Falkener, Edward: Ephesus and the temple of Diana (London, 1862)

VI.

CHARACTER OF THE EPHESIAN8—PRACTICE OF MAGIC.

THOUGH, as we have seen, Ephesus, and indeed
the whole of Ionia, was blest with the most
delightful climate, with the most advantageous
position, and the most extraordinary fertility of
soil; though, as we have seen, its inhabitants Avere
endued with taste and genius ; though poetry,
literature,1 philosophy, and the arts flourished in
Asia earlier and in higher perfection than in
Greece; we are grieved to find that the moral
character of the Ephesians did not answer to their
intellectual qualities. Heraclitus the Bphesian
accused them of being " full of bad customs." It
must be remembered, however, that this philoso-
pher was a satirist, and may be supposed to give
an exaggerated opinion respecting them: he con-
tinues,—" The Ephesians all deserve to be hanged,
for having driven from their city Hermodorus,2 the
most honest man among them, saying,•—■' We will

1 Herodotus believed the Ionians to be the first Greeks who
used letters, and that they received them from the Phosnieians.—
(Herod, v. 58.) 2 See page 128.