Perhaps, then, this open-fronted Auditorion was designed so that the stars
of the Second Sophistic could display their talents to crowds beyond the
lawcourt.^60
In fact, an earlier sophist had found his final resting place in this very
plaza. In 1967, excavators cleared a late antique ramp that led up from the
Gate of Mazaeus and Mithridates over what had previously been the steps
of the Neronian Hall. Tucked under the ramp, they found a sarcophagus,
still with its original lead lining and the bones within. If it had been moved
to build the ramp, it hadn’t gone far. The name of the honored dead was
inscribed on the front: Titus Claudius Flavianus Dionysios, and under the
central rosette, his profession:Rhetor.
61
A base for a bronze statue of this
man was found close by: he was the famous sophist Dionysios of Miletos,
who spent the last part of his life speaking and teaching in Ephesos.
62
Philostratos confirms that the Ephesians buried Dionysios with the great-
est of honors, for his grave was in the most important part of the Agora.
63
Philostratos would have known; he came to Ephesos several times, to visit
a later but equally famous sophist, Damianos. So in the second century
this plaza may have been considered not just part of the Agora, but its
most important part. Perhaps this particular spot was chosen because it
was where Dionysios and his fellow orators practiced and displayed their
art, close by the new, theatrical Library of Celsus, and once it was built, in
the Auditorion. The plaza certainly contained other monuments to both
of Smyrna defend a wealthy Lydian in danger of losing his property. Philostratos calls the
courtroom ‘‘dikasterion.’’ On languages and ethnicities of sophists and orators, Puech 2002,
32; on the languages of the courtroom, Eck 2004, 14 16. Note the debate between the
orators C. Sallius Aristainetos and L. Egnatius Victor Lollianus in a trial before Caracalla at
Antioch (Puech 2002, 132 134, 332, and supra n. 51): their words are quoted in Greek
within the body of the Latin inscription.
- A provocative summary of the worlds of the Second Sophistic is Whitmarsh (2005).
See Korenjak 2000, 27 33, 44 6, 96 100, for the varied scenes of sophistic display,
including auditoria and akroateria, the crowds they might have held, and those crowds’
adulation. Lucian’sOn the Halldescribes theoikosused for (this) oration as large and high,
with east facing doors, windows, a marble statue of Athena in a shrine (as in some libraries),
mythological paintings, and a magnificent gilt ceiling.
61.IvE426:Ô: ̊ºÆýäØïò=ÖºÆïıØÆíeò= ̃ØïíýóØïò=ÞÞôøæ:See Jobst 1983, 163 4, 211 12;
Jones 2005, 263. Burial within the city was an honor rather frequently granted at Ephesos,
especially along the ‘‘Embolos’’ that connects this plaza to the city’s eastern Agora: Knibbe and
Langmann1993,54;Thu ̈r1995and1997,69 75.Forintramuralburialinthisandothercitiesof
Asia, see Cormack 2004, 44 9, 222 3, though on 48 she states that Celsus, rather than his son,
donated the funds for the library. It is interesting that both Hadrian (Digest47.12.3.5) and
AntoninusPius(HAAntoninusPius12.3)forbadeburialswithincities;IthankMarkAtwoodfor
this observation. - Puech 2002, 229 32, no. 98, which emends lines 2 and 4 ofIvE3047:
½ âïıºc ŒÆd› äBìïò=½Ô: ̊º:Ö½ºÆïıØÆíeí ̃ØïíýóØïí=½ôeíÞÞôïæÆ ŒÆd óïçØóôcí ŒÆd=½ä?dò
Kðßôæïðïí ôïF ÓåâÆóôïF= ̊º: ̄hôıåïò ôeí ÆıôïF ðÜôæøíÆ:
Supra n. 54 for Dionysios as possible founder of the Auditorion.
63.Lives of the Sophists1.22; Engelmann 1995 and 1996.
Reading, Hearing, and Looking at Ephesos 87