If you enter the city from its southern part, this gym will be among your first visits. Its construction dates from around the second century A.D., by Publio Vedio Antonino and his wife Flavia Papiana. They dedicated the gym to the goddess Artemis and the Emperor Antoninus Pius.
In Ephesus, the gymasiums were schools where youth receive art, sport, literature, theater and speech lessons. The Vedius Gymasium was undoubtedly the most important and beautiful of all. The entrance is to the east, and on entering there is an arena (yard) surrounded by columns. The Emperors room is also in the East and its floors covered with statues and mosaics.
The gymasium included a bath, a tepidarium, caldarium and a cold plunge. There was a pool in the cold plunge, with the statue of God of the River Kaistros at the norther end, pouring water into the pool from his amphora. Currently this statue is shown at the Museum of Izmir.