drains to carry of the water that fell down from the mountains, and throw it into the morass and the river Cayster. These drains or vaults have by some travellers been taken for a labyrinth *, but there is not the least reason to think they were designed for such a purpose; it plainly appears by looking into them, that they were intended for nothing else than to carry off the water; or at least it was necessary, in such a wet and moorish place, to have a foundation of that nature for so large a pile of building. Philo Byzantius takes notice of this contrivance, and tells us they were forced to make deep passages, wherein they used such a quantity of stone, that they almost emptied all the quarries of the country. For the foundations of these arched drains, which were to bear so weighty a structure, we are informed by Pliny that they laid beds of charcoal well rammed, and over them other beds of wool.

This surprising temple, built at the expence of the most powerful cities of Asia Minor, was four hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and two hundred and twenty in breadth. It was supported by a hundred and twenty-seven columns, at the charge of the same number of kings; which will not appear impossible, if we consider that in ancient times, almost every great city had its particular king or sovereign. Each of these columns was sixty feet high; and thirty-six of them were covered with bas

The foundation of this temple may worthily be esteemed a labyrinth, according to Sir George Wheeler, but he does not say they were designed for one. They went down amongst them, he tells us, by a long packthread tied at the hole where they first en tered; though with all the light their candles gave, they made no great discoveries, but being wearied with the thick vapours of the place, they returned to the fresh air.

reliefs, one of which was done by the famous Scopas, and the rest by the most excellent artists of those times, who endeavoured to out-do one another on this occasion. The rest of the temple was undoubtedly equal to the columns in magnificence; but little of certainty can be learned from its present ruins, which have nothing extraordinary except their thickness, the most part being of brick covered with marble, all pierced with holes for the cramps. of those plates of brass which it is thought to have been adorned. But few fragments of pillars are now to be seen, for the finest stones among the ruins of Ephesus have been carried to Constantinople,

The very day that Alexander the Great came in, to the world, the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus. was burned by Herostratus*; who being put to the torture, in order to force him to confess his motive for committing so infamous an action, declared that he did it with a view of making himself known to posterity, and to immortalize his name by destroying so noble a structure. The states of Asia endeavour, ed to prevent the success of his views, by publishing

* Ciccro mentions a saying of Timæus on this occasion, which he reckons a very smart one, viz. That it was no wonder the temple was burned, because Diana was at that time employed at the delivery of Olympias to facilitate the birth of Alexander. His words are; "Concinne, ut multa, Timæus; qui, cum in histo"ria dixisset, qua node natus Alexander esset, eadem Dianæ "Ephesiæ templum deflagravisse, adjunxit Minimeid ese mirandum, "quod Diana, cum in partu Olympiadis adesse voluisset, abfuisset "domo." De Nat. Deor. Lib. II.-Plutarch ascribes this joke to Hegesias of Magnesia, but is far from approving of it, as Cicero dees: for he says, the reflection is so very cold, that it might have extinguished the fire: though this reflection of Plutarch, as M. Rollin observes, seems to be still colder.

a decree prohibiting the mention of his name; but their prohibition was far from having the intended effect, for almost all the historians of that age have taken notice of so monstrous an extravagance, and at the same time have recorded the name of the criminal.

When Alexander afterwards came to Ephesus, he proposed to the Ephesians to be at the whole expence of rebuilding the temple, provided they would put his name upon the front of it; but they answered with a great deal of politeness, or rather impious fattery, That it was not fit for one deity to build temples to another. In order to carry on the work, which was in forwardness when Alexander made this proposal, the Ephesians not only sold the pillars of the former temple, but all the ladies of the city turned their jewels into money; and by this means they raised an edifice much finer than that which had been destroyed. No doubt but several skilful architects were employed about this building: one of them was Cheremocrates, who would have cut Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander; but Dinocrates is said to have had the superintendence of the work, who was afterwards employed by that prince to build the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Chersiphron is mentioned by Pliny as the architect of Diana's temple, and Strabo grants that he was the first, but says the building was afterwards enlarged by another. The most famous sculptors of Greece exerted their skill in adorning this temple, and the altar was almost wholly the work of Praxiteles: and we may reasonably conclude that Apelles and Parrhasius, the two most celebrated painters of antiquity, who were both of Ephesus, likewise enriched it with their excellent performances,

In the time of Herodotus the city of Ephesus was at a distance from the temple of Diana; but this historian makes no mention of the statue of gold that was set up there, according to Xenophon. Syncellus, who says this temple was burnt, probably speaks of some damage it received by fire, but such as might be repaired without rebuilding the whole fabric; so that the temple which Pliny describes might be the same that Strabo saw in the time of Augustus. But I must acknowledge there seems to me to be some confusion in the accounts which authors give us of these different temples; so that I barely relate what I find concerning them in history, leaving the whole to be reconciled by the judgment of the reader.

The temple of Diana had a privilege of asylum,*

* An asylum is a sanctuary or a place of refuge, where a criminal who shelters himself is deemed inviolable, and not to be touched by any officer of justice. The temples, altars, statues, and tombs of heroes, were anciently the ordinary retreat of those who found themselves aggrieved by the rigour of the laws, or oppressed by the violence of tyrants. The Israelites had their cities of refuge, which were of God's own appointment, where the guilty who had not committed any deliberate crime, found safety and protection. The heathens allowed of refuge and impunity even to the vilest offenders, either out of superstition, or for the sake of peopling their cities; and it was by this means that Thebes, Athens and Rome were first stocked with inhabitants. Among the Christians, the emperor Theodosius and Honorius having granted immunities of this kind to churches, the bishops and monks laid hold of a certain tract or territory, without which they fixed the bounds of the secular jurisdiction; and so well did they manage their privileges, that convents, in a little time became next a-kin to fortresses, where the most notorious villains were in safety, and braved the power of the magistrate. At last these privileges were extended, not only to churches and church-yards, but even to the bishops' houses, whence the criminal could not be removed

which reached to the distance of a hundred and twenty-five feet round about it. Mithridates enlarged it to a bow-shot, and M. Antony doubled the distance, taking in part of the city; but Tiberius, to prevent abuses committed on account of this sort of privileges, abolished them at Ephesus. The asylum was not expressed upon the medals of this city, till after the emperor Philip the elder had been there, and then only upon that of Otacilla; on the reverse of which Diana of Ephesus is represented with her attributes, the sun on one side, and the moon on the other. We have also a medal of Philip the younger, with the same reverse, but a different le gend. On one of Etruscilla we find Diana represented with her attributes and stags, and the legend the same with that upon the medal of Otacilla. There are very few cities of which so many ancient medals. are still remaining, as there are of Ephesus, on some of which it is styled the first or chief city of Asia; and on most of them Diana is represented, either with many breasts, as Minutius Felix observes this Ephesian goddess was, or as a huntress, and set off with her attributes. Many medals are likewise to be found, on the reverse whereof the temple of Diana is represented with a frontispiece sometimes of two columns, sometimes of four, six, and eight, with the heads of the emperors Domitian, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, M. Aurelius, Septimus Severus, Caracalla, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus, and Maximus.

without a legal assurance of life, and an entire remission of the crime. In time, however, these asyla, or sanctuaries, were stripped of many of their immunities, in regard they served to countenance all manner of wickedness, and to make guilt more boldfaced and daring: In England, particularly, they were entirely abolished.