Laodicea, Archaeological & Historical Background

Laodicea lay on the bank of the River Lycus. Its position produced a sort of triangle between with two other important cities: Colossae to the south-east and Hierapolis to the north-east, each aproximately 10 miles from one another. Laodicea's was at the head of the valley where the main road divided, making it easy to reach five of the other six churches mentioned in Revelation - to the west Ephesus, to the north-west Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira and Pergamum. The road from Ephesus to the east and to Syria was the most important in Asia. It was this geographicl position alone that led to Laodicea's importance. The great road to the east that went straight through Laodicea, entering by the Ephesian Gate and leaving by the Syrian Gate.

 

Very little archaeological work has been performed on the city, although there is an abundance of visible remains above ground, despite the regular robbing of its dressed stone over the centuries. Apart from the aqueduct, which brought water in to the city has, very little else has been properly mapped out.

 

The relation of Laodicea with Colossae and Hierapolis is very important, and even Paul lists the three together in his letter to the Colossians (4:13). The more important of these towns was originally Colossae. Herodotus speaks of it as being a ‘city of great size’. Its greatest significance was in the two centuries before Antiochus II founded Laodicea. However, once Laodicea was established it rapidly became the equal of, even more important than, her rival Colossae. Still, it is difficult to be sure as to which city was regarded as being the greater at the time Yeshua addressed His epistle to the Laodicean congregation.

 

Certainly, Colossae’s importance waned during Rome’s possession of the area when the Empire used Laodicea as a way station for the large volume of shipments brought to Rome from Syria and Israel. Laodicea also developed as a military outpost after 133BCE which seem to have led to its trade expanding rapidly.

 

Hierapolis, the other of the three cities located in this area, lay on the route out from Laodicea which separated from the main Ephesus road and traversed the high land to pass through Philadelphia and Sardis.

 

Laodicea seems to have been a centre for economic institutions and was a place where money-changing was common practice. When Cicero was traveling in Asia Minor it was at Laodicea that he cashed his letters of credit. It became one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Due to its wealth Laodicea was minting its own coins some centuries before the first century CE. All this may have been a result of the city’s success in agricultural products such as the black wool for which it was renowned. This special Laodicean wool was naturally raven black in color, but it was often dyed a deep purple.

 

By the first century, Laodicea was one of the centres leading the design and manufacturer of stylish clothing. Laodicea produced a very unique, soft, and glossy black wool superior to all others. This high quality material set them apart from all others, even from their neighbor Colossae, famous for their dark red wool cloth known as "colossinum."

 

This fine black wool was used by the Laodiceans to produce a famous seamless and expensive tunic, called "Trimita". In fact, so famous was this tunic, that at times Laodicea was refered to as Trimitaria. This special wool was also woven into other garments and exported far and wide. Included amongst these were some small and cheap upper garments, called "Himatia", as well as carpet and rugs.

 

It seems Antiochus, Laodicea's founder, settled a number of Jewish families in this region after his conquest of Israel. Rabbis often harangued against the Jews of this area for their love of the wines and baths of Phrygia. In 62BCE Rome became alarmed at the amount of currency the Jews were exporting in payment of the Temple tax. This led to the Emperor forbiding the Jewish population here to send monetary aid to the Israel. This resulted in huge amounts of gold being seized as contraband, equivalent to 15,000 silver drachmae. The annual Jewish Temple tax was half a shekel for every male, which was equal to two drachmae. This event suggests they had become fairly wealthy and puts the number of Jewish males at around 7,500. In Hierapolis there was a "Congregation of Jews" which had power to levy and to retain fines. There can have been few areas where the Jewish population were wealthier and more influential. [Our picture includes an epitaph to a Jew from Laodicea, Ammias.]

 

Like so many of the cities in this area Laodicea suffered repeated earthquakes. An earthquake in around 60CE destroyed the city. So rich and independent were its citizens that they refused any help from the Roman government and rebuilt their city out of their own resources. Tacitus tells us: "One of the famous cities of Asia, Laodicea, was that same year overthrown by an earthquake, and, without any relief from us, recovered itself by its own resources." Most cities needed to appeal to Caesar for financial aid in such a crisis. This desire for self-sufficiency may be reflected in the fact that many of its coins show people wearing a Phrygian cap, which was widely associated with freedmen. This self-sufficiency also seems to be seen in Yeshua's words when he speaks of the congregation saying, "I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing." (Rev 3:17)

 

The main problem for Laodicea was its lack of an adequate water supply with which to support itself. It had been founded primarily because of its strategic importance overlooking the road system. Instead of having a local reliable spring the city relied on water being transported from a spring many miles away. An invading army, if they could find the aqueduct, would have simply been able to cut off the city’s supply of water. This would have resulted in a disastrous situation in the dry season, when the local River Lycus, some two miles away, was known to dry up. This contrasted with Hierapolis which had medicinal hot springs and Colossae with its refreshing supply of cold water. Laodicea's need to fetch water through high-pressure stone pipes from hot springs at Denizli, five miles away - by the time it reached Laodicea the water was lukewarm. As Barclay puts it, "The contrast is between the hot medicinal waters of Hierapolis and the cold, pure waters of Colossae."

 

We do not know when the three congregations in the cities of Laodicea, Colossae and Hierapolis were founded. Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, commends Epaphras to the congregation as he had been courageously working in all three cities (4:12-13). Thus, again, the three cities and their believing congregations are closely connected. Paul seems to treat the congregations of Colossae and Laodicea as closely connected (Col 2:1), even commanding the assemblies to swap the letters he had written individually to them when they had completed reading them before the church (4:16) This letter ‘to the Laodiceans’ has been lost, although some commentators see Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as being one and the same.

 

Laodicea was a very considerable medical center. Thirteen miles to the west, between Laodicea and the Gate of Phrygia, stood the temple of Men Carus. Galen of Pergamon (129 – 199/217CE), was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher. Amongst his many surviving writings is one entitled "The best Doctor is also a Philosopher"! Galen speaks well of Laodicea and its medical school. Laodicea was so well known for medical expertise that the famous medical schools of both Herophilus and Erasistrateans, two centuries after their foundation, moved from Alexandria to this city.

 

Laodicea boasted such famous physicians as Zeuxis Philalethes (80-10BCE), founder of a medical school at the nearby shrine of of Men Carus, and Alexander Philalethes (circa 50BCE-25CE), both of whom appear on Laodicean coinage. [See example in picture.] The Laodicean physicians followed the teaching of Herophilos (330-250BC) whose principle was that compound diseases require compound medicines. From this they developed heterogeneous mixtures, two of the most famous were an ointment from spice-nard for the ears, and an eye-salve made from “Phrygian powder” mixed with oil (Galen vi.439)

 

 

OUR PICTURE SHOWS:

A view from space of the ancient site of Laodicea, courtesy of Google Earth. The two pictures of the site from the ground are both licensed under Wikimedia Creative Commons and show one of the extant theatres (Herzemann at de.wikipedia) and one of the main streets (Klaus Walter).

 

The coin shows the famous physician Zeux, founder of the nearby medical accademy and is circa 9BCE. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (educators.mfa.org).

 

The inscription on the lower right shows an epitaph for Ammias, with its inscription in Greek and a semitic language. It includes the depiction of a seven-branched Menorah. It originates from the Jewish catacombs of Monteverde, on the Via Portuense and is 3rd/4th century CE. The Greek inscription reads: "Here lies Ammias, a Jew from Loadicea, who lived 84 years. Peace!"

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