Book Review

Steven J. Friesen. Twice Neokoros: Ephesus, Asia and the Cult of the Flavian Imperial Family. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, vol. 116. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993. Pp. xvi + 237. Cloth, Gld 135; US$77.25. ISBN 90-04-09689-2.

Book review originally published in Toronto Journal of Theology 13 (1997): 272-73.

The place of the Roman emperors within religious life is of considerable importance to our understanding of broader social, political, economic and religious issues in regions of the empire. Steven J. Friesen’s revised doctoral dissertation, done under the direction of Helmut Koester and David Mitten, illustrates the above statement through its study of the provincial Cult of the Sebastoi (or emperors) in first-century Ephesus. Moreover, the juxtaposition of epigraphical, numismatic, architectural and literary evidence and methods together with attention to regional factors remain strong points throughout the work.

In chapter 1, Friesen outlines the three provincial imperial cults of Asia that preceded that of Ephesus: the temple of Rome and Augustus at Pergamum (29 BCE), the temple for Tiberius, Livia and the Senate at Smyrna (26 CE), and the short-lived temple built for Gaius in Miletus (c. 40 CE). Quite interesting are his discussions of the depiction of temples on coins when other architectural remains are lacking (cf. pp. 12-15).

Chapter 2 examines inscriptional dedications by various Asian cities to the imperial temple of Ephesus (89-91 CE). These inscriptions show the temple to have been dedicated not to a single emperor, as some scholars suggested, but to the Sebastoi, the Flavian family (pp. 35-36), sometime in 89 or 90 CE during the reign of Domitian (pp. 45-49). They also demonstrate the interplay of cult and politics in regard to a city’s relations with both Rome and other cities in the province of Asia (pp. 37-41; cf. pp. 158-60).

In chapter 3 Friesen outlines some of the developments in religious traditions that came to be appropriated in the Cult of the Sebastoi. In particular, he traces the development of the designation neokoros from its origins as a reference to the individuals who managed a cult (the temple-wardens) to a corporate concept and official title, as used by Ephesus (late-I CE) and later other cities, with far reaching religious, social and political implications (pp. 50-59; cf. pp. 152-58).

With his analysis of the architectural remains of the upper agora in Ephesus, including the imperial temple (pp. 59-75), Friesen states that their symbolic message was clear: “the gods and goddesses of the peoples supported the emperors; and, conversely, the cult of the emperors united the cultic systems, and the peoples, of the empire...[T]he emperors joined the ranks of the divine and played their own particular role in that realm” (p. 75).

In chapter 4 and appendix I, Friesen moves on to another issue of continuing debate within this area: the functions and identification of the highpriests and the Asiarchs. Focussing solely on the evidence from Ephesus and Asia, Friesen convincingly argues that: there could be more than one highpriest at a time (one for each city of Asia with an imperial cult temple) (pp. 76-81); the highpriests were not the highest officials of the provincial koinon of Asia but their primary function was associated with the cultic activities of the imperial temples (pp. 89-92); and the highpriestesses were not merely honourary positions (through marriage to a highpriest), but functional ones (pp. 81-89).

Friesen rejects the common identification of highpriests and Asiarchs as two names for the same position (p. 99) and argues that, in contrast to the highpriests, Asiarchs had little to do with the provincial cults of the emperors; instead, Asiarchs functioned in a municipal role, akin to other liturgies, with a variety of possible duties (pp. 92-112).

In chapter 5, Friesen quite convincingly argues that the Olympic games held in Ephesus were municipally initiated under Domitian (89 or 90 CE), discontinued with the damnatio memoriae, and reinstated under Hadrian who, like Domitian, was acclaimed as Zeus Olympios (pp. 117-21). Friesen then goes further to correlate this theory with other architectural evidence by suggesting that the Harbour Bath-Gymnasium was built on the model of the athletic facilities at Olympia specifically to facilitate the Ephesian Olympics in connection with the Cult of the Sebastoi (pp. 121-37). Though at times Friesen seems to over-state the certainty of his theory (cf. pp. 137, 140-41), it does provide a more than adequate explanation of the available data.

Friesen concludes the book with helpful discussions of methodological issues and of the significance of the Cult of the Sebastoi for the inhabitants of Ephesus and Asia. Friesen correctly criticizes S.R.F. Price and others who focus too much on modern concerns of ontological status--whether the emperors were human or divine--and convincingly argues that the important issue is that “emperors functioned like gods in the organization of social life” (p. 152; cf. pp. 73-74, 146-152). However, since Friesen claims that the Cult had “implications for many spheres of life” and “touched the lives of many communities and individuals” (p.142), it is surprising that in this context he fails to discuss some other kinds of evidence, such as inscriptions pertaining to religious associations that engaged in worship of the emperors under the Flavians (cf. Helmut Engelmann, Dieter Knibbe, Reinhold Merkelbach, et.al., eds., Die Inschriften von Ephesos [Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien, vol. 32; Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 1979-84] 2.25-26 [no. 213]).

Overall, though, Friesen’s work makes an important contribution to our understanding of the imperial cult in first-century Ephesus. The book also demonstrates the value in regional, interdisciplinary approaches to the religions of antiquity that utilize the vast reservoir of epigraphical, numismatic and architectural realia.

Philip A. Harland