Why go
The familiar Roman ruins can make Ephesus seem purely imperial. This earlier political story restores the Greek city that negotiated Persian rule, joined the Delian League and later aligned with Sparta, while its sanctuary continued to attract attention beyond the city itself.
The full story
Ephesus participated in the upheaval around the Ionian Revolt against Persia in the early fifth century BC. After the Persian Wars it joined the Athenian-led Delian League, contributing money rather than ships according to the surviving account. During the Peloponnesian War the city’s alignment changed, and it later supported Sparta. Such shifts show a coastal city responding to stronger powers rather than following a single political identity. The Temple of Artemis remained a lasting civic and religious center through those changes. In 356 BC the great temple burned; ancient writers identify an arsonist and connect the event with the birth of Alexander, though that coincidence belongs to later storytelling. The Ephesians rebuilt on a grand scale. These events belong to a city that was already important before the later Roman monuments rose. At the sanctuary, the rebuilding after 356 BC is the clearest physical bridge from this period to the Hellenistic age.