Archaeological Views: A Tale of Two Slaves

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A highlight of a tour of Turkey that my wife and I went on in June 2012 was a visit to the Lycus valley in ancient Phrygia, home of Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis. All three of these cities are mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Colossians (Colossians 4:13). Laodicea is also well known from Revelation as home of the “lukewarm” church (Revelation 3:14–22). But the main attraction for me was the area’s connection with Paul’s Philemon 1. It is from this valley that the slave Onesimus fled, somehow encountered Paul in prison, was converted and eventually returned with the […]

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Footnotes

See Angelos Chaniotis, “Godfearers in the City of Love,” BAR 36:03.

See Thomas E. Levy and Mohammad Najjar, “Condemned to the Mines,” BAR 37:06.

Endnotes

We don’t have a copy of the actual letter but know of its existence because the letter’s contents were later inscribed on column 4 of the archive wall in the theater at Aphrodisias, which benefited from Zolios’s generosity. Zoilos not only boasted in his status as a former slave, but also his friendship with the emperor. (See Joyce Reynolds, Aphrodisias and Rome [London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1982], pp. 96–97; R.R.R. Smith, Aphrodisias I The Monument of C. Julius Zoilos [Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1993], p. 10.)

Digest, 50.17.32 and 50.17.209.