Greek Texts & Translations

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deep water for the entrance of large vessels of burden, if a mole were thrown up before the mouth of the river, which was very wide, gave orders for the construction of a mole ; but the contrary effect took place, for the mud, being confined within the harbour, made the whole of it shallow to the mouth. Before the construction of the mole, the flow and ebb of the sea cleared the mud away entirely, by forcing it outwards.

Such then is the nature of the harbour.

The city, by the advantages which it affords, daily improves, and is the largest mart in Asia within the Taurus. 25

Among illustrious persons in ancient times natives of Ephesus were Heracleitus, surnamed Scoteinus, or the Obscure, and Hermodorus, of whom Heracleitus himself says:

The Ephesians, youths and all, deserve hanging, for expelling Hermodorus, an honest citizen, ^note a citizen distinguished for his virtues, and saying, let there be no such amongst us; if there be, let it be in another place and among other people.

Hermodorus seems to have compiled laws for the Romans. Hipponax the poet was an Ephesian, and the painters Parrhasius and Apelles.

In more recent times was Alexander the orator, surnamed Lychnus, or the Lamp; ^note he was an administrator of state affairs, a writer of history, and left behind him poems which contain a description of the heavenly phenomena and a geographical account of the continents, each of which forms the subject of a distinct poem. 26

Next to the mouth of the Caÿster is a lake called Selinusia, formed by the overflowing of the sea. It is succeeded by another, which communicates with this. They afford a large revenue, of which the kings, although it was sacred, deprived the goddess, but the Romans restored it; then the