EPHESUS. 
the elm had stood, and the sacred image placed within it. fphesus. — 
This temple seems to have been several times (Pliny “Y= 
many magnificent edifices. 
stituted in honour of Diana, n 
attended so late as the reign of Caracalla. It is cele- 
been the seat of the most flourishin 
i apostle Pau 
for three years, where the evangelist John 
resided during the latter of his life, where Ti- 
mothy was the first bi Under the auspices of Con- 
stantine and Theodosius, the Christian faith made rapid 
progress, and numerous churches were erected on the 
ruins of the Pagan tem Under the reign of the 
emperor Alexis, the fi of Anna de Comnena, it 
first fell under the er of the Saracens, from whom 
it was retaken Greeks in 1206, but was again 
lost in 1283, from the commencement of the 14th 
pw Pde eee a part of the Turkish dominions. 
the extinction of the Greek empire, Ephe- 
sus fallen into general decay; and a new town and 
citadel having been founded at Aiasoluk or Ajasoluk, 
about two miles distant, the ancient city was soon to- 
deserted. 
was known in ancient times by a variety of 
names, Alopes, Ortygia, Morges, Sm Trachea, 
Semornion, and Ptela; and is described by ancient 
as at once the ornament of Asia, and the 
most uented emporium of that continent. Its ci- 
tizens, in addition to their mercantile eminence, were 
liberal patrons of the fine arts, and their temples pos- 
sessed many of the most celebrated productions of an- 
cient genius, Their architeeture was conducted prin- 
cipally by Pharax, whom Vitruvius mentions with 
much commendation. Agasius the son of Dosotheus 
was one of the most eminent pipe oon Parrhesius, 
Apelles, and Ephorus, (the master of the latter, )all hold- 
ing the first rank as painters, were natives of Ephesus. 
Artemidorus the historian and geographer, Hera- 
dlitus the melancholy philosopher, were also born with- 
in its walls. The esians were equally noted for 
their luxurious and licentious manners; and are said 
to have banished one Hermodorus solely on account of 
. virtue. ng = apiauae Works, vol. i. p. 7. 
were m i to superstition, sorcery, an 
aia arts ; whence arose the proverbial expression, 
« Ephesian letters,” to denote those spells or sentences, 
which they used to write upon their girdles, or to im- 
print upon different parts of their bodies, as charms 
ainst evil, or as sources of supernatural power. 
But the great boast of the Ephesians, and the principal 
ornament of their city, was the celebrated temple of their 
tutelary goddess Diana. The original object of their 
worship was a small statue of elm or ebony, made by 
one Canitias, though commonly believed in those 
to have been sent down from heaven by Jupiter ; but, 
ye is Fm ony mane it had no resemblance to the 
t huntress Diana, and was merely an Egyptian 
sMerogly phic, with many breasts, representing x hsm 
dess of Nature. As the original figure became decayed 
gl i Raghteton by two rods of iron 
spits, which, even its renewal, were religi- 
ously in the substitute. It was at first placed 
apon a block of beach or elm wood, but in later times 
was in a shrine adorned with all that wealth 
and us could contribute. As the veneration for the 
among the inhabitants of Asia, a 
temple was constructed on the spot where 
says seven times, lib, xvi; ¢, 40.) ruined and rebuilt, a 
circumstance which may help to reconcile the discre- 
pancies which occur in ancient writers, as to the dates: 
and descriptions of these successive erections. One of 
them is expressly affirmed by Livy ee ‘to 
have been completed in the reign of us T 
who flourished at the latest 570 years before Christ. 
Another is described which was originally designed by 
Ctesiphon, a Cnossian architect, 541 years: the 
Christian era, whose was continued by Demetrius, 
a priest of Diana, the whole at length completed 
by Daphnis eee om a citizen of — This 
temple is said to have partially destroy: fire 
on he day when Sucrmenrwar pelodiod doe pase Oe Cc. 
and again $56 B. C. by the philosopher Herostratus, on 
the day when Alexander the Great was born, Diana, 
says Timeus the historian, being then absent at the de- 
livery of Olympias. The incendiary confessed, upon 
being put to the torture, that his only motive for the 
sacrilegious act, was a desire to immortalize his name ; 
and though an assembly of the Ionian states passed a 
decree condemning his name to oblivion, the prohibi- 
tion served only the more to its remem- 
brance. According to some accounts, nothing 
four walls and a few columns escaped: the orehebilites 
flames; while others relate, with 
that only the roof, and some other parts constructed of 
timber, were destroyed. The Ephesians had begun its’ 
tion, when Alexander, in hi expedition inst’ 
the Persians, offered to a iate his ils to the 
completion of the work, upon condition that his name 
should be inscribed, as its restorer, upon the front of 
the edifice. This they accounted it 
ful for them to accept ; but secured the forgiven 
the conqueror by the flattering 
style in which their re. 
fusal was conveyed : 
sates Poheuka ds is not rere for ner ten g 
5” sai ian deputy, “ to decorate the tem- 
Ed of another.” The women of Ephesus, besides work- 
ing at the materials intended for its ornament, devoted 
their jewels to its restoration ; and all Asia contributed: 
to its . Cheiromocrates, who assisted in build-' 
ing A dria, and who had proposed to cut Mount 
Athos into a statue of Alexander, was the architect em- 
ployed at its commencement; but 220 years (says Pli- 
ny, lib. xxxvi. c. 14.) or even 400 years (says the same 
author, lib. xvi. c. 40.) were spent in completing the 
building. It is di to determine whether the de- 
scription of the temple given by this writer applies to 
its appearance prior or ior to the conflagration in 
356; and it is impossible to make it in any measure 
intelligible, by supposing, with the Marquis de 
Poleni, that its dimensions were exactly the same both 
before eget prabes eee and that it 
was mere ; with greater magnificence 
and rohan its former state. It was built on a 
pre A that it might be more secure from the 
effects of earthquakes ; and under its foundations was 
laid a bed of charcoal firmly rammed, and ‘above that 
another of wool. The whole building was 425 feet 
in h, and 220 in breadth, su by 197 pil- 
lars of Parian marble, and of the Ionic order, each 60: 
feet high. Those pillars were furnished by so many 
princes, and 36 of were curi earved by Sco- 
pas, while the rest were finely poli Along the’ 
flanks of the cell was a double row of columns, 15 on 
each side. Itis considered as'the first instance in which, 
according to the Ionic style, the fluted column and 
5 
ess of 
