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1. History Originally located on the bay of Coressus at the mouth of the Caÿster (Turk. Küçük Menderes) River, the city of Ephesus was refounded by Lysimachus, king of Thrace and Macedonia (306–281 b.c.). When it came under Roman rule in 133 b.c., it was capital of the senatorial province of Asia (29 b.c.-a.d. 297) and, even with competition from Pergamum and Smyrna, the most important and wealthiest city of Asia Minor. The sebasteion, dedicated to Rome (Roman Religion) and Augustus, housed the provincial archives, courts, and treasury. The temple of Artemis, the Ar…

1. Biblical Archaeology 1.1. Task The task of biblical archaeology is to investigate the history of settlement and culture of Palestine. This task demands the reconstruction of the history of settlement and the recovery of artifacts by surface exploration and excavation, followed by the collection and interpretation of the artifacts with a view to exhibiting the material culture in the different epochs. Surface exploration involves taking an inventory of whatever remains may still be present. Ruined buildings are seldom available. A site usually consists o…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Christian Secrecy I. Religious Studies Discipline of the Secret ( disciplina arcani) is a modern expression coined in the context of post-Reformation controversial theology (first used by J. Daillé, De usu patrum ad ea definienda capita, Geneva, 1686). It refers to the ancient Christian demand, made especially in the 4th and early 5th centuries, that central par…

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[German Version] was a Roman martyr (Western feast day Jan 21, Eastern Jul 5). According to 4th-century tradition ( Depositio Martyrum of 354), the Roman martyr – spared from the flames – was stabbed or beheaded under Diocletian (or Valerian?). The name and legend of Agnes, who suffered dual martyrdom for the sake of decency and religion (Ambr., Virg. I 2.9), could have developed in Rome (as well as in Trier) from the Greek virtue ἁγνός ( hagnos). Since late Constantinian times, her cult has been localized in the via Nomentana in the vicinity of the circular basilica (with mausoleum) erected by Constantine. Since the 8th century, this site has been joined by the inner city cult de …

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[German Version] (feast day Jul 23). According to Peter Chrysologus ( Sermo 128), Apollinaris was the first bishop of Ravenna and a martyr; his translation inscription (CIL 11/1, 295) calls him confessor. In the Ravenna episcopal list, Severus, the first bishop for whom there is clear evidence (343 in Serdica), appears in eleventh place after …

[German Version] (Feb 22, 1822, Rome – Sep 20, 1894, Castel Gandolfo). The jurist Rossi distinguished himself with many archaeological initiatives and publications on the Early Church, thereby found-¶ ing Christian archaeology (III) as an independent discipline. Rossi apologetically championed a focus on Rome which w…

[German Version] (feast day: Sep 26). As probably the most beloved of the Anargyroi (“those ¶ who heal without payment”), this uncertain eastern hagiological tradition (Syr., Gk, Arab., Georg., Lat.; three versions of the legend are distinguished: Passio Asiatica, BHG 372, 385–393, feast day: Nov 1; Passio Romana, BHG 376, feast day: Jul 1; Passio Arabica, BHG 378f., feast day: Oct 18), which is important for the history of medicine, knows of three pairs of physician brothers by this name in a large geographical area, including Rome, C…

[German Version] episcopate May 254 – 256/257 (Aug 2, 255, according to the Catalogus Liberianu s and the Depositio episcoporum [CPL 2028/2250]). He is venerated as a martyr; his tomb is in the Cripta dei Papi in the catacombs of San Callisto. All we know ¶ of Stephen comes from the statements of Firmilian of Caesarea and Cyprian of Carthage ( Ep. 67–75) protesting against the position taken by the Roman bishop, who wanted to exclude rebaptizing returning schismatics and simply lay hands on them (Rebaptism controversy). The North African opposition to thi…

[German Version] (feast: Apr 13); Eus. Hist. eccl. IV 15.48 relates that the hypomnemata of the martyrdom of these two clergymen and of Agathonice, the sister of Papylus, were still extant in Pergamon. The rich and divergent hagiological tradition, which includes an epic version, attributes various origins and ecclesial ranks to the martyrs and emphasizes that it was the woman who urged the others to accept martyrdom. According to Eusebius, their martyrdom took place in the reign …

[German Version] (feast day Apr 18). At the end of Eusebius's brief account of the martyrdom of Apollonius, “a man who stood in high esteem among the faithful of that time on account of his culture and erudition” ( Hist. eccl. V 21.2–5), he refers to a text that he had “in his collection of the early acts of the martyrs.” These acts may be identical with the so-called Acts of Apollonius, a largely apologetic work surviving in Greek and Armenian; its literary quality and fictional style led Jerome ( Vir. ill. 42) to identify Apollonius as a …

[German Version] In his new edition of the Martyrologium Romanum (1583–; cf. esp. the appended “De martyrologio Romano praecapitulatio dicendorum”), C. Baronius borrowed the expression acta martyrum from Pontius's Vita Cypriani 11 (cf. Cyprian Epis. 77, 2), understanding the martyr literature handed down in protocol form as original trial transcripts or as protocols recorded by ecclesiastical notarii (combining Cyprian Epis. 12, 2, 1 with LP 1, 148) to serve as documentation for liturgical commemoration. In 1643 the Acta sanctorum of the Bollandists marked the beginning of hagiographic (Hagiography) publishing, a project still being actively pursued (AnBoll, 1882–; SHG, 1886–). Alt…

[German Version] The Roman Colonia Arelate was established in 46 bceon the Rhône in souther…

[German Version] The account, in the form of a legal transcript, of a group of Christians in Africa Proconsularis who suffered martyrdom in Carthage on July 17 (their feast day), 180, is probably the earliest evidence of Christianity in North Africa (III); it is also the earliest text of Christian literature in Latin (Literature, History of: V). Although we do not know where Scillium was, how many Chris…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies We can speak of care for the poor in the sense of public and private relief of poverty only when there has been a certain degree of institutionalization. Religions have treated poor relief with varying degrees emphasis. It is important to distinguish caregivers (including families, clans, congregations, orders, foundations, societies, and associations), the kind of help given (material, personal, structural), and the recipients (different levels of poverty). The Greeks and Romans felt no obligation to help the poor, or at most a g…

[German Version] The veneration of martyrs and the related descriptions in the literature of martyrs shaped the figure of the martyr and in some cases even created it. It gave the type of the martyr its characteristic features, which survived even after the confrontations that led to martyrdom had ended. Given differing processes of socialization and acculturation of the various Christian communities in the Roman Empire during the principate and Late Antiquity, the charisma of the martyr became a …

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. The Early Church – III. Middle Ages, Reformation, Counter-reformation – IV. The Modern Period – V. Martyrs of the Orthodox Church – VI. Judaism – VII. Islam – VIII. Missiology I. History of Religion The term martyrium (Greek μαρτύριον/ martúrion) was coined in early Christianity, where it denotes a self-sacrificial death in religious conflict as a witness to faith Historical and systematic references are found in many contexts, in which comparable terms imply something slightly different. For example, the Islamic šahīd, “witness,” generaly falls in battle and submits to that fate motivated by the hope of paradise (V). In Christian usage, martyrium and closely related forms give prominence to patience in suffering, in some circumstances the self-chosen suffering of death. As Jesus on the cross and early Christian martyrs were executed, so Socrates earlier drank the cup of poison, and the Jews freely chose death at Masada. The imāms of the Twelver Šīʿa are seen as victims of the Sunnis (Sunna/Sunnis) who murder them (see VII b…

[German Version] (feast day Feb 9). A letter of Dionysius of Alexandria concerning Alexandrian martyrs (Eusebius Hist. eccl. VI 41.7) describes Apollonia as “an elderly woman of high standing …

[German Version] Milan, the ancient capital of the Gallic Insubres, came under Roman rule in the 2nd century bce. Since the time of Augustus, it became increasingly important as a transportation hub. From 286 to 406, when it was the imperial capital of the West, it developed into a major city with architecture befitting its role. The church shared in the city's growth in the 3rd century and even more in the 4th; 4th-century churches include Sta. Maria Maggiore, Sta. Tecla, S. Giovanni al Fonte, the Basilica Apost…