Social World (Republic, books 1-3)
Part of exploring exotic places is finding what you're missing at home, as was aptly stated by a speaker at tonight's sunset speech in front of the Library of Celsus. Reading Plato's Republic (even if it's for the first or second or third time) is only a furthering of this odyssey of self-examination as we search for the definition of justice. In books 1-3, we certainly do not have a handle on that definition yet but we definitely have some wrong ones. Socrates is speaking to Cephalus, an old rich man, Thrasymachus, a fiery man characterized as a lion, Glaucon, and others about the definition of justice but what he comes up with are either subjective speculations or incomplete examples of the subject. While Cephalus argues that paying debts and telling the truth is justice, Socrates knows justice is not limited to that. The dangers of not knowing exactly what justice is could lead to not only bad conduct but a missing out of what really makes us human. Thrasymachus offers another definition that matches his personality: Might makes right, justice is whatever the stronger party makes of it. This could be easy to assume if you look at a history of empires and wars. But this is awfully subjective and insists that morality is relative rather than a constant. Also, this is assuming that injustice is more profitable than justice and is, therefore, problematic as it dismisses the necessity of virtue. In order to indeed begin to understand justice and make a definition, Socrates proposes that we look at a larger scale before pinpointing a definition. He proposes that we look at how to organize a successful city in order to create a ordered soul that can dictate justice. In a city, there are roles to fulfill and authorities to enforce them because, although we are primarily worried about ourselves, we are dependent on each other to be successful. According to Socrates, these roles can be simplified into a tripartite that mirrors the human soul: rulers represent reason, auxiliaries represent spiritedness, and craftsmen represent desires. Where does justice fit into this? Justice is the perfect proportion of power and priority given to these three.
Biblical Heritage (Kamm 7,8)
Paul came to Ephesus in the 1st century by boat from Corinth. A city of more than 200,000 people, Ephesus was a serious power in a the Roman Empire. Four aqueducts fed through the entire city and prompted the flourishing of the expanding city. With its people working like busy bees to create a city that rivaled the nearby Pergamum, the honey bee is symbol of city to represent its fertility. On that note, their patron goddess, Artemis, acted as another symbol of fertility, as her temple drew people all over the empire in the hopes of increased fertility ranging from conception to farming. The priests of Artemis temple, which was built in 2nd century BC with the Doric columns, held more power than governors. With this monetary and spiritual security their pagan goddess offered, one can imagine how badly the people protested Paul. In addition to this road block, imperial cults reigned supreme as emperors were held as divine as well. We can see this on Hadrian's Temple with him next to friezes of gods and goddess, likening him to a god, and Dometion's giant statue in political agora, where sacrifices were made for emperors as well. In 55 AD, Paul managed to establish the first Christian community. When Christianity grew, they destroyed the temples and images of emperors and gods. Occasionally they "christianized" these statues as seen with Augustus' and Lydia' who were later chiseled with crosses on their faces. This large city offers a 3 level stage building like we saw in Hierapolis, making it the largest theatre in Asia Minor. Down the street across from the brothel, the 3rd largest in the region, the Library of Celsus was built in the 2nd century BC and housed the 3rd ecumenical counsel in 431 AD where the Virgin Mary declared as theotokos, Mother of God. Even more unique to this excavation site are the well preserved Roman terrace houses that provide an example of how the rich and wealthy lived. As the houses were built on top of each other, each had private baths with thin cut marble on walls. The main road that goes from east to west, called the Deciminus Maximus or Coret street, provided a similar decadence. The columns along road were rich with green and pink marble, showing off the wealth of the Roman Empire. In Revelations it was referred to as a city of sin because of this richness. In the book of Acts, Paul was protested by crowd provoked by Demetrius in the theatre that seats over 20,000 Ephesians. Demetrius the Silversmith of Artemis gathered his silver workers to get mad at him for taking away their profit from selling Artemid statues for fertility. After Alexander rationalized the assembly after 2 hours by saying they were going to be accused of unlawful rioting, Paul escapes and never returns to Ephesus, not even to meet with the Ephesians Counsil before his death but rather chooses to meet in the neutral territory of Miletus.
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