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  • From: Edgar Krentz <ekrentz AT lstc.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: populations of Ephesus
  • Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 10:32:35 -0500


>Rick Strelan wrote:
>
>> The population of Ephesus in the second/third centuries CE is usually put
>> at ca 200-225,000. I think it's important for students to recognise the
>> difference between 'population' and 'citizens'. Of the latter, in Ephesus
>> there were probably only about 40,000.
>
>Rick, just wondering how you got to these figures. When I was in Ephesus
>last summer,
>one of the scholars with me (I think it was Peter Lampe) suggested the
>population was
>250,000 based on a seating of 25,000 in the amphitheater there (a 10:1
>ratio being
>common for such buildings). I got the impression that he was speaking of
>250,000
>citizens, which would make the population of the city quite a bit larger.
>I haven't
>had the chance to check what Koester says in the new book on Ephesus.
>
Sheila,

It must be the theater, not the amphitheater that you are describing. There
is no excavated amphitheater at Ephesus. There is a stadium [also largely
unexcavated.]

One problem with many tour guides is that they call theaters amphitheaters,
if they think they are modified for presenting gladiatorial games.

Add to that the fact that population figures are notoriously difficult to
estimate. There are no lower class houses excavated at Ephesus, only one
block of upper class "terrace houses." Nor is it clear that the entire area
in Lysimachos' walls was filled with buildings. The 10% figure for seating
is also a guess. And slaves were on occasion also allowed into the theater.
In short, population figures are merely more or less educated guesses.

The only city for which extensive houses have been excavated in the Greek
east are Olynthos and Delos. In neither do we have evidence for so[called
"insula" housing. And one cannot look at Pompei and/or Herculaneum, since
house architecture in the east is not identical with that in the west.
Contrast peristyle with atrium structures.

So read all population guesses with a modicum of skepticism.



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Edgar Krentz
Professor of New Testament Emeritus
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 E. 55th Street
Chicago, IL 60615 USA
773-256-0752
e-mail: ekrentz AT lstc.edu (Office)
GHRASKW AEI POLLA DIDASKOMENOS.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++






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