may be said to end. In the Roman civil war which followed they unluckily again chose the losing side, and, having too zealously supported Brutus and Cassius, were heavily mulcted by Mark Antony, who did not, however, omit to propitiate the goddess with a great sacrifice. Looking back through the history of the Ephesians from Augustus to Croesus, we find abundant evidence of their commercial prosperity and of their adroitness in conciliating powerful neighbours, and choosing allies on the winning side; but no heroic self-sacrifice, no daring spirit of maritime adventure, such as distinguished their ancient rivals the Milesians and the Phocæans. Their policy throughout is marked by selfishness and cunning; the lions from Hellas have become foxes at Ephesus,' was a familiar Greek proverb. But if their policy was thus ignoble, it was at any rate successful. The commerce of Ephesus, great even in the time of the Lydian kings, when the gold of the Pactolus was already flowing into the plain of the Cayster, grew with each century, in spite of all the wars and revolutions which harassed the west coast of Asia Minor, and destroyed many of its most flourishing cities. And thus it came to pass that in the reign of Augustus when the former greatness of Miletus had become a by-word; when Lebedus, as Horace tells us, was more deserted than Gabii and Fidenæ, and the other cities which once formed the league of the Panionium had mostly dwindled into obscurity, Ephesus not only maintained its ancient commercial supremacy, but was exalted above all the other cities of Asia Minor by the privileges and titles bestowed on it by Imperial favour. It was allowed to style itself first city of Asia and Neokoros or minister of the great goddess Artemis, whose worship was thenceforth associated with that of the Emperor; for as we know from Mr. Wood's discoveries, the Augusteum was dedicated within the same peribolos as the Artemision as early as B.C. 6. These titles and privileges represented substantial political advantages. We learn from Ulpian * that, when a pro-consul proceeded to his post in Asia Minor, he was by law obliged to select Ephesus as the port where he first landed, and it was the seat of conventus juridicus or general assize, to which many neighbouring cities of Lydia had to refer their causes. When we take into account the concourse of strangers which must have been drawn to Ephesus, not only by commercial or Cited by Guhl, 'Ephesiaca,' p. 69. The ship and legend karáλovç on certain coins of Ephesus refer to this. See Eckhel, Doct. Num. Vet.,' vol. iii. p. 518. legal business, but by the fame of the worship of their great goddess, and the splendour of the festivals celebrated in her honour, we can understand why the Great Theatre was constructed on so large a scale, being capable, according to Mr. Wood's calculation, of holding upwards of 24,000 persons. All through the Imperial period the wealth of the Artemision must have been steadily accumulating. The fisheries of the Selinousian lakes, which the kings who successively occupied Ephesus appropriated for their needs, were restored to the temple by the Romans. We know not the extent of the domain belonging to the goddess, but it was probably very large; and from Xenophon's description of the temple which he dedicated in Laconia, in humble imitation of the Ephesian Artemision, it seems likely that a large park full of sacred deer and other beasts of chase was one of the appanages of the temple. Moreover, the great goddess had from time immemorial kept in her temple a bank of deposit; her credit was so good that for centuries the treasures of kings and of private persons were confided to her care.* The re-investment of this money in loans, either on the security of real property or goods, must have enabled the goddess to do a very good business at all times, especially if she often had to deal with deposits on such easy terms as in the case of that made by Xenophon. In an interesting passage in the Anabasis' (v. iii. 13) he tells us that, when about to join a warlike expedition, he deposited with the Neokoros† or chief minister of the Ephesian Artemis, a sum of money, the proceeds of spoils of war. In the event of his being killed in battle this money was to be employed in any manner most pleasing and acceptable to the goddess; if he returned safe he was to have the right of reclaiming his deposit, which he accordingly did, when he met this same Neokoros at Olympia some years afterwards. To these sources of wealth must be added the fines and confiscations imposed by the state on those who violated its laws, and the gifts and bequests, by which, from motives of gratitude or fear, devotees were for ever seeking to propitiate the goddess. Mr. Wood's exploration of the Great Theatre brought to light a memorable specimen of such dedications. The inscription which records it, though unfortunately incomplete, is one of the longest ever found in Asia Minor. It *Cited by Guhl, 'Ephesiaca,' pp. 111, 112. †This term in Imperial times became an honorary title of the city of Ephesus itself. Mr. Grote translates it 'superintendent,' ix. p. 243. tells us how one Vibius Salutaris,* a Roman of equestrian rank, who had filled very high offices in the state, dedicated to Artemis a number of gold and silver statues, of which the weight is given, and a sum of money to be held in trust, and the yearly interest of which is to be applied to certain specified uses. On the 6th of the first decad of the month Thargelion (May 25), on which day the mighty goddess Artemis was born, largess is to be distributed to various public functionaries in the pronaos of the temple. The members of the Ephesian Boule, or senate, are to receive one drachma each. The six tribes of the city, the high priest and the priestess of Artemis, the two Neopoiai, or Surveyors of the temple, the Paidonomi who had the charge of the education of the boys, and other fortunate personages, come in for a share of this munificent dole. The heirs of Salutaris were made liable for the due payment of the bequests in case he should die before paying over the principal or making an assignment of the rent of certain lands for the payment of the interest. The trust is guarded by stringent enactments. By a letter of Afranius Flavianus, proprætor, which is appended to the deed of trust, a fine of 50,000 drachmæ (rather less than 2,0007.) is inflicted on anyone, whether magistrate or private person, who attempts to set aside any of the provisions of the trust; one half of this fine is to go to the adornment of the goddess, the other half to the Imperial fiscus. The silver and gold figures dedicated by Salutaris are called both εἰκόνες, statues, and ἀπεικονίσματα, by which is probably meant replicas or copies of extant statues, and their weight ranges from two to seven Roman pounds. In the list we find a golden Artemis with silver stags, two silver figures of Artemis bearing a torch, a silver figure of the Roman people, a silver figure of the Equestrian Order, to which Salutaris himself belonged, a silver figure of the Boulè, or senate of Ephesus, a silver figure of the Ephesian Gerousia, a council which seems to have had to do with the management of sacred property. The greatest care is to be taken of these figures. When they require cleaning, it is to be done with a particular earth called arguromatike, by the custodian of the sacred deposits for the time being, in the presence of the two Surveyors of the temple. At every meeting of the public assemblage, and at all the gymnastic contests, and on every other occasion to be fixed by the Boulè and Demos, these figures are to be carried from the pronaos of the temple to the theatre duly guarded, and then back to the temple. During In the Greek text this name is written Salutarios. their transit through the city itself they are to be escorted by the Ephebi, who are to receive them at the Magnesian Gate and accompany them after the assembly to the Coressian Gate. It is impossible to read these provisions in the inscription without being reminded of that memorable scene in the Great Theatre at Ephesus when St. Paul had to encounter an uproarious multitude, whose fanaticism, in behalf of their goddess, had been stirred up by Demetrius, the maker of portable silver shrines of Diana, by whose guild probably the very statues enumerated in the inscription were manufactured. Indeed, had St. Paul preached half a century later at Ephesus, he would have seen the splendid gifts dedicated by Salutaris on their way to and from the theatre, or, if he attended the public games, in the theatre itself. But his visit to Ephesus took place about A.D. 54-7, and the inscription relating to Salutaris is at least as late as A.D. 102, when probably a great reaction had taken place against the new doctrines, and devout men like Salutaris did all in their power to foster and cherish old local superstition. It should be here remarked that it was this mention of the Magnesian and Coressian Gates in the inscription which gave Mr. Wood his first clue to the site of the temple. Having found the Magnesian Gate, he proceeded to look for the portico built by the Sophist Damianus in the second century A.D., which led from that gate to the temple, and of which the purpose was to protect from bad weather those who took part in the procession. Mr. Wood succeeded in tracing the line of this portico for some distance outside the city. It followed the line of an ancient road, and pointed in the direction of the plain at the foot of Ayasoluk. Another road tended in the same direction, starting from a gate near the Stadium, which Mr. Wood rightly assumed to be the Coressian Gate mentioned in the Salutaris inscription. Advancing northward towards the point where these two roads tended to converge, he came upon an ancient wall, an inscription on which showed that it was the Peribolos of the Artemision ;* after which, to find the site of the temple itself was only a matter of time. It is interesting to compare the enactments in the Salutaris inscription which direct how the sacred statues are to be carried *This inscription is in Latin and Greek. The Latin text is as follows:- Imp. Cæsar divi f. Aug. Cos. xii, tr. pot. xviii pontifex maximus ex reditu Dianæ fanum et Augusteum muro muniendum curavit, 'C. Asinio (Gallo pro. cos.) curatore Sex. Lartidio leg.' See Waddington, 'Fastes des Provinces Asiatiques,' p. 94. in procession through the city, under the escort of the ephebi, with the description of a procession in honour of Artemis in that curious Greek romance the Ephesiaca' of Xenophon. He tells us in very graphic language how at a certain festival at Ephesus the virgins of the city, richly dressed, and all the youths, took a part in the procession, and how it was the custom in that festival to choose out of the ranks of the ephebi bridegrooms for the maidens who appeared in public in the festival. The order of the procession was thus: first came the sacred objects, torches, baskets, incense; then horses, dogs, and hunting weapons and gear. Each of the maidens was arrayed as if to meet her lover. Setting aside the sentimental details with which this florid description is associated in the romance, we may accept it as a poetical version of an actual procession, in which a beautiful maiden seems to have been selected to personate Diana as a huntress. We do not know the particular festival which the writer had in view, but it was probably one in the month Artemision, which corresponded in the Ephesian calendar to the latter half of our March and the first half of April. This entire month was consecrated to the goddess after whom it was named, and was one continuous festival in her honour. No more appropriate season could have been chosen for the wooings which the procession seems so greatly to have promoted. It is probable that there was also a great feast on the birthday of the goddess, which, as we have already stated, fell on the 8th of Thargelion (the 25th of our May), and this may have corresponded in character with the Thargelia held originally at Delos, and afterwards transferred to Athens on the breaking up of the Delian Confederacy. It may have been in this month that theori from all the Ionian cities, anciently members of the Panionium, met in solemn festival at Ephesus. The supremacy of the chief priest of the Ephesian Artemis had probably in the earlier times that theocratic and quasiregal character which is characteristic of certain priesthoods in Asia Minor, such as those of Comana and Zela as described by Strabo. For the priestesses of the Ephesian Artemis virginity was as necessary a condition as with the Vestals at Rome; and if we are to believe two late writers,† a law was once in force which forbade to married women or Hetæræ all access to the temple under pain of death, unless in the case of a female slave persecuted by her master. The celibacy of the † Guhl, p. 111. * Guhl, p. 106; Achilles Tatius, vii. 12. |