the raifing any one of them to its place appeared a miracle. It
was done by forming a gentle afcent, higher than the columns,
of balkets filled with fand, and emptying thofe beneath, when
the mafs was arrived ; thus letting it gradually down upon the
capitals. By this method the prodigious ftone formerly mentioned
was iuferted over the door-way.
T his temple, which Xerxes fpared, was fet on fire by Herof-
tratus, but the votaries of Diana proved fo extravagant in their
zeal, that, fhe was a gainer by his exploit. A new and more
glorious fabric was begun j and Alexander the Great, arriving
at Ephefus, wiftied to infcrib.e it as the dedicator; and was
willing, for that gratification, to defray the whole expenfe; but
the Ephefians declined accepting this magnificent offer. The
architect then employed was the famous projector, who propofed
the forming mount Athos, when he had finillied, into a ftatue
of this. king.
T h e temple now eredted was reckoned the firfl in Ionia for
magnitude and riches. It was four hundred and twenty feet
long, and two hundred and twenty br-oad. Of the columns,
which were fixty feet high, one hundred and twenty feveo were
donations from kings. Thirty fix were carved; and one of
them, perhaps as a model, by Scopas. The ord?r was Ionic, and
it had eight columns in front. The folding-doors, or gates,'had
been continued four years in glue, and were made of cyprefs-
wood, which had been treafured up for four generations, highly
polilhed. Thefe were found by Mutianus as firefli and as beautiful
four hundred years after, as. when new. The ceiling was
of cedar ; and the fteps for aficending the roof, of a fingle Hem
of a vine, which witneffed the durable nature of that wood-.
The whole altar was in a manner full of the works of Praxiteles.
The offerings were ineftimable, and among them was a pidture
by Apelles, reprefenting Alexander armed with thunder, for
which he was paid twenty talents of gold % The ftrudture was
» Above 38,7501. Eliglijh*
fo
fo wonderfully great in its compofition, and fo magnificently
adorned, it appeared the work of beings more than human. The
lhn, it is affirmed, beheld in his courfe no objedt of fuperior excellence
or worthier of admiration.
T he temple of Diana had the privilege of an afylum or fanc-
tuary before Alexander j but he extended it to a ftadium or half
a quarter of a mile. Afterwards Mithridates fhot an arrow
from the angle of the pediment, and his boundary exceeded the
ftaditiffi, but not much. Mark Antony, coming near him,
enlarged it fo as to comprehend a portion of the city; but that
coneeflion proving inconvenient and dangerous, was annulled by
Auguftus Csefaf.
W e have mentioned before, that the difiance of the temple
from the quarries did not exceed eight thoufand feet, and that
the whole way.was entirely level. From the detail now given,
it appears, that the temple was diftindt from the prefent city,
and the diftance may be inferred ; for Mark Antony allowing
the fandtuary to reach fomewhat more than a ftadium from
it, a part of the city was comprized within thofe limits. It
was, moreover, •without the Magnefian gate, which, I fhould
fuppofe, was that next Aiafaluck ; and, in the fécond century
was joined to the city by Damianus, a Sophift, who continued
the way down to it through the Magnefian gate, by erecting a
ftoa or portico, of marble, a ftadium in length ; which expen-
five work Was inferibed with the name of his wife, and intended
to prevent the abfence of the minifters, when it rained. He
likewife dedicated a banqueting-room in the temple, as remarkable
for its dimienfions, as its beauty. It was adorned with
Phrygian marble, fuch as had never been cut in the quarries
before '.
x Tempi urn Dianæ complcxi e diverfis regionibus duo Seli-nuntes. PTiay.