“The city of Laodicea was among the very wealthiest of the Roman Empire, and the place was renowned as a banking centre, and a place where medicine was not just practiced but researched, Laodicean eye-salve being sought after the world over. The citizens were so wealthy that when, in ad 60, a massive earthquake destroyed the place, they were able to decline an offer of financial help from the Roman Senate to rebuild. That is wealth indeed.”
William Cooper, Old Light on the Roman Church, Pt. 2, “Paul’s ‘Lost’ Letter to the Laodicean Church.”
“Towards the end of the Roman Republic and under the first emperors, Laodicea, benefiting from its advantageous position on a trade route, became one of the most important and flourishing commercial cities of Asia Minor, in which large money transactions and an extensive trade in black wool were carried on. The area often suffered from earthquakes, especially from the great shock that occurred in the reign of Nero (60 AD) in which the town was completely destroyed. But the inhabitants declined imperial assistance to rebuild the city and restored it from their own means. … Its wealthy citizens embellished Laodicea with beautiful monuments. … The city minted its own coins, the inscriptions of which show evidence of the worship of Zeus, Æsculapius, Apollo, and the emperors.”
“Laodicea on the Lycus,” Wikipedia.
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