WOOD'S DISCOVERIES AT EPIIESUS. 225 



flourished there, and the temple retained all its original splendor. 

 Pilgrims to the venerated abode of the goddess used to buy little 

 models of the temple in silver, or precious stones, as mementos of 

 their visit, and as amulets to insure to them the protection of the 

 Ephesian Diana. The Goths sacked the city and burned the temple, 

 about 200 years later, and in the reign of Theodosius I., toward the 

 end of the fourth century, the furious zeal of the Iconoclasts, or Im- 

 age-breakers, completed the work of destruction. The ancient city 

 almost entirely disappeared before the modern era, the very site of 

 the temple being lost. 



In 1863 an Englishman, Mr. J. T. Wood, while engaged as a civil- 

 engineer in constructing a railway from Smyrna to Aidin, discovered 

 at Ayasalouk the ruins of the Odeum, or Lyric Theatre of Ephesus, and 

 this circumstance led him to commence excavations in that locality 

 in search of the temple of Diana. He began his excavations on the 

 west side of the ancient city, at a j^oint where a long rise of ground 

 above the level of the plain seemed to cover the portico of the temple. 

 Here he found nothing but the remains of a Roman monument ; so he 

 went on digging trial-holes in every direction on the west side, and 

 explored the great Gymnasium, which proved to be a Roman build- 

 ing, erected on the site of a former Grecian structure of similar char- 

 acter. On the surface of the ground, in the vicinity of this Gymna- 

 sium, were the remains of some columns of Egyptian silex. At some 

 former time seven of these columns were carried away to Constanti- 

 nople, and there set up in the church of Saint Sophia, now the Great 

 Mosque. Hitherto they have been regarded as columns from the 

 temple at Ephesus, but erroneously. 



The i^lain has been filled up to the average height of about 15 

 feet. Digging in the agora, forum, or market-place of the ancient 

 city, Mr. Wood found what he calls a baptismal font, the diameter of 

 which is 15 feet. Its basin is 15 inches deep, and in the centre is an 

 elevated pedestal, on which the minister of baptism might stand dry- 

 shod, the postulants standing in the water. Other monuments of 

 Christian antiquity were also discovered. 



But there was yet no sign of the temple, and the literary remains 

 of antiquity gave no indication as to its site. His private funds being 

 now exhausted, the trustees of the British Museum were applied to 

 by Mr. Wood for the means necessary to carry on the work of explor- 

 ing the Odeum, or Lyric Theatre, in the hoj^e of finding there some 

 bas-relief, or other monument, or at least some idle scratching of a 

 rough artist of the time, which might give some indication of the site 

 of the great temple. In this hope he was encouraged by what he 

 had years befoi-e seen in Venice and other places, viz., the plans of 

 cities cut in bas-relief upon the pinnacles of the churches. The trus- 

 tees of the British Museum having made the required grant of funds, 

 Mr. Wood began the exploration of the Odeum. He found his Avay 



VOL. TII. 15 



