Power Plays

This chapter examines a decree issued by the Roman proconsul in Ephesos, Paullus Fabius Persicus, which mandates specific changes in the Artemis cult. It also studies the ways in which two locations of the Persicus decree, the theater and the southern Market Gate, reinforce the sociopolitical stratifications argued for in the decree. Through Persicus’s instructions for awarding priesthoods and for limiting the roles of public slaves, one sees that this inscription advocates for “suitable” social stratifications in the city and works to limit the roles of enslaved persons in Ephesian religious practices. The chapter presents three historical possibilities for the occasion of such a power contestation: that public slaves had the money with which to purchase babies in the market to dedicate to Artemis, that some free persons did the same jobs as enslaved persons, and that unsuitable people such as slaves had purchased priesthoods.