middle of the plain, leaving the town and all the ancient ruins to the South-East, and falls into the sea near a Western promontory running out from the Southern range of mountains. The various windings of this river have made some conclude it to be the Meander, who had never seen the true one in Caria; but that it is the Cayster, is evident from all ancient testimony, and confirmed by several medals of Commodus, Septimius Severus, Valerian, and Gallienus. On the reverse of one that I have seen, the river is represented by a figure in a sedent posture, holding a reed in one hand, a Cornucopia in the other, and leaning on an urn pouring out water.

Though the plain of Ephesus is delightful, yet the situation of Smyrna has something in it much more noble; the hill, which is at the bottom of the gulph, seeming designed, like an amphitheatre, to shew a fine city to the best advantage; whereas Ephesus, were it in its flourishing state, would lose much of its beauty and grandeur by being buried in a hollow. As to its port, on account of which so many medals have been struck, it was never comparable to that of Smyrna, though it was much better formerly, when the vessels ran up into the very river; but the mouth of the Cayster being choaked with sand, there is nothing at present but an open dangerous road for shipping, which is little frequented. As we go to the port, we see a great many ruins and old marbles on the banks of the river; where undoubtedly stood that part of Ephesus which was built by Lysimachus, and the arsenals mentioned by Strabo.

The castle or citadel, which, as I have said, is inhabited and guarded by Turks, seems to be of no older date than the times of the latter Greek em

perors, several curious fragments of antique marble being carelessly intermixed in the walls amongst o ther less valuable materials. But at a little distance from hence, towards the South, we see the remains of another citadel of greater antiquity, the works whereof were covered with the finest marble. A gate of this is still standing, commonly called the Gate of the Persecution, which is remarkable for three bas-reliefs of admirable workmanship, as plainly appears, notwithstanding they are much injured and defaced. That on the left has been the finest of all, but is most abused: it is about five feet long, and and half as high; and represents a bacchanal of chil dren playing and rolling amongst vine-branches. The middle one is a foot higher than the other, and twice as long, but has also suffered considerable injury. We counted fourteen or fifteen figures on it, some men, some women; several of the men quite naked, and others in Roman habits. One man lies naked on the ground, near the figure of a horse; and another man has hold of his left leg, endeavouring to drag him along; whence some have conjectured it was designed to represent Hector drawn behind the chariot of Achilles; but as no chariot is to be seen, there is no foundation for such a supposition. Others, with as little probability, have imagined it related to the persecution of the primitive Christians under the Roman emperors; and from hence the gate has obtained its name. But though it is entirely uncertain what this sculpture represented, those who suppose it designed for some Roman triumph seem to have the greatest reason for their conjecture. As to the third bas-relief, on the right hand, it is almost as high as that

in the middle, but not above four feet in length: it contains seven or eight figures, men and women, but what the whole represents I leave to those who are better skilled in antiquity.

. Towards the West, at the foot of the hill on which the castle is built, stands the church of St. John the evangelist*, now converted into a Mahometan mosque. The outside of this edifice has nothing to recommend it; but in the inside we find the roof, which is a double one, supported in the middle by three columns of granite, admirably well polished, one whereof is thirteen feet in circumference, with a white marble capital of the composite order. The two others are not much less than this, but their capitals are not half so beautiful, being in the fashion of the modern Greeks. Their pedestals are not seen, so that probably they stand deep in the ground: On each roof the church is a little ill-proportioned cupola, at one end of it the Turks have now erected a minaret. It has a court or area on the North side of it, round which there was anciently a cloyster, as is conjectured from some broken columns yet remain. ing.

Going Eastward from the Gate of the Persecution, we come to a ruined aqueduct, which was the work of the Greek emperors, and served to convey water to the castle as well as the city, from a spring mentioned by Pausanias. The arches are supported by

* From this evangelist, M. Tournefort informs us, Ephesus has taken its modern name of Aiasalouc, by which it is known both to the Greeks and Turks. The Greeks, it seems, give St. John the title of Aios Seologos, instead of Agios Theologos the Holy Divine, pronouncing the Theta like a Sigma; and from Aios Scologos they have made Aiasalouc.

square pilkurs, which consist of fine pieces of marble; and there are inscriptions on them, which speak of the first Cesars. The Greeks live near this aqueduct, and the Turks in the more Southern part of the village. Very few of the inscriptions are legi. ble, and others are so high that we could make nothing of them; nor could the Greeks lend us any such thing as a ladder. From hence the ancient city extended itself principally to the South; but Ephesus has been so often demolished, that such matters are not easily determined.

We set apart a day to take a view of the ruins that lie West and South-West of the present town. About half a mile Southwards is a rocky hill, in which is a cave about three yards diameter, incrusted at top with congelations, that make it a very pretty grotto; and at a little distance is a semicircular cavity, almost in form of a theatre. Not far from hence we come to some ruinous arches, where they tell you was the cave or grotto of the Seven Sleepers, who, hiding themselves there in the persecution under the emperor Dioclesian, fell asleep, and did not awake till about two hundred years afterwards. If we believe the story, we may suppose they were extremely surprised when they found how the face of the city was changed, their friends and acquaintance all dead, the money they had about them not current, and all people become Christians.

Keeping Westward under the same hill, we passed by several large heaps of ruins, one of which is known to be a circus or stadium from its figure and length, and seems to have had a kind of theatre at the end of it, separated from the two parallel walls; and a little to the North are the remains of Bave Nobs

an amphitheatre, as the position of them leave no room to question. Here it was, in all probability, that the rabble of the city assembled at the instigation of Demetrius the silver-smith, who thought his craft was in danger by St. Paul's preaching against the idolatry of the Ephesians, who worshipped the image of Diana, which they believed fell down from Jupiter; for it is said "that the whole city was filled "with confusion, and having caught Gaius and A"ristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions "in travel, they rushed with one accord into the "theatre."*

South-West of the circus is a large arch or gate, with part of a wall standing on each side of it, all of excellent marble; which is supposed to be the front of a Christian church, built out of the ruins of some more ancient edifice, several of the stones hav. ing pieces of inscriptions on them quite unintelligible, though some are accidentally preserved entire. The mould of the arch is good, but not proportioned to the shafts that support it, for it makes more than a semicircle.

The next thing we come to, still keeping to the South-West, are the ruins of the celebrated temple of Diana, esteemed one of the wonders of the world. This stately edifice was situated at the foot of a mountain, and near the edge of a morass, which I took notice of before, in our way from Scalanova to Ephesus. In the opinion of Pliny, they choose this marshy ground to build on, as less exposed to earthquakes; but this choice was attended with a prodigipuss expence, for they were obliged to make vast

*See the whole account of this affair in Aûs xix. from verse 24. to the end of the chapter.