Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the Ionian coast, near modern Selçuk in western Turkey, famed for the nearby Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. A member of the Ionian League and home of the philosopher Heraclitus, it came under Roman control in 129 BCE. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul spent about three years there, first teaching in the city's synagogue; Ephesus received one of the Pauline letters, is among the seven churches addressed in the Book of Revelation, and may be where the Gospel of John was written. It hosted Christian councils in the 5th century, among them the Council of Ephesus in 431.
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Ephesus through the eras
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Archaic Age
One of the foremost cities of Ionia, Ephesus came under the rule of the Lydian king Croesus—who helped fund its colossal Temple of Artemis—and then of the Persian Empire after Cyrus the Great's conquest of Lydia around 547 BCE. In this setting Heraclitus, a proud aristocrat who scorned the common crowd, taught that everything is in ceaseless flux—'you cannot step into the same river twice'—that fire is the primal stuff, and that opposites are bound together in a hidden harmony. The same era produced the savage iambic poet Hipponax, remembered for his biting invective.
Hellenistic Age
Refounded on a grander scale by Alexander's general Lysimachus around 294 BCE, Ephesus became one of the largest and richest cities of the Hellenistic east, passing between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms and the kings of Pergamon. Its rebuilt Temple of Artemis—the original having burned in 356 BCE, reputedly the very night Alexander was born—drew pilgrims and offerings from across the world.
Roman Era
Bequeathed to Rome by the last king of Pergamon and made capital of the province of Asia, Ephesus grew into one of the greatest cities of the empire, a teeming metropolis whose grand theater and Library of Celsus still stand. It nurtured the physician Rufus of Ephesus and the dream-interpreter Artemidorus, author of the Oneirocritica, while its Temple of Artemis remained a renowned cult center; by this period the city had also become a major hub of the early Christian movement.