An upright stone slab with carved relief decoration. Stelae were set up at Ephesus as grave markers, as records of decrees and dedications, and as boundary or commemorative stones.
Ephesus, on the Aegean coast of Anatolia, was one of the great cities of the Greek and Roman world. Under Rome it was the capital of the province of Asia, with a population estimated at well over 100,000, and it was famous for the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders.