Byzantine Preservation of Ancient Monuments at Miletus in Caria

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apparently because the ancient name’s reference to the pagan goddess Aphrodite still
had enough currency to offend and to provoke the change."
However, with Miletus in mind, one may question whether the preservation of the
ancient cityscape and name of Aphrodisias was due to a longevity of paganism. Alter-
natively, Christians could also have advocated the preservation of ancient traditions,
in which they were involved anyhow, as is confirmed by the removal of various pagan
images and of genitals. Independent confirmation of Christian commitment to the
local building tradition of Aphrodisias is provided, as at Miletus, by the architectural
sculpture that was newly carved for early Byzantine churches: four different capitals or
series of capitals are known from Aphrodisias: two of them belong to churches in the
western necropolis and are re-used and modified composite capitals from the Roman
imperial period (Fig. 8).100 Another composite capital that was also found outside the
walls in the necropolis area dates from the early Byzantine period (Fig. 9): the lower
leaves touch one another at the tips, as was typical for the late period, and the relief
is comparatively flat and doughy; otherwise, the shape of the leaves diverges from
what was customary at Proconnesus/Constantinople and would instead have been
conceived locally in western Asia Minor, as with the said capitals from Miletus (Fig. 6)
as well as the composite capitals of the first church of St John at Ephesus (Fig. 10) and
of the first martyrium of Philip at Hierapolis.101
A fourth series of early Byzantine capitals from Aphrodisias was used for a Tri-
conch church inside an ancient four-column gate.102 These capitals are of an advanced
type with two zones, the lower in the shape of a basket, which is not attested before the
sixth century. Thus, the capitals show that the modern Constantinopolitan repertoire
was known and available at Aphrodisias.103 The absence of other modern capitals sug-
gests little interest in metropolitan fashion and a preference for local tradition.
A similar case can be made for Ephesus, the largest and most important early
Byzantine city in western Asia Minor, from which the entire region was administered.
Unlike Miletus and Aphrodisias, Ephesus suffered severe earthquake destruction in
the late Roman period, and many pagan buildings thus already lay in ruins before
Christianisation. For example, a temple of Domitian and one on the Upper Agora, a
prytaneion, a so-called ‘Felsspalttempef, an olympieion, and the artemision.104 Other
monuments survived at least as façades, for example the Library of Celsus as backdrop
of a Byzantine fountain, a temple of Hadrian as backdrop for honorary statues from
the Byzantine period, and a serapeion that became a church.105 As the ancient façades
were integrated into new buildings, the focus shifted from the squares and agorae of
old to streets as venues for processions, with the main street receiving a new cere-

99 Roueché (2004), VI 48-54.

100 Dalgiç (2012), p. 374 fig. 7 (Northwest Church); p. 378 fig. 11 (Southwest Church).

101 D’Andria (2003), p. 190 fig. 166; Gümgüm (2012), pp. 73-76.

102 Roueché 2004, cat. 101.

103 Peschlow (2004), cc. 101-102.

104 Thür (2003), pp. 261-265.

105 Bauer (2015).