Ephesus, one of the twelve Ionic cities of Asia Minor, was situated in Lydia, near the mouth of the river Cäyster, in the midst of an alluvial plain. It was long before Ephesus acquired any political importance, in spite of being a sacred city from an early period. Subdued first by the Lydian, and next by the Persian kings, it was included, after the death of Alexander the Great, in the territories of Lysimachus (281 B.C.), by whom it was greatly strengthened. Ultimately it came into the possession of the Romans; and in the time of Augustus, when Strabo wrote, it was 'the greatest place of trade of all the cities of Asia west of the Taurus.' This was also its condition when visited by St Paul, who resided here three years; but the destruction of its great temple by the Goths, in 262 A.D., gave it a blow from which it never recovered. In 431 it was the scene of the third general council of the Christian Church. Its general history, while a city of the Byzantine empire, was unimportant, and before the days of Tamerlane it had almost completely perished.—The ruins of Ephesus comprise a stadium 687 feet long, fragments of a great theatre (alluded to in the account of St Paul's preaching in the city), of an odeum or music-hall, and of various walls and towers, belonging to the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine eras. About a mile north-east of the ancient city was the site of the famous Temple of Diana. This marvellous building, one of the seven wonders of the world, was originally built by Chersiphron; but on the night (as is said) when Alexander the Great was born (356 B.C.), it was fired by Herostratus, an Ephesian, thereby to immortalise his name. It was afterwards rebuilt by the inhabitants in a style of greater splendour than before, the very women contributing their ornaments to secure the necessary funds. It was the largest Greek temple ever constructed. Its length, according to Pliny, was 425 feet, its width 220; and the number of its columns 127, each 60 feet high. The site of the temple was discovered by Mr Wood in 1869, and excavations, continued until 1874, have greatly extended our knowledge of this 'wonder of the world.' But even more wonderful than the temple itself were the numberless statues and pictures which it contained, executed by the best masters of Greece. The altar of the goddess was principally adorned with the works of Praxiteles. Plundered of its treasures by Nero, and burned (as has been mentioned) by the Goths, it was most likely finally destroyed by the iconoclasts, in the reign of Theodosius I., who issued his celebrated edict against the ceremonies of the pagan religion 381 A.D. The site of Ephesus is now occupied by some wretched villages, the principal of which is Ayasaluk.
See Falkner, Ephesus and the Temple of Diana (1862); J. T. Wood, Discoveries at Ephesus (1877); Fergusson, The Temple of Diana at Ephesus (1883); and the articles ARTEMIS and SEVEN SLEEPERS.