How to start a riot? If you are Paul the Apostle, ignore any official guidelines about impartiality, choose a public place capable of holding 25,000 people, take no notice of local interests and sensibilities, and shout out that the local gods are not gods at all.
Paul had already been in Ephesus for two years and in the accompanying photograph (page 8) you can see the Greco-Roman theatre in which he addressed and annoyed the local crowd. We can imagine the strength of his oratory. Led by Demetrius the silversmith, the cry went up, according to the Acts of the Apostles, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians". Demetrius successfully played on the local craftsmen's fear that their business making and selling images of the patron goddess of the city, Diana - aka the Greek Artemis - would be undermined, and a riot broke out, which was quelled only after the intervention of a senior Roman official. Paul, admitting later that he was in fear of his life, left the city. The tradition that he was gaoled in the small building on the distant hill in the photograph, which today is known as St Paul's Prison, is almost certainly baseless. Ephesus was one of the great cities of the Greco-Roman world, situated south of Izmir (aka Smyrna) on the west coast of what is now Turkey, a rich and vibrant place with a busy port which connected local traders and travellers with the Aegean and Mediterranean world beyond. It was the capital of the Roman province of 'Asia', the western part of what we call Asia Minor. Founded by Greeks from the opposite shores of the Aegean Sea, it had already been in existence for over a thousand years, had a population of many thousands (some say a quarter of a million) and was obviously a significant place for Paul to visit on his missionary journeys in the 50s AD.
The impressive ruins of Ephesus attract huge numbers of visitors today. Besides the theatre, there are considerable remains of other major public buildings, from agoras and baths to a public lavatory and drains, and some neatly built and daintily decorated private houses. Perhaps only Pompeii and Rome itself can give us a better idea of what a city was like in the Roman Empire. But it didn't last. By the 6th century AD the local river had brought down so much silt that it blocked the port and ruined Ephesus' prosperity. You can make out the outline of the harbour, a bottle-shaped bed of reeds in the mid-distance in the photograph. The sea is now just about out of sight. Nor did Diana's (Artemis') temple survive. It was one of the 'Wonders of the Ancient World' for its architectural magnificence, but only one re-erected pillar survives above the silt that overwhelmed it. The other photograph gives us an idea of the cult of Artemis: though her statue is now headless, her many-breasted torso shows that she is not the 'virgin goddess' and Amazon-style huntress that you find elsewhere in the Greco-Roman world, but a goddess of fertility, strongly resembling the female deities of ancient Syria and Mesopotamia - Astarte and Ishtar.A small community of Christians already existed before Paul's two visits. It must have grown rapidly and the city's importance to the Christians is demonstrated by the letter that Paul wrote, and the large church, which survives among the ruins, where leaders of the Church from throughout the Empire gathered for two Ecumenical Councils in the 400's AD to discuss - no, argue bitterly about - the true doctrine of the Church. There is tradition, a very strong one, that after the Crucifixion the young St John brought the Virgin Mary to Ephesus and that she died here. On the hill opposite the waterlogged site of the Temple of Artemis are the partially restored remains in brick and marble of the vast 6th century Basilica of St John; and up in the wooded hills above ancient Ephesus there is 'The House of the Virgin Mary'. This is a tiny brick building from the Byzantine period but with foundations possibly from the 1st century AD. This previously unknown building and its location were miraculously described in detail by a nun in a vision in her native Germany in the 19th century. She had never visited the area and a search led to its discovery. Cures are said to have taken place here. Not surprisingly it is much visited, and there has been much 'commercial development', as The Blue Guide blandly puts it.
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Nor did Diana's (Artemis') temple survive. It was one of the 'Wonders of the Ancient World' for its architectural magnificence, but only one re-erected pillar survives above the silt that overwhelmed it. The other photograph gives us an idea of the cult of Artemis: though her statue is now headless, her many-breasted torso shows that she is not the 'virgin goddess' and Amazon-style huntress that you find elsewhere in the Greco-Roman world, but a goddess of fertility, strongly resembling the female deities of ancient Syria and Mesopotamia - Astarte and Ishtar.A small community of Christians already existed before Paul's two visits. It must have grown rapidly and the city's importance to the Christians is demonstrated by the letter that Paul wrote, and the large church, which survives among the ruins, where leaders of the Church from throughout the Empire gathered for two Ecumenical Councils in the 400's AD to discuss - no, argue bitterly about - the true doctrine of the Church. There is tradition, a very strong one, that after the Crucifixion the young St John brought the Virgin Mary to Ephesus and that she died here. On the hill opposite the waterlogged site of the Temple of Artemis are the partially restored remains in brick and marble of the vast 6th century Basilica of St John; and up in the wooded hills above ancient Ephesus there is 'The House of the Virgin Mary'. This is a tiny brick building from the Byzantine period but with foundations possibly from the 1st century AD. This previously unknown building and its location were miraculously described in detail by a nun in a vision in her native Germany in the 19th century. She had never visited the area and a search led to its discovery. Cures are said to have taken place here. Not surprisingly it is much visited, and there has been much 'commercial development', as The Blue Guide blandly puts it. 
How to start a riot? If you are Paul the Apostle, ignore any official guidelines about impartiality, choose a public place capable of holding 25,000 people, take no notice of local interests and sensibilities, and shout out that the local gods are not gods at all.