A Class-Book of Biblical History and Geography / with numerous maps

by H. S. Osborn

10. Thyatira is now called Ak-hissar, “the white castle,” from a castle on the white hill back of the plain upon which the city is built. The plain has always been inhabited,and was celebrated at and long before the period of the apostles for its manufacture of dyes,[206] and this art is alluded to in Acts 16:14. It never had any reputation otherwise, but was always a busy trading city. It is 52 or 53 miles northeast of Smyrna,and was a Macedonian colony in the time of Strabo,[207]but before his time it was called Pelopia,[208] upon which site the colony was placed by the Syrian king Seleucus Nicator, a general of Alexander the Great.

11. Sardis, the once proud capital of Lydia, the residence of Crœsus, the wealthiest monarch of his age,and “the queen of Asia,”[209] is now utterly desolate. The site is about 50 miles east of Smyrna, and the river Pactolus is on the west. It is now called Sart, and there are to be found only two or three huts and a water-mill.

If Smyrna be taken as a centre of a great circle, the three cities last mentioned will be nearly on the circumference: Pergamos north, Thyatira northeast, and Sardis east, each about 50 miles from the centre.

12. Philadelphia, the next in order as mentioned in Revelation, is east of Sardis about 30 miles, on the northeastern slope of Mt. Tmolus, near the little stream of the Cogamus, which winds about on the plain and falls into the Hermus near Sardis. It received its name from its founder, Attalus Philadelphus, king of Pergamos, B. C. about 140 years.Strabo says that the city was subject to frequent earthquakes,[210]and Tacitus says that Philadelphia was nearly entirely destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius.[211] Although never a city of much prominence, it has outlasted Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicea. One-third of the present population, 15,000, are Christians of the Greek Church. It is still surrounded by walls, but they are very much dilapidated.

13. Laodicea was once a rich and flourishing city, but nothing remains of it but a vast stadium, a theatre, and a gymnasium. Laodicea is nearly 100 miles due east of Ephesus, Colosse is 10 or 12 miles southeast, and Hierapolis about the same distance nearly north.

14. Besides the seven cities forming the sites of the famous seven churches of Asia, there are two others to be noticed, Colosse and Hierapolis. The former was written to by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians. Nothing remains but a few fragments of broken columns and building stones.

Hierapolis received its name from its remarkable hot springs. At one place the deadly gas (carbonic dioxide) exhaled from the opening of a cave where the spring was located, and this exhalation caused death to animals and men. This fact originated the superstition that some divinity presided over the city, and hence it became called Hierapolis, “the holy city.” About the time of the apostles there was so great an abundance of the water supply that baths were built in every part of the city. The waters are so heavily charged with lime that they deposit stalactites and stalagmites in every direction, and the whiteness of the rock and ground over which the waters flow is so general that the place may be seen at a great distance, and because of its dazzling whiteness it receives the name of Pembouk Kalessi, “Cotton Castle.” It is only mentioned in Col. 4:13.

The apostle John, who outlived the rest of the apostles, seems to have had a special interest in those seven churches of Asia. He is said to have exercised a pastoral care over them all, but at some time after the death of Paul he went to Ephesus and dwelt there. He was banished to Patmos, probably by the Emperor Domitian, A. D. 95, where he wrote the Revelation.

PATMOS.

This little rugged island was used as a place of banishment of Roman criminals. It is 32 miles west of the coast of Asia Minor, and is rocky and barren and about 28 miles in circumference. It has a port on the east where is a deep indentation. The population at present is 4,000, all Greeks and a seafaring people. On a height above the principal town is a large convent, resembling a fortress, where are said to be some valuable manuscripts.