Paul the Apostle (2BC–64/65) stayed in Ephesus for about two and a half years from 53-56 BCE. In Acts 19.24-28 there is a story of Paul and a Riot in Ephesus as the silversmiths who made shrines to the Artemis of Ephesus, the city goddess, felt their business threatened by the rising believe in Jesus.
"A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Soon the whole city was in an uproar."
-The Bible, Acts 19.24-28There were two primary festivals for Ephesian Artemis. The Artemision, which was held in March-April a month dedicated to worshiping Artemis, and the Thargelion which was held in May-June celebrating the birthday of Artemis and Apollo. These festivals were important to the economy and bring many tourists to the city, By the first century CE, Artemis cults had spread to most of the Mediterranean world, with Greeks and non-Greeks recognizing the goddess.
This coin was issued in Ephesus about 75 years earlier than the incident in the Bible, and about 20 years before the birth of Jesus. The obverse shows Octavian as Augustus, about 25-20 BCE. The reverse shows a garlanded altar to Artemis with two deer (Roman: Diana).
The Roman Empire, Octavian, as Augustus 27 BC – 14 AD, Cistophoric tetradrachm, Ephesus 25-20 BC, AR 11.29g
Obv: IMP – CAE – SAR Bare head right
Rev: AVGVSTVS Garlanded altar decorated with two confronting hinds
Ref: BMC 694, Sutherland Group VI, O 126 – R 372a, RIC 482 (also 479 - with a difference in spacing of the obverse legend, although all examples online for 479 look like this coin), RPC 2215.
Deer and bees are often represented on the Greek coins of Ephesus. The Ephesians believed that the twins, Apollo and Artemis, were born in Ephesus, not Delos as most believed. Obverse dies are known to be shared across three tetradrachm types from Ephesus for Augustus: RPC 2213 (capricorn); RPC 2214 (ears of corn).
On a later coin of Hadrian we see Artemis in her Ephesian form (details of scale (less
than life-size), position of the statue : upright, rigid and bound lower body and
outstretched arms, flanked by two deer. (not my coin)
Antipater of Sidon, who lived in the 2nd century and 1st centuries BC, is one of the first to create a list of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is included on his list as #7.
Pliny describes the temple:
"The most wonderful monument of Grecian magnificence, and one that merits our genuine admiration, is the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, which took one hundred and twenty years in building, a work in which all Asia [Minor] joined. A marshy soil was selected for its site, in order that it might not suffer from earthquakes, or the chasms which they produce. On the other hand, again, that the foundations of so vast a pile might not have to rest upon a loose and shifting bed, layers of trodden charcoal were placed beneath, with fleeces covered with wool upon the top of them. The entire length of the temple is four hundred and twenty-five feet, and the breadth two hundred and twenty-five. The columns are one hundred and twenty-seven in number, and sixty feet in height, each of them presented by a different king."
-Pliny, Natural History, 36.21.14The first temple to Artemis dates to the Bronze Age until it was destroyed by a flood in the 7th century BC. A new grander temple was built starting in 546 BC commissioned by King Croesus of Lydia. This temple was destroyed in 356 BC.
"The case of Herostratus is well known: in the night of July 21, 356 BC, seeking notoriety, he burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in ancient Greece, which was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Far from attempting to evade responsibility for his act of arson, Herostratus proudly claimed credit in an attempt to immortalize his name. To dissuade those of a similar mind, the Ephesian authorities not only executed him, but attempted to condemn him to a legacy of obscurity by forbidding mention of his name under penalty of death. However, this did not stop Herostratus from achieving his goal because the ancient historian Theopompus recorded the event and its perpetrator in his Hellenics."
-Kaffes, Georges. (2018). Sociology of Terrorism. The Herostratus Syndrome. 10.1007/978-3-319-71602-2_27.Herostratus’ confession was obtained under torture, he may have just served as the scapegoat. Plutarch links the date of July 21, 356 BC to the birth of Alexander as an omen predicting the future greatness of Alexander the Great.
"Be that as it may, Alexander was born early in the month Hecatombaeon, 2 the Macedonian name for which is Loüs, on the sixth day of the month, and on this day the temple of Ephesian Artemis was burnt. It was apropos of this that Hegesias the Magnesian made an utterance frigid enough to have extinguished that great conflagration. He said, namely, it was no wonder that the temple of Artemis was burned down, since the goddess was busy bringing Alexander into the world."
-Plutarch, Alexander, 3.3A third, even larger temple was built - this is the one that Pliny describes as taking 120 years. Modern estimates are that construction was 25 years from 355 BCE to 330 BCE. This temple survived until it was destroyed by Goths in the 3nd century AD. Little remains today of this "Wonder of the World".
The site of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Photograph from 10 June 2017, by FDV, used under terms of CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Replica statues of Artemis are available for sale on EBay and Etsy.
The key reference for the coin is a reference, corpus and die-study of the large silver coins struck in the Eastern mints with Latin legends, "The Cistophori of Augustus", Sutherland, C. H. V. , the Royal Numismatic Society, Special Publication No. 5, 1970. 132 pages, 36 fine plates, red cloth, dust jacket.
See also this Ephesian Tourism site for information: https://ephesiantourism.com/destruction-of-temple-of-artemis/