Pergamon
Pergamon
had a significant place .of its own in all Asia. Historically the city was the
capital of the greatest kingdom that existed in this region. The city is
situated at 100 kms north of Izmir. The Roman historian Pliny
called it:
"By far the most famous city in all Asia". The cause for this
importance was this: When John wrote his letter, Pergamon had been a capital
city for almost four hundred years. After the mythical times,
Pergamon had been
the scene of several cultures, ranging from those of the Stone and Bronze Ages
until the Archaic and Classical Periods.
In
the ancient world the city was famous for two importam shrines:
a) The Altar dedicated to the Supreme God
Zeus. dominating the Acropolis of the city.
b) The workship of Asclepios and its medical cult.
Asklepios
was known under the name of "The Pergamon God of Health".
In
ancient times there were in this part of the world three favourite religious
shrines and holy places. They were: the Artemision of Ephesus, the Apollo cult
of Delphi and that of Asklepios Pergamon. Asldepios the deity of health and
medicine servcd the people for several hundred years; thus making Pergamon a
medical center of very great importrance. Famous medical scholars, like
Hippocrate, and Galenus, were born in Pergamon and , worked there. Pergamon had,
and Bergama still has, several healing mineral springs; the waters of it were
used for medical treatment. There were also mud bath treatments. And the priests
and medical doctors of the Asklepion applied also some psychology by having
their patients run down through dark tunnels, in which the patients listened to
what they believed were encouraging messages from the gods, bur which were in
fact shouted by the priests themselves through holes perforated in the ceilings
of the tunnels.
Laodicea
had a brilliant period in the early Christianity and Byzamine times. One of the
Seven Basilicas according the list of the Seven Churches in the Book of
Revelation was built here. It ruins are situated on the Sourh bank of the
ancient Lycus River, now Curuksu. An important Ecumenical Council was held here
in the fourth century A.D.. The main road from Ephesus to the east led through
the city; this road was the most important one of all those in Asia Minor. The
medical school of Laodicea was, in the ancient world, famous for two things.
a)
Treating and curing of ear diseases, and preparing medicines for these.
b)
Treatment of eye diseases, and preparing a fine eye-ointment, that under the
name "Koulourion", was exported to all major places of the known
world. Due to all these activities, both in industry and trade, and in medical
affairs, Laodicea became a great banking centre, rich in gold and silver coins.
Laodicea then was a very prosperous and wealthy city; it needed nothing from
outside. A great Christian church developed here; it was founded already in the
first century, together with those in nearby Hierapolis and Colossae, by
epaphras, a disciple and fellow worker of the apostle Paul. This Apostle wrote
two letters to the Churches of this area. Many Apostles and Evangelists, like
Paul, John, Phillip, Luke and Timothy worked as missionaries in this area. Even
some of the Seven Great ecumenical Councils of the old Church in the first
centuries of Christianity were held in Laodicea.
Among
the ruins of old Laodicea are known: a fountain, an unidentified temple of Ionic
order, a small theatre from the Roman period; a Roman Stadium, a Gymnasium,
and an Odeion. Among these ruins, The Nympha ion is most interesting because of
its parapet in the basin, that was adorned with mythological reliefs depicting
the Hero Theseus.
Former
Thyatria was probably founded in the Lydian Period. Later it was captured by
Selencus, diadoch King of Syria and Mesopotamia after the death of Alexander the
Great. In the third century B.C. after the defeat of Antiochus II in the Battle
of Magnesia against the Romans in 190, the town became part of the Kingdom of
Pergamon, and later a Roman possession in 133. Later on, Chrisitanity spread
here very rapidly and the town is mentioned amongst the Seven Churches of the
Apocalypse.But in present Akhisar there are only a very few remains left from
the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times.
Akhisar,
former Thyatria, lies in the long valley through which leads a highway to the
west, to Pergamon and far beyond to the Aegean Sea. It lay in an open valley;
this situation made the town strategically a most important frontier town and a
center of missionary activities to build the fourth church here. Thyatria had no
special religious significance. The only thing worth notifying about this town
from the religious point of view was a fortune -telling shrine; a female oracle
called the Sambathe.
Located
on the main road between Izmir and Bursa, Akhisar is a modern city with little
of historical or archaeological interest visible to tourists today. Among the
ancient runs you can see a short section of a colonmoded street, a temple and
walls of a church. They are enclosed within an area of a city block in the middle
of Akhisar.
