and wool industry in Lykostal, as well as the capital city of a “diokesis”77 to which not fewer than twenty-five cities belonged. According to a reference by Tacitus (Ann XIV, 27, 1), Laodicea was destroyed by an earthquake in the seventh year of the reign of Nero, thus in 60/61 C.E., but was rebuilt without Roman assistance. Little is known about the religious life in the city. In a city document from the first century we read that the Jews were not hindered from freely practicing their religion.