Ephesus (Antiquity), Marble Street

1. Location
The so-called Marble Street starts from Theatre Square1 and extends to the south along the eastern side of the so-called Commercial Agora (Tetragonos) before it finally ends in Couretes Street (Embolos). In the Imperial period Marble Street was part of the route the sacred procession of Artemis followed. The road surface was paved; to the west there was an oblong Doric building, the so-called Hall of Nero, while to the east there was a stoa with shops at the back. Theatre Street was an extension of Marble Street to the north; it connected the area of the Theatre with the Coressian City-Gate.2

2. Architectural Description – Topography

Marble Street took its present form in the Late Imperial period, after the 3rd century AD. Along the eastern side and about 40 m to the south of the Theatre there is a stoa. The columns and the capitals had been reused, while behind the stoa there was a row of shops, thus suggesting the commercial importance of the street. To the east, on the side of the hill Panayir, multi-storey residential buildings were excavated.3 At the junction of Marble Street and Embolos there was a complex of public latrines as well as houses with elaborate mosaics, built in Late Antiquity and formerly erroneously identified as a brothel.4

The so-called Hall of Nero, which actually marks the eastern side of the Commercial Agora (Tetragonos), is on the western side of Marble Street.5 It was an oblong Doric building 150 m long, facing Marble Street, named after an inscription dedicated to Artemis of Ephesus, Nero (54-65), his mother Agrippina and the citizens of Ephesus. The Hall of Nero stood on a base and, as a result, its floor level was 1.70 m above the street.6 In the Late Roman period its facade to Marble Street was closed and there was only a small entrance at the north end.

Among the preserved ruins of the street there is a marble slab with an engraved female bust with a polos crown, a left foot and a heart with an arrow. The drawings are dated in the Byzantine period and are possibly religious motifs representing Tyche or Cybele. This marble block was formerly incorrectly interpreted as a signboard leading to the nearby brothel.7

3. Function
According to epigraphic evidence, Marble Street accommodated storekeepers and craftsmen – in particular, it is reported as ‘a place of masons’.8 However, a portrait and a pedestal found there, both dating in the Early Byzantine period, are of particular interest. In the middle of the pedestal there is an engraved inscription informing that a minimum reward is dedicated to Eutropius, a native of Ephesus, for his sustained efforts to embellish the city with marble streets: ‘«Τήνδε φιλαγρύπνων/ ὀλίγην χάριν εὔραο μόχθω(ν) / Εὐτρόπιε, ζαθέης Ἐφέσσου/ θάλος, οὔνεκα πάτρην μαρμαρέαις κοσμήσας/ εὐστρώτοισιν ἀγυιαῖς». According to this evidence it was supposed that Eutropius had paved the Marble Street and the specific portrait must have stood in the eastern stoa.9

Apart from the donor’s portrait, among the finds from the area of Marble Street there are statues of officers, most of which are dated to the Early Byzantine period, judging by their style. Particularly interesting are the torsos of three senators dating around the 5th century AD.10 According to epigraphic evidence, Marble Street was adorned with bronze statues representing Nike and other mythological figures.11 Significant information is also derived from the inscriptions engraved on the building components incorporated into the structures surrounding the street.12

4. History of Research and Present Condition

Unfortunately, there is brief and occasional reference to Marble Street, whose longest part was discovered in the first decades of the 20th century, and to the monuments surrounding it, which makes the study of this topic particularly difficult.

The effort of promoting the archaeological monuments of Ephesus has led to the restoration of some columns of the stoa to the east of Marble Street, while along the western side drums of columns and parts of the entablature of the so-called Hall of Nero, where little restoration work has been carried out, lie on the ground.13




1. At the beginning of the marble street, in the Theater Square, there is an arch, part of the byzantine wall of the city, which bears inscribed acclamations in honor of the “pious emperors and the Greens” and is dated to the beginning of the 7th cent. BC. See Foss, C., Ephesus after antiquity: a late Antique, Byzantine and Turkish city (Cambridge, Νew York 1979), p. 61· Bauer, F.A., Stadt, Platz und Denkmal in der Spätantike: Untersuchungen zur Ausstattung des öffentlichen Raums in den spätantiken Städten Rom, Konstantinopel und Ephesos (Mainz am Rhein 1996), p. 278, footnote 40· Merkelbach, R. – Nollé, J., Engelmann, H. – Iplikçioğlu, B. – Knibbe, D., Die Inschriften von Ephesos V (Bonn 1980), p. 65, inscription no. 2090.

2. Bauer, F.A., Stadt, Platz und Denkmal in der Spätantike: Untersuchungen zur Ausstattung des öffentlichen Raums in den spätantiken Städten Rom, Konstantinopel und Ephesos (Mainz am Rhein 1996), p. 278· Scherrer, P. (ed.), Ephesus. The New Guide (Istanbul 2000), p. 156-157.

3. Scherrer, P. (ed.), Ephesus. The New Guide (Istanbul 2000), p. 156.

4. Foss, C., Ephesus after antiquity: a late Antique, Byzantine and Turkish city (Cambridge, New York 1979), p. 63.

5. For the Hall of Nero see Lang, G.J.,“Zur oberen Osthalle der Agora, der 'Neronischen Halle' in Ephesos’’, in Kandler, M. – Karwiese, S. – Pillinger, R. (ed.), Lebendige Altertumswissenschaft: Festgabe zur Vollendung des 70. Lebensjahres von H. Vetters (Wien 1985), p. 176-180.

6. The Hall of Nero was constructed on a base due to the height difference between the Tetragonos Agora and the Marble Street. Around 3rd century AD, a period of financial decline for the city, the removal of the metal clamps of the masonry started, which was continued later. See Hueber, F., Ephesos. Gebaute Geschichte (Sonderhefte der Antiken Welt, Mainz am Rhein 1997), p. 77, 92, fig. 115.

7. Scherrer, P. (ed.), Ephesus. The New Guide (Istanbul 2000), p. 157.

8. Börker, C. – Merkelbach, R. – Engelmann, H. – Knibbe, D., Die Inschriften von Ephesos II (I.K., Bonn 1979), p. 223, no. 549.

9. This marble base was found at the crossing of Marble Road and Embolos, Grégoire, H., Recueil des inscriptions grecques-chrétiennes d’Asie Mineure, publié sous les auspices de l’Academie Inscriptions et Belles letters (Paris 1922), no. 99· Bauer, F.A., Stadt, Platz und Denkmal in der Spätantike (Mainz am Rhein 1996), p. 278-279, plate 30.1· Engelmann, H. – Knibbe, D. – Merkelbach, R., Die Inschriften von Ephesos IV (Bonn 1980), p. 164, n. 1304. Regarding the Eutropius’ portait see especially Eichler, F., “Das Denkmal des Eutropios von Ephesos”, AnzWien 76 (1939), p. 5-13 and Bauer, F.A., Stadt, Platz und Denkmal in der Spätantike (Mainz am Rhein 1996), p. 278, footnote. 45, 423. See also Foss, C., Ephesus after antiquity: a late Antique, Byzantine and Turkish city (Cambridge 1979), p. 61, where Eutropius is referred as a proconsul of the 5th century, however in recent essays there is no mention of Eutropius’ office , see Engelmann, H. – Knibbe, D. – Merkelbach, R., Die Inschriften von Ephesos IV (Bonn 1980), p. 164.

10. See Bauer, F.A., Stadt, Platz und Denkmal in der Spätantike (Mainz am Rhein 1996), p. 279, 473.

11. Scherrer, P., “The historical topography of Ephesos”, in Parrish, D., Urbanism in Western Asia Minor (Portsmouth 2001), p. 74· Börker, C. – Merkelbach, R. – Engelmann, H. – Knibbe, D., Die Inschriften von Ephesos II (I.K., Bonn 1979), p. 195 no. 501 (Androclus’ statue), p. 200, n. 507 (Satyrus’ statue), p. 211-212, no. 521-522 ( statues of Nikes ). The dedicatory inscriptions of the statues of Nike and the statue of Satyrus were found at the crossing of the Marble Road with the Couretes Street.

12. They are honorary inscriptions to the emperors Phocas and Heraclius, which were inscribed on the columns of the Hall of Nero. H. – Knibbe, D. – Merkelbach, R., Die Inschriften von Ephesos IV (Bonn 1980), p. 119, no. 1191 (inscriptions in honor of the emperor Phocas), p. 121, no. 1195-1196 ( inscriptions in honor of the emperor Heraclius). The edict of the emperor Mauricius (585 AD) was inscribed in one of the columns. See Wankel, H., Die Inschriften von Ephesos Ia (IK, Bonn 1979), p. 253-255, no. 39. This evidence indicates that the road was still in use in the end of the 6th century AD.

13. For the restoration work of the Hall of Nero by the Austrian Archaeological Institute see Wilpinger, G. – Wlach, G., Ephesos. 100 Jahre österreichische Forschungen (Wien – Köln – Weimar 1995), p. 166-167.