ON THE COVER: The marble court at Sardis, the home of the wealthy king Croesus and the location of one of the seven churches to which the Book of Revelation was addressed, was the city’s most important civic meeting place and its most impressive architectural achievement. Its facade consisted of three levels of staggered marble columns in a mixture of styles. On its first level, spiral columns made of yellow ochre marble rose above a floor tiled with intricate and colorful designs. Built in the third-century A.D. in honor of the Empress Julia Domna, the marble court marked the entrance of a large building complex called the baths of the Emperors. Discoveries made in the fire-damaged ruins of shops bordering this complex reveal that Sardis lacked the anti-Semitism attested to in the literature, law and art of the Byzantine period. John S. Crawford examines the evidence of tolerance in
“Multiculturalism at Sardis: Jews and Christians Live, Work and Worship Side by Side.”