Remarks on the coins of Ephesus struck during the Roman dominion / By John Yonge Akerman.
- John Yonge Akerman
- Date:
- 1841
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Remarks on the coins of Ephesus struck during the Roman dominion / By John Yonge Akerman. Source: Wellcome Collection.
6/54 page 6
![more of its pride and ornament, the temple, than from any other ancient author. He states that the building of this edifice occupied two hundred and twenty years, and that the expense was defrayed by the contributions of all the cities of Asia.10 It is well known, that this famous structure formed one of the seven wonders of the world; that it was resorted to by devout Greeks in swarms, and that the worship of the Ephesian Diana was cultivated by all the people of Asia; a fact which is indicated by the figure of the goddess on the coins of several neighbouring cities. In the 19th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we find that the preaching of St. Paul at Ephesus, provoked to fury a multitude of artizans who gained a livelihood by making “ silver shrines for Diana,” and that it was only by the prompt and energetic conduct of the officer, termed by the translators of the New Testament “the town clerk,” that the uproar was allayed. Of this officer, whose name occurs on many of the coins of Ephesus, we shall soon have occasion to speak. The words of Dionysius Periegetes, who is supposed to have flourished in the time of Augustus, clearly refer to a very early, if not the earliest, worship of Diana, whose primitive representation was set up under a tree.* 11 10 Magnificentiae vera admiratio extat teraplum Ephesiae Dianae ducentis viginti annis factum a toto Asia.”—Hist. Nat., xxxv. c. 14. 11 UappaAirjv ’E(pecrov, fxeyaXpv tvoXlv lo^Ealprjg ’Erfta Oetj itote prjoe Apa '(ovi()£Q tetv\ovto Ylpiuro) tvt 7tteXetjq, 7TEpuo(nop apdpacn dav/ia. Orbis Descriptio, v. 827-28-29. Callimachus, however, in his Hymn to Diana, says it was a beech tree: ’ Ev kote TrappaXh] 'E^evov /Iptmr Idpvtravro, <I>)]yo) V7TO TVpEfXVO). v. 238.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31871896_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
