Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/94

EPHESUS. 00 his ixuorch from Asia to BoeotU, and he deposited there the share that had been entrusted to him of the tenth that had been appropriated to Apollo and Artemis of the produce of the sUves which the Ten Thousand sold at Gerasus on their retreat This &ct shows that the temple at Ephesus was one of the great hoU places to the Ionic Hellenes. (Xen. Anab, ▼. 8. § 4, &c.) The worship of the goddess «•• carried bfthe Phocaeans to Ma8salia(Afarset7fe), and thence to the Massaliot settlements. (Strab. pp. 159,160^179,180,184.) Dianium or Artemisiam, OQ the ooasi ef Spain, was so called firam haying a temple of the Ehphesian Artemis. This enlaiged temple of Artemis was bamt down by Henetmtns, it is said on the night on which C»^^ Alexander was bom. The temple was rebuilt again, and probably on the same sita^ The name of the architect is corrupted in the text of Strabo, but it is stipposed that the true reading is Dinoerates. Alex- ander, when he entered Asia on his Persian expe- dition, ofiered to pay all that had been expended on the new tem[de and all that it would still cost, if he might be allowed to pUce the inscription on it; by which, as the answer of the Ephesii shows, who de- dined his proposal, was meant his placing his name on the temple as the dedicator of it to the goddess. The Ephesii undertook the building of their own temple, to which the women contributed their orna- ments, and the people gave thdr property, and something was raised by the sale of the old pillars. Bnt it was 220 years before the temple was finished. The temple was built on low marshy ground to save it from earthquakes, as Pliny says (xxxvl 14), but Leake suggests another reason. The tall Ionic column was more appropriate for a building in a plain, and the shorter Doric cdnmn looked better on a height. Leake observes that all the greatest and most costly of the temples of Asia, except one, are built on low and marshy spots." The Ephesii seem always to hare stuck to the old site of the temple, and it is probable that they would have placed the new one there, even if their cdnmns had been Doric instead of Ionic The firandations of the new temple were laid on well-rammed charcoal and wooL The length of the building was 425 feet, and the width 220. The columns were 197, '* each made by a king," as Pliny says. The columns were 60 feet high, and 36 were carved, and one of them by Scopes. The epbtylia or stones that rested over the intercolum- niations, or on the part of the columns between the capitals and the frieze, were of immense size. It would take a book, says Pliny, to describe all the temple ; and Democritus of Ephesus wrote one upon it (Athen. xii. p. 525). Leake {Atia Mintor, p. 346) supposes that the temple had a double row of 21 columns on each side, and a triple row of 10 columns at the two ends. This will make 120 columns, for 24 columns have been counted twice. If we add 4 columns in antis at each end of the building, this will make the whole number 128, ibr the number 127 cannot be right Leake has made his phm of the temple in English feet, on the same scale as the other pkns of temples (p. 351) ; for he observes that we cannot tell whether Pliny used the Greek or the Boman foot The English foot is somewhat longer than the Roman, and less than the Greek. For the pnrpoee of comparison it is immaterial what foot is used. This was the hugest of the Greek temples. The area of the Parthenon at Athens was not ooe-fourth of that of the temple of Ephesus; EPHESUS. 83^ and the Heraenm of Samoa, the great temple at Agrigentum and the Olympieium at Athens were all less than the temple of Ephesus. The area of the Olympieium was only about two-thkds cf that of the Ephesian temple. After the temple, that is, the construction of the building, was finished, says Strabo, "" the Ephesiana provided the abundant oUier ornaments by Uie free- will ofiering of the artiste," that is, the native artists of Ephesus. This is the meanmg that Groskuid gives to the obscure psasage of Strabo (rf iierifiiiffn rAv 9rifuwpy&if): and it is at least a probable meaning (TransL Strab. vol. iii. p. 17). But the altar was almost entirely filled with the work of Praxiteles. Strabo was also shown some of the work of Thrsso, a Penelope and the aged Eurydeia. The temple contained one of the great pctures of Apelles, the Alexander Geraunophoros (Plm. XXXV, 10; Cic. c. Verr. ii. 4. c 60). The priests were eunuchs, called Megalobuzi. (Comp. Xen. Anab, v. 3. § 8.) They were highly honoured, and the Ephesii procured firom foreign pUces such as were worthy of the ofiice. Viigins were also asso- ciated with them in the superintendence of the temple. It was of old an asylum, and the limite of the asylum were often varied. Alexander extended them to a stadium, and Mithridates the Great some- what further, as far as an arrow went that he shot from the angle of the tiling of the roof {M rrjs yuvias roO <r«p^v). M. Antonius extended the hmito to twice the distance, and thus comprised within them part ef the city ; from which we leam that the temple was still out of the dty, and less than 1200 Greek feet from it Bnt this extension of the limits was found to be very mischievous, and the ordinance of Antonius was abolished by Augus- tus. The extension of the fimits by Antonius was exactly adapted to make one part of the dty of Ej^esus the rogues* quarter. The growth of Ephesus, as a commercial city, seems to have been after the time of Alexander. It was included within the- dominions of Lysimachus, whose reign lasted to b. o. 281 . It afterwards was included in the dominions ofi the kmgs of Feigamum. "The dty," says Strsbo, **has both ship-houses, and a harbour; but the architects contracted the month of the harbour at the conmiand of king Attains, named PhiUdelphus. The king supposing that the entrance would become deep enough for large merchant vessels, and abo the harbour, which had up to that time been made shallow by the alluvium of the Caystrus, if a mole wei-e plaoed in front of the entrance, which was veiy wide, ordered it to be constructed. But it turned out just the opposite to what he expected ; for the alluvium being thus kept in made all the harbour shallower as far as the entrance ; but before this time, the floods and the reflux of the sea took off the alluvium and carried it out to sea." Strabo adds, that in his time, the time of Augustus, " the city in all other re • spects, owing to the £ivourable situation, is incressing daily, for it is the greatest place of trade of all the dties of Asia west of the Taurus." The ndgh- bourhood of Ephesus also produced good wine. After the mouth of the Caystrus, says Strabo, is a Uke formed by the sea, named Selinusia (Groskurd, Trcmtl. Strab. vol. iii. p.* 19, note, gives his reasons for preferring the reading Selenusia); and close to it another li^e, which communicates with the Se- linusia, both of which bring in a great revenue. The kings (those of Pergamom, probably) took them 3h 2