Philemon
Intro
About Colossae:
COLOSSAE (Κολοσσαι, Kolossai). A city of Phrygia on the Lycus River. The letter to the Colossians was addressed to the church located there.
Location and Archaeology
Colossae was a city in the province of Phrygia located in the Lycus Valley within Anatolia, or Asia Minor, about 120 miles east of the major port city of Ephesus (Arnold, Colossians, 73). Today this is part of southwestern Turkey. In the first century AD, Colossae was a small agrarian town. However, in the 5th century BC, Colossae was a thriving economy, known especially for its unique textiles and wool (Moo, Colossians, 26).
The first known reference to Colossae can be found in the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus, who mentions that Xerxes stopped briefly at the great city of Colossae during the Persian wars (Herodotus, Histories, 7.30).
Yet, the eventual demise of Colossae was linked to the construction of a trade route in the third century that went west of Colossae to Laodicea (Wilson, Biblical Turkey, 194). Eventually Laodicea became a prominent city, and Colossae turned into a rural community. Thus, in the first century Colossae was a rather insignificant city in the Roman world (Arnold, Colossian Syncretism, 4).
Colossae remains an unexcavated tell (or mound), although a few stone steps from a small theater are visible on the eastern side (Wilson, Biblical Turkey, 195).