E P I 
855 
E P II 
EPH'ORT, powerful magidrates at Sparta, who were 
firft created by Lycurgus; or, according to fome, by 
TheopOmpus, before Chrid 760: they were five in 
number. Like cenfors in the date, they could check and 
redrain the authority of the kings, and even imprifon 
them, if guilty of irregularities. They fined Archidamus 
for marrying a wife of fmall feature, and hnprifoned Agis 
for his unconftitutional behaviour. They were much the 
fame as the tribunes of the people at Rome, created to 
watch'with a jealous eye over the liberties and rights of the 
people. They had the management of the public money, 
and were the arbiters of peace and war. Their office 
was annual, and they had the privilege of convening, pro¬ 
roguing, and diffiplving, the greater and lefs atremblies of 
the people. The former was compofed of 9000 Spartans, 
alt inhabitants of the city; the latter of 30,000 Lacedae¬ 
monians, inhabitants of the inferior towms and villages. 
EPH'ORUS, a Greek orator and hiftorian, native of 
Curme, in Hiolia, flourifhed about 352 before Chrid. 
He was a difciple of liberates, at whole mitigation he un¬ 
dertook to write hiltory. Judicioufly avoiding the fabu¬ 
lous periods, Ire commenced with the return of the Hera- 
clidae into Peloponnelus, and brought down his narration 
to the twentieth year of Philip of Macedon. This he 
divided into thirty books, prefixing to each an introduc¬ 
tion. It appears that this work was in confiderable elteem 
among the ancients, and it is frequently quoted by Strabo 
and other writers ; yet its miftakes and mifreprefentations 
were not few, and lie was likewife charged with many 
plagiarifms. The total lofs of his work is, however, to 
be regretted. He wrote feveral other books on moral, 
geographical, and rhetorical, topics, all which have pe- 
riftied. He might have had the honour of belonging to 
the court of Alexander, but declined it. 
E'PHRAIM, [d'osn Heb. fruitful.] A proper name 
of men. 
E'PHR Aithe fecond fon of the patriarch Jofeph, 
and the progenitor of one of the twelve tribes of Ifrael, 
born in Egypt, of Athenah, the daughter of a pried: or 
prince of On, towards the lattei end of the feventeenth 
century before Chrid. He was adopted, together with 
his brother Manaffeh, by Jacob, when on his death-bed, 
who decreed that, in the future diftributions of inheri¬ 
tance among his defeendants, they diould be entitled to 
rank with his immediate fons, and be confidered as the 
ancedors of didinbt tribes. In the manner of pronounc¬ 
ing his bleffing on them, however, he propheded that 
Ephraim, though the younged of Jofeph’s Ions, lliould 
have pre-eminence over his brother, by proving the father 
of a much more numerous poderity ; which prediction 
was verided in the fubfequent hidory of the Ifraelites. 
E'PHRAIM, a province of Paledine, occupied by the 
tribe of that'name, fituated in the didritl of Samaria; 
bounded, on the north, by the half tribe of Manaffeh 
wed of Jordan ; on the ead, by the river Jordan; on the 
fouth, by the tribes of Benjamin, Dan, and Simeon; and 
on the wed, by the Mediterranean. In feripture, it is 
frequently dyled Mount Ephraim; and after the defec¬ 
tion of the ten tribes from the houfe of David, formed a 
part of the kingdom of Ifrael. It contained a great num¬ 
ber of cities, of which Samaria was chief, and the metro¬ 
polis of that kingdom. J0JI1. xvi.—Alfo the name of a 
city of Paledine, fituated in Judea, near the Wildernefs: 
here Chrid retired with his difciples previous to his lad 
vifit to Jerufalem. John xi. 54. 
E'PHRAIMITE, a defeendant from Ephraim. 
E'PHRAIN, a city of Paledine, belonging to the king¬ 
dom of Ifrael at the commencement of that kingdom; 
taken by Abijam or Abijah king of Judah, who annexed 
it to his kingdom. 1 Chron. xiii. 19. 
EPHRA'TA, or Dunkard Town, a town of the 
American States, in Lancader county, Pennfylvania, fitu¬ 
ated on the north-wed fide of Calico Creek, which, join, 
jng the Conedoga, falls into the Sufquehannah ; twenty- 
two miles north of Lancader, and upwards of fixty weft 
2 
of Philadelphia. It is fituated in a romantic and fequef- 
tered vale, and podeded by a religious community called 
Ttinkers, who are m.odly of-German defeent, and believe 
in general redemption. They ufe great plainnefsof drefs 
and language, and will neither fwear, nor fight, nor go to 
law, nor take intered for the money they lend. They 
have many peculiarities; but their native finiplicity and 
innocent manners have acquired them the name of the 
harmlefs .-T tinkers. They fubfilb by cultivating their 
lands, by attending a printing office, a grid-mill, a paper- 
mill, an oil-mill, &c. and the fillers by'fpinning, weaving, 
fevving, See. Belides this congregation at Ephrata, there 
were in 1770, fourteen others of this fett in various parts 
ot Pennfylvania, and fome in Maryland; The whole, ex- 
clufive of thole in Maryland, amounted to upwards of 
2000 fouls. 
EPH'RATAH, Ephrath, Bethlehem Ephratah, 
Bethlehem Judah, or Bethlehem, a city ot Paledine, 
in the tribe ot Judah. Here, in the days of the patriarch 
Jacob, Rachel died and was buried. It is dyled Bethle¬ 
hem Judah to didinguifii it from another of that name in 
the tribe of Zebulon : it is likewife called the City of 
David on account of its being the birth-place of that emi¬ 
nent perfon ; as it was alfo of David’s great antitype and 
fuccelfior, the Redeemer of mankind. See Bethlehem, 
vol. ii. p. 930. 
EPH'RATH, [Heb. abundance.] The name of a 
woman. 
EPH'RATI-IITE, a defeendant of Ephrath the wife 
of Caleb ; an inhabitant of Ephrath ; a defeendant from 
Ephraim. 
E'PHREM (Syrus), a celebrated Chridian writer in 
the fourth century, deacon of Ededa, born at N i ii be, in 
Syria. He was greatly edeemed by St. Bifil, Sc. Gre¬ 
gory Ny den, and other eminent men. He wrote againd 
the opinions of Subellius, Arius, Apollonarius, the Ma- 
nichees, &c. and acquired Inch reputation by his virtue 
and his works, that he was called the doBor and the prophet 
of the Syrians. He died in 378. The bed editions of his 
works ate, that of Oxford, in 1708, in folio, and that of 
Rome, from 1732 to 1736, in Syriac, Greek, and Latin, 
6 vols. folio. 
EPiT'REMOV, a town of Rufiia, in the government 
of Tula: thirty-fix miles fouth-ead of Tula. 
EPHREMOVSK A'l A, a fortrefs of Rufiia, in the 
government of Ekaterinodav : 108 miles north-ead of 
Ekaterinodav. 
E'PHRON, [Heb. dud.] A city of Paledine, fituated 
in the extremity of the province of Judah, near a moun¬ 
tain of that name. Here, in the days of Judas Macca¬ 
beus, (it being a firong and well fortified place,) was the 
garrifon of Lyfias, whom Judas attacked and drove from 
the city; it was alfo remarkable for denying Judas a 
palfage through the city, for which he nearly dedroyed 
it. Jofi. xv. 9• 1 Macc. v. 46—51. 2 Macc. xii. 27. 
EPH'YDOR, f. in antiquity, an officer in the Athenian 
courts of judice, who was to provide the plaintiff and de¬ 
fendant with equal water hour-glaffes. When the glafs 
was run out, they were not permitted to fpeak any further. 
EPH'YRA, the ancient name of Corinth, which it 
-received from a nymph of the fame name, and thence 
Ephyreus is applied to Dyrrhachium, founded by a Gre¬ 
cian colony. Virgil. 
EPI'ALUS, J. [from wior, gently, and sat^oi, Gr. to 
heat.] A kind of fever, in which the heat of the patient 
is tempered with a certain degree of coldnefs. 
EPIBA'l JE, f. [ETnSarcii, Gr.] Among the Greeks, 
marines or foldiers who ferved on-board the fhips of war. 
EPIB ATE'RION, f. A poetical competition, in ufe 
among the ancient Greeks. 
EPIB AT E'RIU M, f. [from £ 77 : and fictivco, Gr. in- 
feendo ; this being a climbing plant. is a ma¬ 
chine for climbing walls. ] In botany, a genus of the clafs 
monoecia, order hexandria. The generic characters are_ 
I. Male flowers. Calyx: perianthiura double, deci¬ 
duous $ 
