1. Introduction

Curetes Street (map no. 36) extends in a NW-SE orientation along the valley between the Panayir and Bülbül hills. In antiquity it was possibly called Embolos, as it intersected the rectangular urban design of Ephesus like a wedge. It was included in the route of the Artemis procession already from the archaic period. During the Hellenistic years it was the main commercial street which connected the town’s state agora with the harbour and the commercial agora, preserving its initial, diagonal to the new rectangular urban plan, direction. The great importance of the street during these years is intimated by the erection of the heroon of the town’s mythical founder, Androclos, in the street’s western section. Since then, Curetes Street became a field for antagonism between the town’s elite, something which led to the erection of numerous funerary and honorific monuments to important individuals as well as utility buildings along its route.

Curetes Street suffered great damages from the earthquakes of the 3^rd and 4^th centuries AD. Important buildings were abandoned and others were turned into workshops. At around 400 AD began the reconstruction of Embolos which gradually found part of its old glory, which it kept until the 6^th century at which time the gradual decline of the ancient towns and Ephesus in particular was completed. In the 7^th century, Curetes Street was not included in the boundaries of the new, Byzantine fortification of the town.

2. Location

Curetes Street, with a total length of approx. 350 m.,¹ intersects diagonally the rectangular, hippodamian urban plan of Hellenistic Ephesus. It occupied the irregular² space between the Panayir and Bülbül hills in the centre of Ephesus. It begins at a lower level than the south gate of the so-called Tetragonos Agora and inclines towards the town’s administrative center, joining thus the two most important poles of Ephesus, the commercial and the administrative respectively.³ At this central street end from the north the Marble street, as well as four lanes: the first, the Academy street, defines the west and the second, the Bath street, the eastern edge of the Baths of Varius, the third begins at the gate of Trajan in the middle of Curetes Street, while the fourth begins at the height of the Hercules Gate. Of these, only the Academy street and the Bath street continue south as narrow stairway alleys(map no. 1 and 2 respectively) which incline towards the Bülbül hill.⁴ In this way, city blocks (insulae) defined by smaller lanes joined (unified) via stoas are created on both the north and south side of the street. This division into insulae suggests to a great degree the methodology for the study of the street’s topography.

3. Identification - function

The present-day name of the street was given by researchers because of the drums of columns from the Prytaneion⁵ re-used in an early Christian stoa. On these were written the lists of the union of the Curetes.⁶ The most probable name of the street during Antiquity, as testified by relevant inscriptions, was Embolos,⁷ which was logical, as this street injects like a wedge into the rectangular urban plan of Ephesus. This particularity was pinpointed from the start by archaeologists and was interpreted as a sign of the street’s oldness; it has been maintained that its course was conserved during the town’s reconstruction by Lysimachus as a sign of respect.⁸ It is thought definite that Embolos formed part of the processional way which joined Ortygia, the birthplace of Artemis, with the Artemision already by the archaic period.⁹ The existence of the archaic street but also its great importance is confirmed by the discovery of funerary monuments along its length which date from the 6^th century BC and beyond.¹⁰ In the years which followed the Greek settlement Curetes Street was the town’s main thoroughfare of great commercial and political importance.

4. Architectural description

The road as it was discovered during the excavations by the Austrian Archaeological Institute represents its condition during the last centuries of Antiquity, the 6^th/7^th centuries AD, with many restorations of older buildings, the abolition of some of these and a different use of the rest. The street had a paved surface 6-8 m. wide and is defined along most of its length by stoae (porticos) 3,5-5 m. wide. Beneath the Late Antique phases important monuments of the Hellenistic and Roman periods were discovered, revealing Embolos’ enduring importance for the town’s history.

5. Topography

5.1. Library area

The topography of Curetes Street¹¹ begins in the west with the Library area, south of the Tetragonos (commercial) Agora. It is dominated by the Library of Celsus (map no. 55) which was founded in the first quarter of the 2^nd century AD as a tomb for the proconsul of Asia Ti. Iulius Celsus by his son, Ti. Iulius Aquila. After the earthquake of 262 AD the building was destroyed by fire and only the façade survived. This was restored at around 400 AD by someone called Stephanos in order to function as a backdrop for the large basin constructed in front of its steps.¹²

The square of the Library itself was defined to the north by the Tetragonos Agora (map no. 61) and to the south by a peristyle house (map no. 53) and the so-called “altar” (map no. 52). The house (map no. 53) dates from the 1^st century BC, or slightly later and a large part of it was incorporated into the library building during the 2^nd century AD. A stoa with very interesting mosaics was erected on the house two centuries later.¹³ This same stoa began further to the east, where at a lower level a U-shaped foundation which looks like an altar (map no. 52) was discovered.¹⁴ There is little agreement among the scholars about the identification of this building and its use. It has been suggested that it was the inner town’s altar to Artemis together with the so-called Parthian monument, and the auditorium located, according to inscriptions, in this area.¹⁵ On the north-western side are also the remains of another as yet unidentified building.

Exactly opposite, on the north side of the square and east of the south gate of the Agora, the funeral chamber and sarcophagus of the orator T. Claudius Flavianus Dionysus (map no. 58), which date from around the middle of the 2^nd century AD. were located under a 6^th/7^th century AD ramp (map no. 57).¹⁶ Established during the late Hellenistic period at a short distance to the east, was a circular monopteros building which functioned as a fountain (map no. 59).¹⁷ Finally, adjoining the south wall of the hall of Nero is an apsidal building to which was added, during the 2^nd century AD, a vaulted construction made of baked bricks. It is possible that the apsidal building housed an oratory school and is identified with the auditorium mentioned in inscriptions.¹⁸ The destruction of the Library area by earthquakes in the 3^rd and 4^th centuries, allowed the establishment of workshops and mills. During the town’s re-organization at around 400 AD or later, these workshops were removed and the area was partially renovated and upgraded.¹⁹

5.2. North side of Embolos

The first large building islet on the north side of Embolos is defined by the so-called Marble Street (map no. 60) and the covered (via tecta) Academy Street (map no. 42).²⁰ Here was found a complex of Latrines (map no. 43) arrangedaround the three sides of an open peristyle. The Latrines, oriented according to the Hippodamian city plan, served the customers of the baths to the east of the covered street. The largest part of the first insula however was covered during late Antiquity by houses with rich mosaics which had initially been wrongly identified as brothel. The section of the insula in front of the road was covered at the end of the 4^th century AD by a stoa. It was replaced during the first half of the 6^th century AD by the two-storey “stoa of the Curetes”, whose columns, with the aforementioned lists of the Curetes, come from the building of the Prytaneion in the so-called “administrative center”.²¹

The second insula, which functionally forms a singular unit with the first, is defined to the west by the covered Academy Street and to the east by the Bath Street (map no. 39) and is entirely taken up by the Baths of Varius (P. Quintilius Valens Varius) (map no. 41).²² They date from the beginning of the 2^nd century AD. Later, possibly during the 6^th century and at the same time as the erection of the “stoa of the Couretes”, a rich Christian Ephesian, Scholasticia, funded the renovation and reconstruction of part of the baths²³ which were, from the beginning oriented to the Hippodamian plan of the city.

On the contrary, the small temple with the elaborate decoration in the middle roughly of the south side of the insula (map no. 40) faces Curetes Street.²⁴ It is, according to the inscription, the temple dedicated by the asiarch P. Vedius Antoninus Sabinus) to the emperor Hadrian, Artemis and the demos of Ephesus shortly after 132 AD and the concession of the second neokoria to the town.²⁵ The temple of Hadrian suffered extensive damage in 262 AD from an earthquake, but it was renovated, with several additions and alterations, about forty years later, when the pedestals with the statues of the Tetrarchs were added to its entrance. Several more honourary statue pedestals were erected on either side of the temple, the most important of which is that of the father of emperor Theodosius I.²⁶

The third insula begins at the Bath Street and extends to the third towards the east vertical street, whose length has only barely been revealed by the archaeologists. A monumental gate (map no. 37), which was destroyed by the earthquakes of the 3^rd and 4^th centuries AD, marked the intersection of this last road with Curetes Street. On its marble and exquisitely decorated architrave is an inscription in honour of the emperor Trajan and the Ephesian Artemis. The gate was erected in 114/115 AD.²⁷ Exactly to the west of the gate was a deep building, whose function has not yet been clarified, which, during late Antiquity at least, communicated with the street via a stoa.²⁸ Further to the west is the Nymphaeum of Trajan (map no. 38),²⁹ another monumental fountain complex built before July 114 AD in honour of the aforementioned emperor. The work was entirely funded by the asiarch T. Claudius Aristion. Around two hundred years later, possibly in 362 AD it suffered earthquake damage. A parapet with hermaic stelae was added during the renovation works which followed.

The side of Curetes Street from the nymphaeum to the Baths Street is roofed by a stoa. The continuation of this stoa to the east, which was interrupted by the nymphaeum and the gate of Trajan, is located in the section of Embolos which is incorporated in the easternmost insula, between Trajan’s gate and the Hercules gate. This section of the stoa (map no. 36)³⁰ has a length of around 52 m. and a width which reaches 3,5 m. It is supported by 20 columns which possibly held up arches. In later years, pedestals with honourary statues were placed in front of each column. This stoa was erected during late Antiquity, but we can assume that stoas existed in this area already from the Early Imperial era.

The Hercules Gate (map no. 35),³¹ at the intersection with the easternmost of the passages which lead up to Embolos from the north, signaled the easternmost end of the street during late Antiquity. The gate got its name from the two massive pillars with relief representations of Hercules (of the hermaic stele type). Its first building phase dates from the first half of the 4^th century AD and the second – caused by earthquake damage – from the third quarter of the following century. It is worth noting that the gate’s floor was stepped, which means that at some point access to the Embolos was restricted for vehicles.

After the Hercules gate, Embolos “opens out” towards the so-called square of Domitian (map no. 30). The two following buildings, the monument of G. Memmius (map no. 32) and the Hydreion (map no. 33), must be considered directly connected to the street’s topography. The first building is a funerary and honourary monument founded during the third or fourth quarter of the 1^st century BC for G. Memmius, grandson of Sulla.³² The monument faced both the square of Domitian and Embolos itself, which was however blocked from view by the erection of a fountain building with a rectangular ground plan, the so-called Hydreion.³³ The erection of the later is placed already during the reign of Augustus (31 BC-14 AD), while during a second building phase, around 200 AD, it was largely rebuilt. Between 293 and 305 AD it was reconstructed into a monument of the first tetrarch.

5.3. South side of Embolos

In contrast to the north side of the street, where large stoas and public buildings were built, the south side is characterized mainly by the erection of honorific and funerary monuments. The first monument on this side from the west of Embolos is the so-called Hadrian gate (map no. 49) which signals the intersection of the three directions of the processional street (Embolos, road to Ortygia and Marble Street). The erection of the gate dates – in contrast to its archaeological name – from the reign of Trajan (98-117 AD).³⁴ After the 5^th century AD it was reconstructed partially into a basin.

There follows the alley 3 which with alley 2 to the east define the insula with the terrace houses 1 (map no. 50) and 2 (map no. 51) on the north slope of the Bülbül hill. In the northwestern corner of this insula, facing Embolos, were built the heroon and the fountain of the mythical founder of Ephesus, Androclos (map no. 48).³⁵ It is a building of the 2^nd century BC which was converted exclusively into a fountain during the Early Byzantine years. Exactly next to it to the east is the Octagon (map no. 47),³⁶ a funerary construction with octagonal ground plan of the second half of the 1^st century BC. It is probably identified with the tomb of Arsinoe I who was murdered, at the order of Marcus Antonius, in Ephesus in 41 BC.

There follows a building which was called “nymphaeum” by the archaeologists (map no. 46).³⁷ It dates from the second half of the 1^st century BC, but definitely after the construction of the Octagon as it was built directly in contact with it. It is a hexagonal monument which can be restored as monopteros. Its function as a honorific monument must be considered almost certain. At the end of the 4^th century AD it was restructured possibly into a workshop.³⁸ It later functioned also as a fountain.³⁹ A fourth construction of the late Hellenistic period was found during excavations immediately to the east. It is the so-called Hellenistic fountain (map no. 45)⁴⁰ which chronologically precedes the heroon of Androclos, i.e. the middle of the 2^nd century BC. Part of the fountain was later (late Antiquity) covered by shops.

From the stairway alley 2 to the Hellenistic fountain, screening the entire façade of house 1 (map no. 50) and the northeastern corner of house 2 (map no. 51), extends the largest and most impressive stoic building of Embolos, the so-called stoa of the Alytachus with a total length of around 53 m. and depth 4,70-5,50 m. (map no. 44) The stoa’s columns were of coloured marble and supported a marble entablature. Above the three-fasciae architrave was an inscription which mentioned the monument’s sponsor. The construction of the building dates from the 4^th century, while its restoration and the addition of the mosaic floor in its interior were completed possibly before 440 AD, at which time the letter to the proconsul Flavius Heliodorus was published on one of the columns of the stoa.⁴¹ Behind the stoa are small rectangular rooms (tabernae), possibly identified as shops and workshops. These small businesses were incorporated into the larger residential units of terrace house 1 (map no. 50) and 2 (map no. 51) of the hill’s northern slope. These houses, which are separated by the small alley 1, were constructed already by the end of the 1^st century BC and functioned until the 7^th century AD. Exquisite mosaics and wall paintings, impressive peristyles and spacious tricliniaprove the luxuriousness and affectation of their owners throughout the ages.

The stoas continue to the east of the alley 2 towards to Hercules gate. In this section of Curetes Street however, archaeological research has not continued over the entire area so large parts of these stoas has not yet been revealed. Indications however confirm the usual picture with extensive stoas which lead, through numerous openings, to smaller rooms which were obviously shops and workshops.⁴²

6. History of Curetes Street

The history of Curetes Street is marked by specific stages in its evolution and of course begins long before the establishment of the town in this area. At every period the Embolos district changed function and use but never ceased to be an important area of religious piety and social performance.

6.1. Archaic and Classical period

A basic stage for the organization of the space in the later area of Embolos during Archaic and Classical periods was its incorporation into the processional route for the celebrations of Artemis. At the point were the south gate of the Tetragonos Agora (map no. 56) was later built, was the intersection of three streets, i.e. a Triodos. From the north came the road from the Artemision, to the northwest extended the road to Ortygia, while to the east extended the road which circled the Panayir and Bülbül hills leading back to the Artemision. Many funerary monuments of the Archaic and Classical period were found along this road, part of which was later partly incorporated into the Embolos, and mainly at the points of entry and exit to the valley.⁴³

6.2. Hellenistic and Roman period

Little evidence survives regarding the form of Embolos during the Hellenistic period, when the new town of Ephesus was established. Most comes from the lower western section of the street, the so-called Lower Embolos. In the site of the Roman Tetragonos Agora (map no. 61) there seems to have pre-existed a similar complex organized around open stoas.⁴⁴ Embolos itself was possibly defined by the erection of houses, shops and workshops along its two sides.⁴⁵ During the Hellenistic period, Embolos appears to have also had a commercial function, given the fact that to the west it ended in the harbour area and the town’s agora. The oldest, however, buildings of the Hellenistic period in the area of Lower Embolos is the fountain (map no. 45) on the road’s south side and the neighbouring heroon of Androclos (map no. 48), around 30 m. further to the west. The erection of this funerary monument on Embolos must not be confused with the archaic and classical function of the street as a funerary road. The continuation of the funerary function of the area during Hellenistic years, moreover, is not supported by archaeological evidence. It was primarily the commercial, administrative and religious importance of Embolos which were significant in the choice of the location for the erection of the heroon in honour of the town’s founder.

In turn the heroon of Androclos – a symbol of Ephesus – was the motive for the erection, during the second half of the 1^st century BC and the beginning of the following, of new honorific and funerary monuments, initially in direct relation to the heroon and, later along the entire length of Curetes street.⁴⁶ Such monuments are, as we saw above, the Octagon (numb. 47), the hexagonal monument (nymphaeum” map no. 46), but also the fountain (map no. 59) in the area of the later Library. During the same period, at the other end of Embolos, the monument of Memmius (map no. 32) was also erected. During this era Embolos, the most important and central street of Ephesus, became the field of public promotion and peculiar antagonism of the local elite with the erection of monuments which dominated the surrounding area with their size, building materials and morphology.

Towards the end of the 1^st century BC, the importance of the street is testified by the establishment of luxurious houses along its south side. During this period Curetes Street was paved for the first time and was surrounded by stoas. Evidence for this has been found during excavations east of the nymphaeum Traiani⁴⁷ and south of the Octagon.⁴⁸

The offering of the right of neocoria to Ephesus by the Roman emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) initiated an embellishing program for the town which continued until after the middle of the 2^nd century AD. For Embolos in particular, this meant initially the paving of the road at the town’s expense which was competed, according to an inscription, in 94 AD, under the supervision of the grammateus M. Tigellius Lupus.⁴⁹ Three years later, in 97/98 AD, Aghios Timotheos martyred in Embolos by being stoned to death by the frenzied supporters of Dionysus.⁵⁰

In the following years an impressive building “explosion” took place on Curetes Street with the erection of many utility buildings, such as the nymphaeum Trajani (map no. 38), the Varius baths ( map no. 41), as well as the two gates of Hadrian (map no. 49) and Trajan (map no. 37).⁵¹ It has been confirmed that after the end of the 1^st century AD and until the middle of the 2^nd century AD, it was mainly private individuals who funded the erection of public monuments which were dedicated to the town’s goddess and the emperors. These monuments are also part of the antagonism among the local elite, but they also had beneficial results for the improvement of the life of the town’s citizens. In return the town of Ephesus allowed the honorific burial of these benefactors within the city walls and, moreover, along its most important street, Embolos.

Within this framework we can include the cases of the proconsul Ti. Iulius Celsus Dolaemanus, the town’s benefactor Tib. Claudius Aristion, as well as the famous orator and philosopher T. Claudius Flaviunus Dionysius. The first was buried in the central arch of the library bore his name (map no. 55) which took up the heart of the Triodos. The intersection of the processional way in turn was moved out of necessity further to the southeast, the so-called Hadrian gate. The last, which was erected during the same period at the southwestern end of Embolos, slightly removed from the axis of Curetes Street, would from this point on, define the intersection of the processional way. The tombs of Aristion and Dionysius must be identified with the sarcophagi which were found between the gate and the nymphaeum Traiani and the underground chamber (map no. 58) east of the south gate of the Agora respectively.⁵²

During the mid 2^nd century AD therefore, the view of Curetes Street with its numerous honourary and funeral monuments, public buildings and the concentrated commercial traffic in the nearby shops, combined tradition and modernity. The importance of this observation however is not in the continued use of the street as a funerary road and in the creation of new utility buildings equivalent of the Hellenistic period fountains. It is in the traditional role of Embolos as a field for the manifestation of the antagonism of the local elite expressed through the erection of lavish monuments which, in one way or another, commemorated their sponsor’s eminence. This function is based on the street’s old, great, religious, commercial and urban planning importance. Its modernity on the other hand can be pinpointed in the integration of individual buildings into a unified and integrated architectural whole which places importance on proportion and the frontage of the whole.⁵³

Curetes Street preserved the form described above until the 3^rd century AD. The Parthian monument (166 AD) must possibly be sought in the Lower Embolos area. A basic stage in the history of the road during late Antiquity is the great earthquake of 262 AD.⁵⁴ The destruction of many buildings by the earthquakes which followed during the 4^th and 5^th centuries, as well as the rage of the town’s Christians against the monuments of the paganreligion brought about dramatic changes in the appearance of Embolos, particularly its western section.⁵⁵ One of the imperial letters “published” in an inscription on the Octagon (of 371 AD) proves the strong will of central government for the rebuilding of the town at the end of the 4^th century.

The Hercules gate (map no. 35) was built within the framework of this rebuilding, while the length of the street was reduced. In a second phase, Embolos was turned exclusively into a pedestrian street and the vehicular traffic was channeled via a diversion.⁵⁶ Many of the buildings along Embolos were connected to the water network and turned into nymphaea and cisterns (library, Hadrian gate, heroon, hexagon),⁵⁷ while others, such as nymphaeum Traiani (map no. 38) and the baths complex continued to exist with some alterations. At the beginning of the 5^th century the area of the Library was rebuilt with the addition of a lavish stoa. The two large stoas on either side of the street, of the “Curetes” on the north side and of the Alytarchus (map no. 44) on the south, became a determinative feature in the space’s organization during late Antiquity. Both are connected to Embolos’ traditional role as a field for social promotion and commercial activity, as the “stoa of the Curetes” was possibly funded by the Scholasticia mentioned in a 6th century inscription and the stoa of the Alytarchus offered access to a series of shops situated along its back part.

The political and administrative importance of Embolos is testified by the relevant inscriptions written during this period on its buildings. Its financial role is confirmed through the function of many shops and commercial businesses along its length. The end of the history of Embolos and its important role is signaled by the construction, during the 7^th century, of the Byzantine fortification which excluded the largest part of the street. During this period, new workshops were established on Embolos.⁵⁸

7. History of the research and state of preservation

Archaeological research⁵⁹ began on Curetes Street already at the beginning of the 20^th century with the revelation of the western section. This is when the street gained its name. Under the supervision of F. Miltner excavational works along most of the length of Embolos were intensified during the 1950s. New excavations took place mainly in its eastern section during 1967. During the 1960s and 1970s began the first attempts for the restoration of various monuments on Embolos.⁶⁰ The monument of Memmius, the temple of Hadrian and the “stoa of the Curetes”, the nymphaeum Traiani, the gates of Hadrian and Hercules, and the library of Celsus were restored either in part or entirely.