panionion (or Ionian League), the political league of twelve Ionian cities, founded in the mid-7th century BC. It consisted of the following cities: Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Teos, Colophon, Erythrae, Clazomenae, Phocaea, Samos, Chios, and later Smyrna was added. This union served as a means of strengthening the national, social, and political cohesion of different populations that came from mainland Greece. 

The city was notable for being the seat of the Erythraean sibyls, Herophile and Athenais, the prophetesses presiding over the Apollonian oracle. Herophile is often credited for having predicted both the coming of Alexander the Great and the Greek victory of Troy and Homer’s telling of the story. In Christian tradition, however, the Sybil is also said to have prophesied the coming of the Redeemer with the acrostic “ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΕΙΣΤΟΣ ΘΕΟΥ ΥΙΟΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ ΣΤΑΥΡΟΣ” (“Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior, Cross”).

After the death of Attalos III in 133 BC, the Pergamene kingdom was bequeathed to the Romans, and Erythrae flourished as a free city (civitas libera) attached to the Roman province of Asia. However, its importance faded after the earthquakes of that region in the 1st century AD. In his Description of Greece, Pausanias writes that a temple of Athena Polias stood on the Acropolis and a huge wooden image of her sitting on a throne (Paus. 7.5.9). The temple was built in the second half of the 8th century BC and was expanded with various additions in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Terracotta goddess figures have been excavated in the eastern part of the temple, and Kore sculptures dated to the 6th century BC (see here).

The Hellenistic theatre at Erythrae, cut into the north slope of the Acropolis hill and constructed in the 4th century BC, was restored in AD 124 on the occasion of the visit to Hadrian to the city when the cavea and the analemma walls of the double diazoma were repaired. The orchestra was transformed into an arena at this time or later.

The Panionian League certainly appealed to Hadrian. At Teos, the Emperor was to be honoured with the name “Panionio” (Πανιώνιος) toward the end of his reign, granted to him by the Ionian League in conjunction with his titles Olympios and Panhellenios. The seat and sacred meeting place of the Ionians was called Panionion and was located north of Mykale, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Smyrna (opposite Samos). There, the Panionian games took place in honour of Poseidon Helikonios, which included annual festivals and libations and featured, among other things, poetic competitions. Herodotus describes it as follows:

The Panionion is a sacred ground in Mykale, facing north; it was set apart for Poseidon of Helicon by the joint will of the Ionians. Mykale is a western promontory of the mainland opposite Samos; the Ionians used to assemble there from their cities and keep the festival to which they gave the name of Panionia. Not only the Ionian festivals, but all those of all the Greeks alike, end in the same letter, just as do the names of the Persians. (Hdt. 1.148)

The Panionion was a sacred precinct located on the top of a hill on the northern side of Mykale. A monumental altar (4.26 m × 17.78 m), presumed to be the altar of Poseidon, surrounded by an unfinished temenos wall, was excavated by German archaeologists in the late 1950s. At the foot of the hill, 50 m (160 ft) southwest of the altar, is a small theatre cut into solid rock with a diameter of 32 metres and 11 rows of seats. The ancient remains date from the 4th century BC and represent the younger Panionion when the Ionian League attempted to revive the cult of Poseidon Helikonios (Diod. Sic. 15.49.1).

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The exact landing location of the imperial flotilla after departing from Erythrae is uncertain. They likely landed in Teos, home to the largest temple of Dionysus in Anatolia, and in Notium, the port of Colophon, a city that held a prominent role in the Ionian League (Birley, 2007). Teos was a thriving seaport boasting two excellent harbours and a member of the Panionium. Its Hellenistic Temple of Dionysus was an architectural masterpiece, said by Vitruvius to have been designed by the famous architect Hermogenes of Priene, to whom he also attributes the design of the Hellenistic temple of Artemis Leukophryene at Magnesia on the Maeander (Vitr. De Arch. 7.praef.12).

The Teian sanctuary of Dionysus, constructed in the last quarter of the 3rd century BC, consisted of a trapezoidal temenos that covered a large area of 8,869m2 (Kadıoğlu, 2020). It was surrounded by stoas in Doric, Ionic, and mixed Doric-Ionic orders. An altar with stairs stood to the east, and a newly discovered propylon served as the sanctuary’s main entrance. The temple itself, constructed entirely of marble in the Ionic order, had eleven columns on the longer side and six on the shorter side, measuring 18.50 m x 35 m. While some of the various architectural remains scattered around the temple are of Hellenistic origin, the surviving temple belongs to the Roman period. The temple underwent extensive repairs during the reigns of Augustus and Hadrian, possibly due to an earthquake in 14 BC. A fragmentary inscription on an architrave (Teos 76) attests to Hadrian’s responsibility for restoring the temple. The decision to restore the temple at Teos was likely taken during Hadrian’s visits to Teos in 124, 129 and 131.

Αὐτοκράτω[ρ Καῖσαρ]| Θεοῦ Τρ|[α]ϊαν|οῦ Πα|[ρθικοῦ υἱ]|ὸς Θεο|[ῦ Νέρου]|α υ[ἱωνὸς Τραϊανὸς Ἁδριανὸς Σεβαστὸς Ὀλύμπιος Πανελλήνιος —]
Παν[ι]ώνιο[ς ἀρχιερεὺ]|ς μέγι|[σ]τος| δημ|[αρχικῆς ἐξου]|σίας| [τὸ ․, ὕπατ]|ος τ̣|[ὸ —]

The inscription, dated to AD 132/8, celebrates Hadrian as Olympios, Panhellenios and Panionios, the latter epithet conferred on the Emperor by the Ionian Koinon and limited to Ionia itself (Robert, 1946). The image of Dionysus appears on the reverse of Teian bronze coins struck under Hadrian, showing him beardless, standing, and resting on a rectangular pedestal (RPC III, 1998).

The city of Colophon and its harbour at Notium may have been expecting a visit. It was the home of the Greek epic and elegiac poet Antimachus (ca. 400 BC), whom Hadrian considered superior to Homer. Antimachus wrote an epic, the Thebais, and an elegy on his dead love, Lyde, both characterised by extreme length and diverse mythological episodes. The Emperor’s approval ensured the poet gained public recognition, “whose very name had previously been unknown to many” (Dio, 69.4.6). Notium was located on a hill overlooking the sea. It served as a port for nearby Colophon, and pilgrims frequently passed through it on their way to the famed oracular sanctuary of Apollo at Claros. 

It is difficult to doubt an imperial visit to the Apollo oracle at Claros, one of the most important sights and sacred places in antiquity (Birley, 2007). Epigraphic evidence suggests that Hadrian was associated with restorations in the sanctuary of Apollo at Claros, where the god Apollo was worshipped alongside his sister Artemis and his mother, Leto. Evidence of cultic activity at the sanctuary can be traced back to the early Iron Age, if not earlier, but the construction of the monumental temple began in the 4th century BC. The earliest mention of Claros is in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (see here) from the 7th century BC. During this period, several altars and a marble temple dedicated to Apollo were constructed near a sacred spring. Later, in the 3rd century BC, various significant structures and cult statues of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto were built, along with a larger Doric Temple of Apollo.

The oracular sanctuary consisted of various buildings, such as the temple itself, an altar, treasuries, and other structures that were associated with the oracle’s activities. The temple was built between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC on the site of an earlier sacred building and was restored during the reign of Hadrian. The new temple was constructed on a five-stepped platform with dimensions of 26 × 46 m and had six columns on the narrow sides and eleven on the long sides.

During the early days of the Roman Empire, the Clarian oracle became very popular, attracting a large number of visitors who sought its counsel. Rulers, individuals and cities highly regarded the prophecies, and their fame was worldwide. In AD 18, Germanicus visited the oracle during his travels in the East and received a shocking prediction. The seer predicted that he would soon meet his end. This prediction came true just a year later when he passed away in Syrian Antioch (Antakya) at the young age of 34. Tacitus, who had likely visited the same oracle himself ten years prior as proconsul of Asia, described the procedure for receiving an oracle. He was surprised to discover that, unlike Delphi, no priestess was present but a male priest who spoke on behalf of Apollo (Tac. Ann. 2.54).

The oracular sanctuary consisted of various buildings, such as the temple itself, an altar, treasuries, and other structures that were associated with the oracle’s activities. The temple was built between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC on the site of an earlier sacred building and was completed during the reign of Hadrian. The new temple was constructed on a five-stepped platform with dimensions of 23 × 44 m and had six columns on the narrow sides and eleven on the long sides.

Numerous monuments were constructed during the Roman Period, and recent excavations have revealed that the sanctuary underwent significant modifications during the first half of the 2nd century AD. Hadrian played a vital role in restoring and completing the temple. A fragmented dedication of the temple of Apollo in which he is hailed as Olympios, Panhellenios and Panionios mentions Hadrian as the dedicator. The decision to restore the temple at Claros was likely taken during his visit in 124 (or 129), while the terminus post quem for the temple’s restoration is December 135 based on Hadrian’s titulature (Ferrary, 2000). Hadrian financed the entablature of the temple’s facade, which supported six columns and five more columns on each long side (Moretti, 2012). However, the temple was still not completed thirty or forty years after Hadrian’s death. Pausanias (7.5.4) mentions that the sanctuary of Apollo at Claros, along with that of Didyma, were unfinished buildings.

Αυτοκράτωρ Καΐσ[αρ θεού Τραιαν]οΰ Παρθικού ύός θεού Νέρβα υίω[νός Τραϊανός Αδριανός Σεβαστός, άρχιερεύς μέγιστος,] δημ[αρχικής εξουσίας το (–), αύ]το κράτωρ το δε[ύτερον, ύπατος] το (τρίτον), ‘Ολύμπιος και Πανελλήν[ιος και Πανιώνιος — ]

Hadrian is known to have supported oracles, and during his reign, Delphi saw a short-lived revival via his patronage. Hadrian’s visit to Claros suggests his profound interest in religious and cultural sites. He likely participated in rituals, made offerings, and sought advice from Apollo’s oracle. Hadrian was to become eponymous prytanis (local magistrate) of Colophon, responsible for the efficient functioning of the shrine (Boatwright, 2000). Two inscriptions show that Hadrian agreed to be the eponymous prytanis (see here #16).

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There is strong evidence that Hadrian was later present at Ephesus, the ‘first and greatest metropolis in Asia’. There, he gave audiences to embassies. One of the embassies he received was from the mountains of northern Lycia, three members of the council of the Termessians in Oenoanda, who had come to ask the Emperor’s approval for the establishment by C. Iulius Demosthenes of a new thymelic contest, the Demostheneia, in Oenoanda. On 29 August, Hadrian wrote to the demos of the Termessians, expressing his approval of the musical competition and the conditions of the foundation. The letter that the three envoys took back with them is dated 29 August and ends ‘from Ephesus’ (SEG 38.1462).

The letter of Hadrian was inscribed on stone and displayed in Oenoanda, together with four other documents which record the establishment of the festival. This 117-line inscription reveals that Oenoanda’s Demostheneia festival was to be held every fourth year and was entirely funded by Demosthenes’ private resources. It specifies the cost of each festival (4,450 denarii per celebration), with most of the expenditure going towards prize money for each victor. The musical and theatrical festival commenced on Augustus’ day in the month of Artemeisios (1 July), and the various events, including music competitions, vocal performances, and theatrical contests, were spread over 22 days. Additionally, the festival featured rituals honouring the Emperor, processions through the city with animal sacrifices, and a banquet. The festival continued to operate as late as 233 (Chaniotis, 2011).

English translation of Hadrian’s letter: The Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, son of the god Trajan Particus and grandson of the god Nerva Germanicus, pontifex maximus, with tribunician power for the eighth time, consul for the third time, greets the magistrates, council and people of the Termessians. I praise Iulius Demosthenes for the patriotic zeal (philotimia) he has shown to you, and I confirm the musical competition which he has promised to you. He himself will contribute the cost from his own treasuries. Let the penalties which he has fixed against those who contravene what he has fixed concerning his gift be enforced. The ambassadors were Artemon son of Diogenes Tobolasios, Simonides, son, grandson, and great grandson of Simonides, and Mertius Apelles. Farewell. 29 August, from Ephesus.

Gaius Iulius Demosthenes was a Roman knight and one of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of Oenoanda. He was the son of Gaius Iulius Apollonios. The family probably acquired Roman citizenship under Caesar or Augustus, as their nomen gentilicium Iulius indicates. His career as a Roman knight likely dates back to the late 1st century AD. His career (tres militiae) included the legionary tribunate in the Legio VI Ferrata (IGR III 500). In Syria, he was praefectus of the Ala VII Phrygum. Under Trajan, he was given the post of centenarian procurator in Sicily (IGR III 487). After that, his career as a knight ended for reasons that were not entirely clear. From then on, he was involved in his hometown and the Lycian League.

It is not clear what exactly Hadrian did at Ephesus. He may have travelled to Samos across the bay or Magnesia on the Maeander a few miles inland (Birley, 1997). Furthermore, Ephesus was honoured with a second visit in 129 and perhaps a third in 131. His visits resulted in several monuments and benefactions, although most of them seem related to the second one. This includes granting Ephesus its second neokoria in the early 130s by allowing the city to build a temple for his cult, although this grant may not have been linked to any specific visit (Burrell, 2004). For his benefactions, Hadrian was celebrated as their founder and saviour by the boule (council) and demos (people) of Ephesus. A dedicatory inscription dated to 129 honoured the Emperor for his unsurpassed gifts to Artemis (the sanctuary gained the right of receiving legacies), for permitting the Ephesians to import grain from Egypt as well as for making the harbours navigable and diverting the Cayster (Kaystros) River (Ephesos 1007).

For the first visit of 124, an inscription records that the local ephebes (young performers) sang hymns in the theatre for the emperor, who listened to the performance with pleasure (Ephesos 603). The inscription doesn’t have a specific date, but the absence of Olympios in Hadrian’s titulature (a title bestowed from 129 onwards) suggests a connection with the first visit. The ceremony, overseen by Titus Flavius Potamon, the president of the gymnasium, was intended to attract the Graeculus (“Greekling”) emperor, who had a particular fondness for ancient religious ceremonies and Panhellenic worship.

When Titus Flavius Potamon, the fatherland-loving and emperor-loving, was president of the gymnasium, and the lord emperor Trajan Hadrian Caesar Augustus was staying in the city, the ephebes sang hymns of the emperor who listened [kindly] in the theatre, when ?lios Severus, son of a senator, was priest, who also […] and wore the golden garments officiating [for the Augustus in the] city and presented the ephebic youth [when he sacrificed] in the temple of Artemis. The new archon [Tib(erius) Claudius] Trophimos emperor-loving, admirable, [son?] of Tib(erius) Claudius Aristion the younger, president of the ephebes, [Cusonius]? Epigonos. (Translation: Aitor Blanco Pérez)

Another inscription that can be reasonably associated with this visit is a dedication of a statue of Hadrian by an association of chrysophoroi of Artemis, who consisted of sacred priests and victorious athletes of the Artemision charged with guarding the objects of the goddess (Ephesos 1001). The dedication is dated to the proconsular governorship of Quintus Pompeius Falco (123/124), and the erection of the statue was supervised by the winner of the Pythian games, Marcus Antonius Artemidorus, a priest who was probably a descendant of Mark Antony (Bowie, 2012).

Two other statues, one of Hadrian (Ephesos 1003) and the other of Sabina (Ephesos 1002), were also likely erected at this time by the Council and People of Ephesus. The dedications are dated to the proconsulate of Marcus Peducaeus Priscinus (124/125), the successor of Falco. The man who supervised the erection of Hadrian’s statue was one of the highest city magistrates, Tiberius Claudius Italicus, who served as grammateus of the demos (secretary of the people), while Sabina’s dedication named Tiberius Claudius Pius Pisoninus, who was later honoured at Teos as “ancestral benefactor” by the initiates (mystai) of the god Dionysos Setaneios with a statue and an altar (Teos 117). A portrait of Hadrian, which may have been commissioned in connection with the statue erected to commemorate his visit to the city in 124, was discovered among the ruins of the Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates (see here). 

Ephesus was a significant port and trade city located at the mouth of the Cayster River. Its strategic position gave the city importance in Asia Minor and the Aegean Sea, with highways connecting it with the other major cities of the Empire. However, from the construction of the first temple of Artemis around 800 BC on a shoreline of Ephesus to its destruction a thousand years later by an earthquake, the people of Ephesus continually struggled with the impact of colluvium and alluvium sedimentary processes. Over time, the continual silting of the Cayster River forced the inhabitants to regularly shift the harbours westward.

Livy commented on the nature of the entrance to the harbour of Ephesus and reported that the mouth of the Ephesian port was “like a river, long, narrow, and full of shoals” (Liv. 37.14.6) while Strabo noted that the harbour engineering efforts there, such as the construction of a mole to prevent siltation, instead created a sediment trap that made things worse (Strab. 14.1.24–25). The harbour was first rebuilt in the Hellenistic period, and there were a few attempts to clean and maintain it in the times of Nero. Hadrian attempted to improve the navigability of the harbours by constructing a dam to divert the Cayster River and stop the sediment flow into the harbour.

Access from the town to the quay was permitted via monumental gates. Hadrian built the Middle Harbour Gate at the end of the Harbour Street (Arcadiane) Street. The gate, built in the Ionic order, comprised three passageways and four canopies resting on columns. This gate, built by Hadrian, was in use for over a century but was likely destroyed by earthquakes in the 3rd or 4th century AD. In addition to the Middle Harbour Gate, two more gates, the southern and northern gates, were built in the 1st half of the 3rd century AD and mid-3rd century AD.

At Ephesus, Hadrian would have admired the beautiful library that Tiberius Iulius Aquila Polmaeanus was building there in memory of his father, Celsus Polemaeanus, who served as governor of Asia in 105-106 during the reign of Trajan. Celsus, born to a Greek family of priests from either Ephesus or Sardis, bequeathed the money for building the library in his will. The library contained 12,000 scrolls, kept on wooden shelves in wall niches. However, the building was also intended to serve as his mausoleum. Below the apse floor, a crypt contained Celsus’s adorned marble sarcophagus (see here), a special honour reflecting his prominent role as a public official. Celsus’ son died before the completion of the library, and another wealthy Ephesian, Tiberius Claudius Aristion, took over the construction. The library had a lavishly decorated facade with relief carvings following the patterns of the facades of Roman theatres (scaenae frons), typical of the architectural style prevalent in the period under Hadrian. A letter from Hadrian congratulating Aquila on the library’s construction also seems to have been inscribed on the façade (Ephesos 189).

However, Ephesus was famous in its time for the nearby Temple of Artemis, the Artemision, a masterpiece of Ionic architecture that was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The temple was the largest building in the Greek world and was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. According to Pliny (NH 36.95), it measured 129 metres (425 ft) in length and 69 meters (225 ft) in width and featured 127 columns, each 18.3 metres (60 ft) high and 1.2 metres (4 ft) in diameter, almost double the size of the 5th-century BC Parthenon at Athens. Pausanias affirms that the temples of Ionia were without rivals, but surpassing all was the Ephesian Artemision (Paus. 4.31.8).

The sanctuary gained great fame in the 6th century BC when the Lydian king Croesus (r. 560-546 BC) financed the construction of a magnificent new temple to Artemis. However, the temple was destroyed by fire by a man named Herostratus in 356 BC, according to tradition, on the same night Alexander the Great was born. The Ephesians immediately started the construction of an even more beautiful temple. This is the structure that Hadrian saw when he visited Ephesus.

The image of Artemis Ephesus, which differs immensely from the huntress Artemis iconography, was reproduced an infinite number of times on coins, votive statuettes and votive offerings. Cistophoric tetradrachms minted at Ephesus coins connect Hadrian (RPC III, 1328) and Sabina (RPC III, 2081) with the great goddess Artemis, who is depicted standing in her temple or between two stags. Roman copies of the Artemis statue retaining its archaic traits were unearthed during excavations in the Prytaneum. One of Artemis’ characteristics is that she protects fertility, and the egg-shaped objects lining her chest have been variously identified as female breasts, eggs or bull’s testicles, all symbols associated with fertility.

A wealthy Ephesian citizen named P. Quintilius Valens Varius built and dedicated a small monument along Curetes Street, one of the chief thoroughfares of Ephesus, which he dedicated to Hadrian, but also to Artemis and the demos of Ephesus when the city was still once neokoros (Ephesos 290). The monument, known erroneously as the Temple of Hadrian, was sponsored in 119, along with the surrounding bath complex, and is therefore not connected to Hadrian’s presence in the city in 124. The temple-like prostyle building is of modest dimensions but intricately adorned and decorated with sculptures. The original purpose of the building remains unknown. It was previously thought to be an official cult temple of Hadrian because Ephesus had been given permission to build such a structure. However, this interpretation has been disproven, but researchers widely and often controversially discuss questions about its function.

The original function of the temple-like structure remains open to interpretation. It was long assumed to have been an official cult temple of the emperor Hadrian because Ephesus received permission to construct such a building. However, this interpretation has been refuted since it hardly seems possible that the Ephesians would have honoured Hadrian with such a small temple. Burrell has suggested a street-side shrine.

The building is a tetrastyle prostyle temple with rich architectural and sculptural decorations. Two Corinthian columns and two pillars on the edges support the entablature with a curved Syrian-type pediment decorated with floral patterns and bearing a relief of Tyche. The goddess of victory is wearing a crown depicting the walls and towers of the city. Behind the arch is an oblong pronaos, the inner area of the temple’s portico. It has a door opening crowned by a tympanum, a semi-circular relief depicting the gorgon Medusa among acanthus leaves and scrolls. The door leads to the cella, the monument’s interior, where a Hadrian statue may have stood. The cella measured 7.50m in width and 5m in length and was roofed by a barrel vault.

For Artemis Ephesia and for Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus and to the demos of Ephesus neokoros, by Publius Quintillius, son of Publius, of the tribe Galeria, . . .with . . . wife, and daughter Varilla, set up this temple from its foundation with all the things in it and its cult image by their own means, dedicated at the time of proconsul Servaeus Innocens, and when the grammateus of the Demē a second time, Marcus Claudius Publius Vedius Antoninus, was Asiarch; as promised when Tiberius Claudius Lucceianus was grammateus of the Demē.

The pronaos is decorated with a frieze consisting of four marble slabs depicting the foundation of the city of Ephesus by the Athenian prince Androclus. The frieze is not Hadrianic as it was not sculptured at the same time as the Temple. It was probably added to the monument from an unknown building during a restoration in the 4th century AD. The frieze on the Temple is a copy, the original is on display in the Ephesus Museum.

Ephesus, like Pergamon and Smyrna, would receive a second neokoria, but not at the time of Hadrian’s first visit. The neokorate temple authorised by Hadrian dates to the early 130s, as presented in inscriptions and on coins. The first inscription to call Ephesus “twice neokoros” (δὶς νεωκόρος) is an honorary dedication on a statue of Hadrian erected by the Ephesians at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens to celebrate Hadrian’s consecration of the temple. The inscription is dated to 132 (IG II² 3297), during the priesthood of Claudius Attikos, the father of the famous Herodes Atticus (Burrell, 2004).

Another mention of the title is from a dedication to Sabina at Ephesus under the proconsulship of the later emperor Antoninus Pius about 134/5 (Ephesos 1011), although the new temple was not yet standing. Its completion can be dated after 134/135 and before 138 (Burrell, 2004). An Ephesian, Tiberius Claudius Piso Diophantus, is said to have been responsible for getting permission from Hadrian to build a provincial temple dedicated to him at Ephesus as Polemon had done for Smyrna (Ephesos 335). The “twice neokoros” title also appears on the coins of Ephesus with the legend ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟ/ΡΩΝ (of the Ephesians, twice neocorate) and showing two temples, each containing a male figure holding sceptre (RPC III, 2077).

(This statue of) Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus Olympios Panhellenios, saviour (was dedicated by) the mother-city, first of all and greatest of Asia, and twice temple-warden of the Augusti, the city of the Ephesians, for their own founder and benefactor, through]the manager Marcus Tigellius Lupus, in the priesthood of Tiberius Claudius Atticus. (Translation by Chris de Lisle)

Pausanias is the only known source that reports on the Olympieion of Ephesus. He mentions the legendary founder of the city, Androclos, and notes that his tomb was still visible in his time “on the road leading from the sanctuary past the Olympieion to the Magnesian gate. On the tomb is a statue of an armed man” (Paus. 7.2.9). The temple has been identified in the northern district of Ephesus near the church of the Virgin Mary. It consisted of a huge colonnaded temenos with porticoes on all four sides, possibly of the Corinthian order. It faced south and covered an area measuring 350 x 225 m, which is quite close to the area of the Artemision. In the centre of the temenos was a south-facing temple. The foundations show that it had a peristasis (four-sided porch of columns surrounding the cella) of approximately 33 x 60 m and a cella 9 m wide.

The quotation by Pausanias led the excavators and scholars to assume that it was a temple dedicated to the cult of Zeus Olympios. As a result, they chose to call this temple complex “the Olympieion”. However, C.P. Jones (1993) argues that the temple should be called Hadrianeion, considering it is dedicated to worshipping Hadrian, not Zeus. In Ephesian inscriptions, the temple itself is only referred to as “of the god Hadrian” (θεοῦ Ἁδριανοῦ), not of Hadrian Olympios or any form of Zeus (Ephesos 335). However, there would be numerous inscriptions from Ephesus honouring Hadrian as Zeus Olympios (Ephesos 778–784), and an agonistic festival named Hadrianeia would be celebrated with the second neokorate of Ephesus at the time of the temple’s completion or consecration by Diophantus.

The Ephesians would later show enthusiasm for the new cult of Antinous by setting a statue of the young Bithynian as Androclus, the legendary founder of Ephesus, son of King Codrus of Athens, perhaps in the act of slaying a wild boat. Like Antinous, Androclus was also famed for a boar hunt, and it may be that Hadrian and Antinous went hunting the boar together in the vicinity (Birley, 1997). A youthful Androclus would also appear on the reverse of the Antinous coins minted in the city, depicted with a spear over his shoulder and, in this hand, a boar’s head (RPC III, 2084).

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Ephesus was the last polis of the province of Asia that the emperor visited before departing to the Aegean islands. He would travel from Ephesus to Rhodes in September or October and sail through the Cyclades to the Greek mainland. A small passage of the Historia Augusta of this journey says that Hadrian “travelled by way of Asia and the islands to Greece” (HA Hadr. 13.1), while Rhodes is explicitly mentioned in Polemon’s account (“we went east to Rhodes”).

Several ships accompanied the emperor, two of whom were under the commands of the Ephesian captains, Erastos and Philokyrios. These two captains joined the Imperial fleet and operated in the Aegean Sea with their respective ships. They transported the Emperor and other entourage members and necessary supplies. A few years later, in 129, the same captains accompanied the imperial fleet carrying Hadrian as he sailed from Eleusis to Ephesus. In two identical letters to the magistrates and council of Ephesus, Hadrian recommends the two ship captains, Erastos (Ephesos 191) and Philokyrios (Ephesos 192), for honorary membership of the council. The letters were inscribed on the wall blocks of the scaenae frons of Ephesus Bouleterion.

The Emperor Caesar, son of the deified Trajan, conqueror of Parthia, descendant of the deified Nerva, Trajanus Hadrianus Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribune of the People for the third time, Consul for the third time, Father of his country, to the Magistrates of the Ephesians and to the Council, greeting. Lucius Erastus affirms that he is a citizen of yours and sails much also on the sea and that, as far as he can from doing this, he makes himself serviceable to his country and continually conveys over the sea the chief men of the [Ionian] race. Moreover he had interviews with me on two former occasions, first, when I made a voyage from Ephesus to Rhodes, and now on my arrival at your city from Eleusis. His wish is to become a member of the Council, and I accordingly commit to you the legal investigation of his claims; and if nothing stands in the way, and he appears to you deserving of that honour, I will give the amount of money which they pay on being admitted to the Council, and to meet the expenses of the election. Farewell.

As Hadrian sailed into the port of Rhodes, he saw the remains of the celebrated fallen Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Colossus was a massive bronze statue of the god Helios, constructed in the early 3rd century BC and towering over the harbour at over 30 metres (100 feet). It stood for just over 50 years in the 3rd century BC before being brought down by a powerful earthquake around 225 BC. In Hadrian’s day, the statue, still apparently in one piece, had been lying on the ground for centuries and was so impressive that many travelled to see it.

The early Byzantine chronicler John Malalas recounts a peculiar story about Hadrian assisting in the re-erection of the Colossus. He mentions that Hadrian provided cranes, ropes, and artisans for the project and even claims to know about the inscription commemorating the event (Malalas 279). However, this account has no corroboration, even if this was the type of project Hadrian would have been attracted to. John Malalas was possibly mistaken, as the Emperor is told in other sources that he relocated the Colossus of Nero in Rome closer to the new Temple of Venus and Roma with the aid of twenty-four elephants and transformed it into a statue of the Sun (HA Hadr. 19-12.13).

In his reign, Hadrian reerected the Colossus of Rhodes, which had fallen during an earthquake Rhodes suffered in earlier times, and lay on the ground for 312 years, with nothing having been lost. He spent to restore and erect it in the same place, for machines and ropes and artisans, 3 hundredweight, as he inscribed the year and expenses below it. Malalas 279

Pliny the Elder visited the Rhodian Colossus and described it as “by far the most worthy of our admiration.” “Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms,“ he wrote, “and its fingers are larger than most statues”. “Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen yawning in the interior.“ In Pliny’s time, the Colossus was merely a ruin, slowly corroding where it had fallen more than a century before (Plin. Nat. 34.18). Yet, that did not diminish Pliny’s awe.

Panhellenic games, the Halieia, were held on the island every four years in honour of Helios, and each year, a chariot drawn by four horses (quadriga) was thrown into the sea as an offering to the god. The Helian games attracted great athletes from abroad. They involved running races and performances, many of which were hosted in the stadium and the Odeon of Rhodes’ Acropolis. There was a famous kithara (lyre) competition where crowns made of poplar were awarded to victors. One such victor was the famous kithara player Nikokles Aristokleos (IG II3 4 594), whose funerary monument on the Sacred Way in Athens is mentioned by Pausanias (Paus. 1.37.2).

Rhodes had been an important ally of Rome for almost three centuries and enjoyed numerous privileges. As a result, its ties with Rome were deeper and more significant than those of most other Greek cities. The island was famous for its schools of rhetoric and philosophy and attracted numerous distinguished Roman students to learn more about Greek culture, including Cicero, Julius Caesar, and Marc Antony. Tiberius, a philhellenist like Hadrian, studied rhetoric in the renowned school of Rhodes and chose to live in exile on the island for six years because of the “pleasantness and healthiness of the island“ (Suet., Tib., 11.1). The Lydians dedicated a votive exedra at Lindos to the euergetai (benefactors) Tiberius and his sons, Drusus the Younger and Germanicus, as well as his father-in-law, Augustus (see here).

The duration of Hadrian’s stay on the island is unknown, as does the location of his residence. He may have inspected the house where Tiberius lived (Birley, 1997) and visited the three principal cities on the island: Lindos, Kamiros and Ialysos. However, Rhodes must not have held Hadrian for an extended period. The imperial flotilla probably left by mid-September, most likely passing through the Cyclades, as Hadrian intended to be in Greece for the Eleusinian Mysteries, which began in the month of Boedromion.

There is no evidence that Hadrian visited other islands during his voyage across the Aegean Sea, and attempts to reconstruct the emperor’s exact route are speculative. However, there is good reason to assume that he sojourned on the Cycladic island of Paros (Kouremenos, 2021), where he wrote an epigram for the tomb of the 7th century BC lyric poet Archilochus (680-645 BC), showing his veneration for archaic Greek poetry (Anth. Pal., 7.674). Archilochus was the first poet to use the iambic metre, which afterwards played an important part in Greek verse. He even had a sanctuary, the Archilocheion, dedicated to him on Paros, which possibly consisted of a shrine, altars and a temenos.

This is Archilochus’ grave, whom to raging iambics
the Muse led, favoring the Maionian (i.e. Homer).
(Translation by W.R. Paton)

Another potential stopover on his way to Athens was the island of Syros, where the town dedicated a statue of him (IG XII,5 674), and an inscription expressing the islanders’ gratitude for his generosity has been found (IG XII Suppl. 239). However, such dedications are common and do not definitively indicate that the Emperor was physically present in those places (Kouremenos, 2021). In any case, in the autumn of 124, Hadrian was back in Athens, where he bestowed gifts, revised local laws, and was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries at Eleusis.

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