ated in the Bible and with gilding and colour to make these objects of wonder, we have no examples with which we can compare them, and any restoration must consequently be somewhat fanciful. Still we must recollect that this was the "bronze age" of architecture. Homer tells us of the brazen house of Priam, and the brazen palace of Alcinous; the Treasuries at Mycena were covered internally with bronze plates; and in Etruscan tombs of this age metal was far more essentially the material of decoration than carving in stone, or any of the modes afterwards so frequently adopted. The altar of the Temple was of brass. The molten sea, supported by twelve brazen oxen; the bases, the lavers, and all the other objects in metal-work, were in reality what made the Temple so celebrated; and very little was due to the mere masonry by which we should judge of a Christian church or any modern building. No pillars are mentioned as supporting the roof, but every analogy derived from the Persian architecture, as well as the constructive necessities of the case, would lead us to suppose they must have existed, four in the sanctuary and eight in the pronaos.

The temple which Ezekiel saw in a vision on the banks of the Chebar was identical in dimensions with that of Solomon, in so far as naos and pronaos were concerned. But a passage round the naos was introduced, giving access to the chambers, which added ten cubits to its dimensions every way, making it one hundred cubits by sixty. The principal court, which contained the Altar and the Temple

properly so called, had the same dimensions as in Solomon's Temple; but he added, in imagination at least, four courts, each 100 cubits or 150 feet square. That on the east certainly existed, and seems to have been the new court of Solomon's Temple, and is what in that of Herod became the court of the Gentiles. The north and south courts were never apparently carried out. They did not exist in Solomon's Temple and there is evidence to show that they were not found in Zerubbabel's. That on the northwest angle was the citadel of the Temple, where the treasures were kept and which was afterwards replaced by the Tower Antonia.

When the Jews returned from the Captivity they rebuilt the Temple exactly as it had been described by Ezekiel in so far as dimensions are concerned except that, as just mentioned, they do not seem to have been able to accomplish the northern and southern courts.

The materials, however, were probably inferior to the original Temple; and we hear nothing of brazen pillars in the porch, nor of the splendid vessels and furniture which made the glory of Solomon's Temple, so that the Jews were probably justified in mourning over its comparative insignificance.

In the last Temple we have a perfect illustration of the mode in which the architectural enterprises of that country were carried out. The priests restored the Temple itself, not venturing to alter a single one of its sacred dimensions, only adding wings to the façade so as to make it 100 cubits

wide, and it is said 100 cubits high, while the length remained 100 cubits as before. At this period, however, Judea was under the sway of the Romans and under the influence of their ideas, and the outer courts were added with a magnificence of which former builders had no conception, but bore strongly the impress of the architectural magnificence of the Romans.

An area measuring 600 feet each way was enclosed by terraced walls of the utmost lithic grandeur. On these were erected porticoes unsurpassed by any we know of. One, the Stoa Basilica, had a section equal to that of our largest cathedrals, and surpassed them all in length, and within this colonnaded enclosure were ten great gateways, two of which were of surpassing magnificence: the whole making up a rich and varied pile worthy of the Roman love of architectural display, but in singular contrast with the modest aspirations of a purely Semitic people.

THE TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS

T

J. T. WOOD

HE ancient city of Ephesus was situated on the river Caÿster, which falls into the Bay of Scala Nova, on the western coast of Asia Minor.

Of the origin and foundation of Ephesus we have no historical record. Stories were told which ascribed the settlement of the place to Androklos, the son of the Athenian king, Codrus, while other legends spoke of the Egyptian Sesostris as having carried his conquests into the Ephesian territory.

With other Ionian cities of Asia Minor, Ephesus fell into the hands of Croesus, the last of the kings of Lydia, and, on the overthrow of Croesus by Cyrus, it passed under the heavier yoke of the Persian despot. Although from that time, during a period of at least five centuries, to the conquest by the Romans, the city underwent great changes of fortune, it never lost its grandeur and importance.

The Temple of Artemis (Diana), whose splendour has almost become proverbial, tended chiefly to make Ephesus the most attractive and notable of all the cities of Asia Minor.

Its magnificent harbour was filled with Greek and Phonician merchantmen, and multitudes flocked from all parts