a city of antiquity, much celebrated on account of its temple of Diana, and for being the most famous mart or staple town of Hither Asia. Ephesus was in ancient times the metropolis of all Asia. Stephanus gives it the title of Epiphanesflates, or most illustrious; and Pliny styles it the ornament of Asia. The ancient city stood about 50 miles south of Smyrna, near the mouth of the river Cayster, and the shore of the Icarian sea, which is a bay of the Aegean; but as it has been so often destroyed and rebuilt, it is no easy matter to determine the precise place. Most of our modern travellers are of opinion, that the ancient city stood more to the south than the present; which they argue from the ruins that still remain. Ephesus was, in ancient times, known by the names of Alopece, Ortygia, Moger, Smyrna, Trachera, Samornion, and Ptolemaia. It was called Ephesus, according to Heracleides, from the Greek word ephesus, signifying permission; because Hercules (says he) permitted the Amazons to live and build a city in that place. Others tell us, that Ephesus was the name of the Amazon that founded the city; for Pliny, Justin, and Orosius, unanimously affirm that it was built by an Amazon; while others bestow this honour upon Androclus, the son of Codrus king of Athens, who was the chief of the Ionians that settled in Asia. But, in matters of early date, it is impossible to come at the truth, and therefore not worth our while to dwell on such fruitless inquiries. What we know for certain is, that the city, which in the Roman times was the metropolis of all Asia, acknowledged Lydmachus for its founder; for that prince, having caused the ancient city to be entirely demolished, rebuilt, at a vast expense, a new one, in a place more convenient, and nearer the temple. Strabo tells us, that, as the inhabitants showed a great reluctance to quit their ancient habitations, Lydmachus caused all the drains that conveyed the water into the neighbouring fens and the Cayster to be privately stopped up; whereby the city being on the first violent rains in great part laid under water, and many of the inhabitants drowned, they were glad to abandon the ancient and retire. This new Ephesus was greatly damaged by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, but by that emperor repaired and adorned with several stately buildings, of which there are now but few ruins to be seen, and scarce anything worthy of ancient Ephesus. The aqueduct, part of which is still standing, is generally believed to have been the work of the Greek emperors; the pillars which support the arches are of fine marble, and higher or lower as the level of the water required. This aqueduct served to convey water into the city from the spring of Halites, mentioned by Paulusianus. The gate, now called by the inhabitants, for what reason we know not, the Gate of Persecution, is remarkable for three bas-reliefs on the mould, of an exquisite taste. The port, of which so many medals have been struck, is at present but an open road, and not much frequented. The Cayster was formerly navigable, and afforded a safe place for ships to ride in, but is now almost choked up with sand.

But the chief ornament of Ephesus was the temple of Diana, built at the common charge of all the states in Asia, and for its structure, size, and furniture, accounted among the wonders of the world. This great edifice was situated at the foot of a mountain, and at the head of a marsh; which place they chose, if we believe Pliny, as the least subject to earthquakes. This site doubled the charges; for they were obliged to be at vast expense in making drains to convey the water that came down the hill into the morals and the Cayster. Philo Byzantius tells us, that in this work they used such a quantity of stone, as almost exhausted all the quarries in the country; and these drains or vaults are what the present inhabitants take for a labyrinth. To secure the foundations of the conduits or sewers, which were to bear a building of such a prodigious weight, they laid beds of charcoal, says Pliny, well rammed, and upon them others of wool. Two hundred and twenty years, Pliny says 400, were spent in building this wonderful temple by all Asia. It was 425 feet in length, and 200 in breadth, supported by 127 marble pillars, 70 feet high, of which 27 were most curiously carved, and the rest polished. These pillars were the works of so many kings, and the bas-reliefs of one were done by Scopas, the most famous sculptor of antiquity; the altar was almost wholly the work of Praxiteles. Cheiromocrates, who built the city of Alexandria, and offered to form Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander, was the architect employed on this occasion. The temple enjoyed the privilege of an asylum, which at first extended to a furlong, was afterwards enlarged by Mithridates to a bow-shot, and doubled by Mark Antony, so that it took in part of the city: but Tiberius, to put a stop to the many abuses and disorders that attend privileges of this kind, revoked them all, and declared, that no man guilty of any wicked or dishonest action should escape justice, though he fled to the altar itself.

The priests who officiated in this temple were held in great esteem, and trusted with the care of sacred virgins, or priestesses, but not till they were made eunuchs. They were called Epitiatores and Euphena, had a particular diet, and were not allowed by their constitutions to go into any private house. They were maintained with the profits accruing from the lake Scinthus, and another that fell into it, which must have been very considerable, since they erected a golden statue to one Artemidorus, who being sent to Rome, recovered them after they had been seized by the farmers of the public revenues. All the Ionians resorted yearly to Ephesus with their wives and children, where they solemnized the festival of Diana with great pomp and magnificence, making on that occasion rich offerings to the goddess, and valuable presents to her priests. The affarcae, mentioned by St Luke, were, according to Beza, those priests whose peculiar province it was to regulate the public sports that were annually performed at Ephesus in honour of Diana: they were maintained with the collections made during the sports; for all Asia flocked to see them. The great Diana of the Ephesians, as she was styled by her blind adorers, was, according to Pliny, a small statue of ebony, made by one Canitius, though commonly believed to have been sent down from heaven by Jupiter. This statue was first placed in a niche, which, as we are told, the Amazons caused to be made in the trunk of an elm. Such was the first rise of the veneration that was paid to Diana in this place. In process of time the veneration for the goddess daily increasing among the inhabitants of Asia, a most stately and magnificent temple was built near the place where the elm stood, and the statue of the goddess placed in it. This was the first temple; but not quite so sumptuous as that which we have described, though reckoned, as well as the second, among the wonders of the world. The second, being that above described, was remaining in Pliny's time, and in Strabo's; and is supposed to have been destroyed in the reign of Constantine, pursuant to the edict by which that emperor commanded all the temples of the heathens to be thrown down and demolished: the former was burnt the same day that Alexander was born, by one Erostratus, who owned on the rack, that the only thing which had prompted him to destroy so excellent a work, was the desire of transmitting his name to future ages. Whereupon the common council of Asia made a decree, forbidding any one to name him; but this prohibition served only to make his name more memorable, such a remarkable extravagance, or rather madness, being taken notice of by all the historians who have written of those times. Alexander offered to rebuild the temple at his own expense, provided the Ephesians would agree to put his name on the front; but they rejected his offer in such a manner as prevented the resentment of that vain prince, telling him, that "it was not fit one god should build a temple to another." The pillars, and other materials that had been saved out of the flames, were sold, and also the jewels of the Ephesian women, who on that occasion willingly parted with them; and the sum raised from thence served for the carrying on of the work till other contributions came in, which in a short time amounted to an immense treasure. This is the temple which Strabo, Pliny, and other Roman writers speak of. It stood between the city and the port, and was built, or rather finished, as Livy tells us, in the reign of King Servius. Of this wonderful structure there is nothing at present remaining but some ruins, and a few broken pillars.

The Ionians first settled at Ephesus under the conduct of Androclus, who drove out the Carians and Leleges, by whom those places were possessed at his arrival. The city, whether built by him, as Strabo affirms, or by Croesus or Ephesus, long before the Ionic migration, as others maintain, became soon the metropolis of Ionia. It was at first governed by Androclus, and his descendants, who assumed the royal title, and exercised the regal authority over the new colony; whence, even in Strabo's time, the posterity of Androclus were styled kings, and allowed to wear a scarlet robe, with a sceptre, and all the ensigns of the royal dignity. In process of time, a new form of government was introduced, and a senate established; but when, or on what occasion, this change happened, we know not. This kind of government continued till the time of Pythagoras, who lived before Cyrus the Great, and was one of the most cruel and inhuman tyrants we read of in history; for having driven out the senate, and taken all the power into his own hands, he filled the city with blood and rapine, not sparing even those who fled to the temple of Diana for shelter. Pythagoras was succeeded by Pindarus, who bore the same sway in the city; but treated the citizens with more humanity. In his time Ephesus being besieged by Croesus king of Lydia, he advised the inhabitants to devote their city to Diana, and fasten the wall, by a rope, to the pillars of her temple. They followed his advice, and were, from reverence to the goddess, not only treated with great kindness by Croesus, but restored to their former liberty. Pindarus being obliged to resign his power, retired to Peloponnesus. He was, according to Ælian, grandson to Alyattes king of Lydia, and Croesus's nephew. The other tyrants of Ephesus mentioned in history are, Athenagoras, Comes, Aristaarchus, and Hegesias; of whom the last was expelled by Alexander, who, coming to Ephesus, after having defeated the Persians on the banks of the Granicus, bestowed upon Diana all the tributes which the Ephesians had paid to the Persians, and established a democracy in the city. In the war between Mithridates and the Romans, they sided with the former, and, by his directions, massacred all the Romans that resided in their city; for which barbarity they were severely fined, and reduced almost to beggary by Sylla, but afterwards treated kindly, and suffered to live according to their own laws, as is plain from several ancient inscriptions and medals. The Ephesians were much addicted to superstition, sorcery, and curious arts, as the scripture styles them; whence came the proverb "Ephesian letters," signifying all sorts of spells or charms.

In the time of the apostle Paul, Ephesus retained a great deal of its ancient grandeur. But it was a ruinous place, when the emperor Justinian filled Constantinople with its statues, and raised his church of St Sophia upon its columns. Since then it has been almost quite exhausted. Towards the end of the 11th century, a Turkish pirate, named Tangripermer, settled there. But the Greek admiral, John Ducas, defeated him in a bloody battle, and pursued the flying Turks up the Maeander. In 1306, it was among the places which suffered from the exactions of the grand duke Roger; and two years after, it surrendered to Sultan Saylan, who, to prevent future insurrections, removed most of the inhabitants to Tyriaeum, where they were massacred. Ephesus appears to have subsisted as an inconsiderable place for some time. But now, the Ephesians are only a few Greek peasants, living in extreme wretchedness, dependence, and infirmity; the representatives of an illustrious people, and inhabiting the wreck of their greatness; some, the subtractions of the glorious edifices which they raised; some, beneath the vaults of the stadium, once the crowded scene of their diversions; and some, by the abrupt precipice, in the sepulchres which received their ashes.