Terrace House 2 is located in the center of Ephesus and is among the best-preserved imperial residential complexes in the eastern Mediterranean. The archaeological investigations of Terrace House 2 since the 1960s have led to a different picture of the living culture of the Ephesian elites from their establishment in the Augustan-Tiberian period until their destruction during an earthquake in the third Century AD. With this work, three of the seven residential units can now be found in a single publication, with the publications on other housing units progressing rapidly. In addition to the finds from the destruction debris, this publication also includes all those objects that were found in the excavations under the floors of the final building phase. After being destroyed by the earthquake, the houses were no longer rebuilt, but some areas were partially used in late antiquity. In the early Byzantine period even this simple use was given up and a number of mills were set up on the west side of Terrace House 2, which were operated by the remaining water from the overhead water pipes. German text.

One of the greatest epigraphists of this century was Adolf Wilhelm, who died on August 10, 1950. His highly reputed creative power was not reflected in extensive corpus works or large books but rather in hundreds of rather smaller articles, indeed in part very short individual contributions distributed over a wide range of publication locations. Adolf Wilhelm's investigations, readings and commentaries are testimony to a highly significant academic capacity, the like of which has rarely seen since. But precisely this manner of short publication in at times extremely remote places represents a major handicap to any epigraphic, ancient history and antiquity research. In this way, a large amount of material is thoroughly insufficiently known to the intentional academic community.The reprint of these "Short Writings" by Adolf Wilhelm thus represents a major need for the present. Since as early as 1953, for instance, Hermann Bengtson, one of the leading German ancient historians, has been saying (most recently in "Einfuhrung in die Alte Geschichte", Munich, Beck 1969, p. 161): "It would be very welcome from the point of view of research if a publisher could now be found for the scattered works of Ulrich Wilckens, Adolf Wilhelm, Anton von Premerstein and others."\n\nThe former Zentralantiquariat der DDR in Leipzig published five part-volumes in the years 1974 to 1985, but was dissolved without successor following the political changes. These part volumes are:\nSection I: Academic Writings on Greek Epigraphy, parts 1-3\nSection II: Essays and Contributions on Greek Epigraphy, parts 1-2 \nThere still remain roughly 174 articles, whose total of approximately 2000 pages will probably take up 3 volumes. Section II is now continued in the present volume. It should be noted that the published material (epigraphs) and interpretations are neither outdated nor will they ever become outdated.\n\nWith this project, there is an agreement with the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (Dr. Klaus Hallof of the Inscriptiones Graecae); Dr. Hallof's wife, Dr. Luise Hallof, is currently working on the indexes for all the previous and planned volumes.