the expenfe, it was forefeen, would be prodigious. At this time,
a fhepherd happened to be feeding his flock on mount Prion,
and two rams fighting, one of them mifled his antagonift, and,
linking the rock with his horn, broke off a cruft of very white
marble. He ran into the city, with this fpecimen,- which was
received with excefs of joy. He was highly honoured for his
accidental difcovery, and finally canonized; the Ephefians
changing his name from Pixodorus to Evangelus, The good mefi
finger, and enjoining their chief magiftrate, under a penalty, to
vifit the fpot, and to facrifice to him monthly, which- cuftom
continued in the age of Auguftus Csfar.
T he author above cited mentions Prion as a mountain of a
remarkable nature. He meant perhaps fome property of preferv-
ing the dead1, of which it ha6 been a principal repofitory. In
the records of our religion it is ennobled as- the burying-place
o f St Timothy, the companion of St Paul and' the firft bilhop
o f Ephefus, whole body was afterwards tranllated to Gbnftanti-
nople by the founder of that city or his fon Conftantius> and
placed with St Luke and St Andrew in the church of the
Apoftles. The ftory of St John the Evangelill was deformed
in an early age with grofs fidtion; but he alfo was interred at
Ephefus, and, as appears from one narration, in this mountain.
I n the fide of Prion, not far from the Gymnafium> are cavities
with mouths, like ovens, made to admit the bodies,
which were thruft in,, head or feet foremoft. One has an in-
fcription on the plane of the rock, beginning, as ufual, This is
ibe monument &c. Then-follows, farther on, a wide aperture or
two, which are avenues to the quarries, of a romantic appearance,
with hanging precipices; and in one is the ruin of a church,
of brick, the roof arched, the cieling plaller or ftuceo painted
in ft teaks correfponding with the mouldings. Many names of
perfons and fentences are written on the wall in Greek and Oriental
charadters, This perhaps was the oratory or church of St
John, rebuilt by the emperor Juftinian. It is ftill frequented,
and
and had a path leading to it through tall ftrong thiftles. Near
it are remnants of brick-buildings, and of fepulchres, with
niches cut, fome horizontally, in the rock. Going on, you
come to the entrance into Ephefus from Aiaialftck. The quarries
are in the bowels of the mountain, with numberlefs mazes
and vaft filent dripping caverns. In many parts are chippings of
marble and marks of the tools. I found chippings alfo above by
the mouths, which fupplied marble for the city-wall, and faw
huge pieces lying among the bulhes at the bottom. The looking
down the fteep and folemn precipice was formidable. A
flock of crows difturbed at my approach flew out with no fmall
clamour.
C H A P . XXXVI,
Old Ephefus — The Ionic city — O f Androclus — The city o f Ly-
fimachus — The port — Modern hijlory o f Ephefus — Its decline
-— The prefint Ephefians.
T O complete the local hiftory of Ephefus, we muft deduce
it from a period of remote antiquity. It is recorded that Prion
had in former times been called Lepre Adte; and a part behind
Prion was ftill called the back o f Lepre, when Strabo wrote.
The diftridt named Smyrna was (fituated hy the- Gymnafium,
behind the city of Lyfimachus, between Lepre or Prion and
Tracheia or the mountain-fide above Coriflus. When the Ioni-
ans arrived, Androclus, their leader, protedled the natives,
who had fettled from devotion about the temple of Diana, and
incorporated them with his followers ; but expelled thofe, who
inhabited the town above.
A ndroclus and the Ephefians invaded and got pofleflion o f
the ifland Samos. They were then, it is related, debating where