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Temple of Diana, at Ephesus

one hundred and twenty-seven marble pillars, seventy feet high, of which twenty-seven 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 Alexandria, 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 Marc Antony, so that it took in part of the city: but Tiberius, to put a stop to the many abuses and disorders that attended 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 entrusted with the care of sacred virgins, or priestesses, but not till they were made eunuchs. They were called Estiatores and Essena, had a particular diet, and were not allowed to go into any private house. They were maintained out of the profits accruing from the lake Selinusius, 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 Asiarcha, mentioned by St. Luke, (Acts xix. 31,) were, according to Beza, priests who regulated the public sports annually performed at Ephesus, in honour of Diana; and were maintained with the collections 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 Canitia, though believed by the superstitious to have been sent down from heaven by Jupiter. This statue was first placed in a niche, which, 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, and was not quite so sumptuous as the له