The Great Theater Of Ephesus

The Great Theater of Ephesus is the largest theater in Asia Minor with accommodations for 25,000 people. It was originally two-storied and later was heightened by one more story. The theater served not only for dramatic performances but also for demonstrations of a social, political, economic, religious nature and for gladiator games. 

Cleon, one of the characters in “The Black Pearl,” a story in The Deadliest Returns, tells Miriam about the riot in the Great Theater and how his parents were killed there. “I was just a lad when they ran into the streets to join Demetrius in his noble fight to defend our goddess. The last I saw of them was when they were gathering stones to join the mob surging toward the Great Theater.”

The riot, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (19:23-41), developed after a local silversmith named Demetrius encouraged the crowd to chant “Great is the goddess Diana of Ephesus!” His motivation was the fear of a drop in sales of statues depicting the goddess. The crowd started moving towards the theater, but Paul was encouraged not to enter.

The thoroughly documented history of first-century CE Ephesus prompted me to set stories in The Deadliest Deceptions as well as in The Deadliest Returns. To check out both books, click here.