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

THE CELEBRATED TEMPLE. 243

the two adjacent columns would appear to cut the
statue and interfere Avith its lines.1 This arrange-
ment of an odd number of columns, has been taken
advantage of by Canina to explain the difficulty
of one hundred and twenty-seven columns as
described by Pliny : but when we recollect that
the columns of the hypjethron were in two orders,
Ave again get rid of the odd number, and are
thereby left in the same difficulty, unless Ave
suppose that the columns of the hypgethron Avere
only single, as in the solitary instance of the
temple at Bassa3. Considering, therefore, the im-
probability of having an odd number of columns,
I am inclined to adopt the idea of placing a comma
after the word viginti, thus making one hundred
and twenty columns, seven of which were the gift
of hinrjs. Thus at the same time Ave get rid
of the odd column, and we reduce the number of
kings to seven, instead of one hundred and twenty-
seven, as the passage iioav stands: and there is
no difficulty in supposing that seven of the neigh-
bouring kings or tyrants contributed each a column
towards the edifice. This appears to have been a
common custom in Asia Minor; for Ave find scAreral
of the later temples, as those of Mylassa, Buromus,
and Aphrodisias, having tablets blocked out on the

1 For other instances of the application of an uneven number
of columns, see my Essay on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, in
the Mus. of Class. Antiq.