provincial imperial temple, there were the chief priests, priestesses, and
functionaries who served it, many of them from other cities of Asia.^69
Then there were the orators, sophists, philosophers, and grammarians,
not just from Hellenic lands but from the exotic West: Favorinus, the
famous Gallic orator, made his headquarters at Ephesos, like Dionysios,
Damianos, and other world-class teachers. Of course there were incoming
Roman citizens: merchants, the governors, their families, staff, and sol-
diers; as time went on, these were as likely to be from Asia or further east
as from Italy, Gaul, or Spain. And all of these could intersect with one
another: a Roman governor (or emperor) more comfortable speaking
Greek, an Ephesian who was a senator in Rome, or a sophist who came
from Gaul to teach Greek oratory and became citizen-benefactor of
Ephesos. And this is not to ignore the people coming in from the coun-
tryside, some of whom may have still spoken Carian or Phrygian;
70
or travelers from outside the Empire, to whom the writing on the
monuments may have been a blur next to the commanding statues and
dazzling marbles.
If this chapter shows anything, it is the benefit of reconstructing
reading experiences in the fullest contexts possible. Ephesos offers a
‘‘vertical stratigraphy’’ of buildings, sculptures, and texts, and to read its
development from (transcribed) inscriptions alone would have been as
limiting as restoring the architecture and sculpture without the inscrip-
tions. Because in the city of Ephesos, though there was no monument
without its text, there was also no text without its monument.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Illustrations by Nate Bullock with assistance from Tim Callan, with
thanks to Elizabeth Riorden for her advice.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, J. N. 2002. ‘‘Bilingualism at Delos.’’ In J. N. Adams, M. Janse, and S.
Swain, eds.,Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written
Text, 103 27. Oxford.
and S. Swain. 2002. ‘‘Introduction.’’ In J. N. Adams, M. Janse, and S. Swain,
eds.,Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Text,
1 20. Oxford.
- Burrell 2004, 60 6.
- Rural residence did not necessarily mean being illiterate in Greek, however: see
de Hoz 2006.PaceMitchell 2000, 120 1, Strabo’s mention (12.4.6) of the disappearance
of most local languages and ethnic identities in Roman times should not be uncritically
applied beyond the areas of Bithynia about which he was writing.
Reading, Hearing, and Looking at Ephesos 89