MILETO

MILETO. – City situated on the coast of Asia Minor near the mouths of the Maeander. Inhabited as early as prehistoric times, it was occupied by Greek colonists at least from 1000 B.C., becoming a center of considerable agricultural importance from the eighth to the sixth century. Subjugated by Croesus and then by Cyrus, it rebelled during the Greek war and in 494 was destroyed by the victorious Persians.

In 479 it was rebuilt, but farther east, on the plain, than its ancient site, in a locality today called Kalabak-Tepe, according to a highly precise urban plan. In 478–477 it joined the Delian League, and from 412 to 334 it again fell under Persian rule. Under the Seleucids it began to flourish once more, and under the Romans enjoyed a prosperous existence. Notable public buildings were erected, such as the temple of Apollo, the baths, the fountain, and the theater, of which considerable ruins remain. It was during this period that St. Paul stayed there, the first time during his third journey (Act. 20:15–18), when he summoned there the leaders of the Church of Ephesus, and the other time, apparently, after his first imprisonment (II Tim. 4:22), when he left his companion Trophimus there. During the Christian period it had a bishopric, and traces remain of the ancient Cathedral, with a mosaic floor decorated with geometric and animal designs. Two inscriptions commemorate the martyr Onesippus and the cult of the seven guardian angels of the city. Around M. there developed a center of monastic life, dominated by the monastery of Latmos.

CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY. - Although the city had lost the very great importance it had possessed in the Hellenistic period and had partly retained during the Roman age, it was far from negligible during the first Christian centuries, thanks to its fortunate geographical position, which always made it a commercial centre and thus attracted foreign colonies. Important among these was the Jewish colony (the remains of a synagogue have survived to the present day), from which the Christian community arose. A bishop Eusebios is known in 325, and in the time of Justinian there is mention of the existence of an archbishopric.

The most important Christian monument is a large three-aisled Basilica with many adjoining rooms, probably rising upon the ruins of the Asklepieion. The church is preceded by a square atrium with a portico supported by columns and still showing in the centre traces of a cantharos: from the atrium one enters directly into the church, which lacks a narthex. The three aisles are divided by two rows of paired columns; there must have been an ambo, probably in the middle of the central aisle. There was a single semicircular apse, externally reinforced by buttresses. Through two doors opening at the ends of the side aisles one entered a semi-annular room which ran around the apse and whose liturgical function is unknown. To the north of the apse is a square room surrounded on three sides by a passageway, probably a baptistery. Through a door opening in the southern side aisle one enters a rectangular room as long as the side aisle itself and communicating on the east with a rotunda having six niches, probably a martyrion. There are other subsidiary rooms. The floor is largely of marble slabs and mosaics, partly with geometric and decorative motifs, but partly also with figures of animals: noteworthy is that of the baptistery, with the scene of two stags drinking from a cantharos. Much later is a church northwest of the northern market, built in the sixth century under the patriarch Kiriakos (595-606), by the Roman priest of the great church (S. Sofia) of Constantinople and by a Giorgio, as an inscription states. This church too, with three aisles, was dedicated to the archangel Michele. A third church, but with a central plan, also stood in the city: it was a large rotunda with four large niches and a small apse, the whole enclosed within masonry having a square outline externally. Inside there was a circle of eight columns which must have supported a dome. The diameter of the rotunda is almost eleven metres: it was probably a martyrion. Outside the city, on the road toward Didyma, the remains of a fourth church were found, likewise a three-aisled basilica but with three apses, decorated with interesting floor mosaics and which, according to an inscription, was erected by the priest and steward Noymechios: it appears that monastic buildings stood around II. It was dedicated to an unnamed archangel. Among the many Christian inscriptions of the city, the only noteworthy one is of the Byzantine period, found near the theatre, invoking the seven archangels as protectors of the city: this diffusion in M. of the cult of the archangels is noteworthy.