The life and work of St. Paul

PAUL AT KPHESUS. 357
finished, Mithridates stood on its summit and declared that the right of asylum
Bliould extend in a circle round it as far as he could shoot an arrow, and the
arrow miraculously flew a furlong's distance. The consequence was that
Ephosus, vitiated by the influences which affect all great sea-side commercial
1
cities, had within herself a special source of danger and contagion. Ionia had
been the corruptress of Greece, 4
Ephesus was the corruptress of Ionia the
faYourite scene of her most voluptuous love-tales, the lighted theatre of her
most ostentatious sins.
Tho temple, which was the chief glory of the city and one of the wonders
of the world, 3 stood in fall view of the crowded haven. Ephesus was the most
magnificent of what Ovid calls " the magnificent cities of Asia," 4 and the
temple was its most splendid ornament. The ancient temple had been burnt
down by Herostratus an Ephssiau fanatic who wished his name to be
recorded in history on the nigut of the birth of Alexander the Great. It had
been rebuilt with ungrudging magnificence out of contributions furnished by
all Asia the very women contributing to it their jewels, as the Jewish womei*
had done of old for the Tabernacle of the Wilderness. To avoid the danger
of earthquakes, its foundation* were built at vast cost on artificial foundations
of skin aud charcoal laid over the marsh.* It gleamed far off with a star-like
radiance. 6
Its peristyle consisted of one hundred and twenty pillars of tho
Ionic order hewn out of Parian marble. Its doors of carved cypress-wocd
were surmounted by transoms so vast and solid that the aid of miracles was
invoked to account for their elevation. The staircase which led to the roof
was said to have been cut out of a single vine of Cyprus. Some of the pillars
were carved with designs of exquisite beauty. 7 Within were the masterpieces
of Praxiteles and Phidias, and Scopas and Polycletus. Paintings by the
greatest of Greek artists, of which one the likeness of Alexander the Great
by Apelles had been bought for a sum said to be equal in value to '5,000
of modern money, adorned the inner walls. The roof of the temple itself was
of ccMlar-wood, supported by columns of jasper on bases of 8
Parian marble.
On these pillars hung gifts of priceless value, the votive offerings of grateful
superstition. At the end of it stood the great altar adorned by the bas-reiiaf
1 This is pointed out by Philostratus in the person of Apollonius. He praises them
for their banquets and ritual, and adds jie^nroi e CTUKHH rj Cs