• It Is best described by M. L6vy, lievue cfes £'fui/c> Grrcjuff. IH!»f>, p. 2u:itt.
t This implies that he sat on the board of the Strategol aa an as.sessor (or perhaps as ly chairman).
t LAvy In Jievue de* Etude* Urecquet, 1805, p 216.
724
EPHESUS
EPHESUS
equanimity and general philosophic interest in the preaching of St. Paul, whereas the superstitions and vulfiar mob were strongly opposed to him. This state of opinion lasted till near the end of the Ist century. But the violent feelings roused during the persecution of Domitian, combined with the realization on the part of the officials and the higher i)iiesthood that the growing power of Christianity threatened the existing order of things, and would, if successful, sweep it away, led to a union among all the classes which were not opposed to the existing order, i.e. among all who were not Christians. We may confidently assume, also, that at first Christianity spread with great rapidity and produced a neglect of the Eph. ritual similar to that which Pliny describes as ha\Tng existed in Bithynia, until the measures carried outbyhiminA.D. 112 caused a reri val of the pagan worship [Epist. ad Trajan. 95). A similar revival of paganism in E. about the same period is attested oy ancient documents, as Canon Hicks was the first to recognize clearly. A great inscription, dating A.D. 104 (Hicks, No. 481, p. 135), contains a series of decrees honouring C. Vibius Salutaris, a Rom. citizen resident in E., who had presented to the goddess and the city government a number of statues, images, and moneys, and arranging for the acceptance and use of the gifts and for the institution of a new festival and procession which should unite and bind more closely together the sanctuary and the city of Artemis. From this time onwards the city began to boast more than before of its title of ' temple-guardian of Artemis ' {veuKipoi 'Apr^/iiSot) : and the imperial government also allied itself with the religion of Artemis, for under Hadrian imperial silver coins bear the type and legend of DIANA EPHESIA, showing that the vindication of the goddess was accepted as a duty by the emperor as Pontifex Maximus (for Rom. coins could not bear the effigy and title of any but a Rom. deity). This agreement of the imperial government, tlie municipal authorities, the temple- hierarchy, and the superstitious mob of the city, lasted unbroken until Christianity triumphed. It is true that the text of a decree, passed by the Senate and Assembly of E. in A.D. 161, is commonly quoted ' as an involuntary confession of the decline of the Artemis-worshijj under the growing influence of the new faith,' and as an indication that the reaction visible in A.D. 104 had ceased. The text (Hicks, No. 482, p. 145), according to the usually accepted interpretation, states that ' the Eph. goddess, whose worship had hitherto been uni- versally recognized, was now being dishonoured, not only in her own city {iy tj iat/rij! Trarpioi dTijuarai), but also amon" Greeks and barbarians.' But, as has been urged in Classical Eev. 1S".)3, p. 100, it is impossible to accept the idea that a decree in honour of the goddess had such an ill- omi!ned introduction (for to ancient feeling it was profane and impious and dangerous to use such words) ; and probably there has been a slight error of the engiaver, who wrote 5i once instead of twice, thus reversing the meaning ; the true text, then, states that Artemis is honoured in her own city and everywhere (irarplSi Siariyaarai).*
The temi)le of Artemis at E. was one of the greatest and most famous architectural works known to the ancient world. The building wliidi existed when St. Paul lived in E. was not the oldest temple. An earlier temple, containing columns dedicated by Croesus, king of Lydia, B.C. 560-539 (frajTments of which are now exhibited in the Brit. Mus. containing parts of the king's dedicatory inscriptions — Ilicks, p. 173, No. 518),
* In his (ufrftfrufa, CaDOD Hicks also iB disposed to recognize on Bograver'0 blunder
but not finally completed until alwut B.C. 400, was burnt to the ground in B.C. 356, on the sama night that Alexander the Great was born ; and a vast temple, measuring, according to Pliny, 425 ft. by 220,* was built in its place with the help of contributions from the whole of Asia (tota Asia exstruente, Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 40, 213 ; cf. Hicks, p. 174) — a fact which attests the veneration paid to the goddess by the whole province (Ac 19", see also CIG, No. 2954, and Hicks, p. 144, No. 482, on the reading of which see above). Owing to the marshy soU on which it stood, it required much care and contrivance to lay the foundations firmly (Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxvi. 95). Possibly, the impres- siveness of this great temple suggested to St. Paul the allegory in 1 Co 3">-" (written from E.), and gave point to his words addressed to the Ephesians (220-22) . ^,^t jt, jg unnecessary to suppose that on each occasion, when he refers to the ideas of foundation or building, as in 1 Ti 3"> 6'», 2 Ti 2i9-», Ac 20''*, he was thinkmg of this temple. The sito of this temple was discovered by Mr. J. T. Wood in 1870, after many years' patient and laborious search ; but, unfortunately, he has given no sufficient indications as to what remains of the building he found actually in situ, and has left no plan of the site as it was when he uncovered it. He merely gives his own restorations, and his ovm theories as to what the temple must have been when it was perfect ; but his knowledge of Gr. architecture was not so thorough as to make liis views trustworthy ; and it is hardly possible now to acquire sufficient knowledge of the facts to form a clear conception of the building. Officials called vewTToiai or vfoTToiol were charged ' to take care of tlie fabric and repairs of the temple, and to super- intend any additions such as the setting up of inscriptions' (Hicks, p. 80).