of the Greco-Roman Era in certain ancient Sites of Asia Minor. 45 
as synonymous, in its more general sense. This was an office of the highest 
distinction in the pagan times of Asia Minor. Its duties were onerous and en- 
tailed enormous expense. They could therefore be solicited or undertaken by 
those alone who could afford to sacrifice property in consideration of rank. 
The mode of their election was as follows: 
Each of the cities of Asia held, in the commencement of every year, a 
council, at which one of the chief citizens was nominated as a candidate. They 
then despatched ambassadors, one to some of the cities of chief note, and others 
to the general council (kowov ris aoias) to announce the name of the person 
so elected, from which number the Assessors of the council selected ten, and 
reported the same to the Proconsul for the time being. It remained for that 
functionary to choose the President, who was by eminence called the High-Priest 
of Asia, on whom devolved the office of exhibiting the games of the kowov avias 
in honour of the gods and the Emperor, and to whom, in general, was in- 
trusted the care of its temples and rites. 
The celebration of the former took place at the sole expense of these officers, 
in the same way as was customary at Rome with the Aediles and Pretors, and 
in the provinces, with the Duumviri, Decuriones, and Quinquennales, when 
inaugurated into their respective offices. Hence especial regard was had to the 
means of the several candidates for meeting this expense, and the event of the 
election afforded a sort of scale for estimating the opulence of the rival cities. 
Thus Strabo remarks it as a proof of the prosperity of Tralles, that it furnished 
a constant succession of Asiarchs to the General Council.* 
The passage in Eusebius,f where he states that Polycarp suffered martyrdom 
when Philip was Asiarch, and Quadratus was Proconsul, establishes the point 
that one of the body enjoyed that dignity by eminence, in opposition to Primate 
Ussher’s opinion that there were several. But the text{ on which he formed this 
* Vid. Geograph. xiv. 1. (Vol. iii. p. 188, Tau.) 
{ Hist. Eccles. iv. 15. Compare Eccles. Smyrn. Epist. Encycl. xxi., in Edit. Oxon. 1838. 
{ Namely, Acts, xix.31. The reader will find this point discussed by De Valois in his note on 
Eusebius, wu. s., p. 132, who is followed by Pitiscus in his Lewic. Antigg., vol. i. p. 189, s. The 
learned Van Dale combines both opinions, viz., that there were Co-Asiarchs, but that the supremacy 
was vested in one, of whom the others were the Assessors. See his Dissert. iii. pp. 274, ss. It is 
certain, however, as Eckhel remarks (vol. iv. p. 211), that no monument has been discovered which 
