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came to Aiazlik or Aiasalúck. There also he encamped after subduing Smyrna in 1402. The events recorded of Ephesus, posterior to this date, belong, it seems, to Aiasalúck, and its citadel or castle.

Two years after the invasion by Tamerlane, Cineis, it is related, took Ephesus from Amir, sultan of Smyrna, who retired to Mantakhia, his uncle, prince of Caria. Amir, returning with six thousand men, besieged and set fire to the town. The father of Cineis, who commanded there with three thousand men, maintained the citadel while he had hopes of succour. Cineis again attacked Ephesus, and drove Amir in his turn into the citadel. These chieftains were reconciled, and Cineis by the death of Amir became a sovereign. Sultan Solyman advanced against him with a large army from Prusa, by Smyrna, to Mesaulion; where he intrenched. Cineis had prevailed on the princes of Cotyœium and Iconium, to join him at Ephesus, and the two armies were only six leagues asunder; when, apprehending treachery in his allies, he gallopped to the citadel, exhorted his brother not to give it up before the following day, and at night repaired to the camp of Solyman. The two princes retreated with their forces at sun-rise, fording the river on one side; while the sultan crossed it over a bridge, by Mount Gallesus, and entered Ephesus. The citadel is here distinguished so plainly, that a person, who has seen the places, will scarcely hesitate to pronounce that the Ephesus of Cineis, was the Aiasalúck of Tamerlane.

Aiasalúck has certainly flourished chiefly, if not solely, under the Mahometans. Its origin may with probability be referred to the thirteenth century. It is related, that Mantakhia, before-mentioned, subdued Ephesus with Caria in

1313. He perhaps fortified this rock for a strong-hold, and the town grew under its protection. The mosque and aqueduct, as well as the castle, are great though inelegant structures. They suggest the idea, that the place has been honoured with the residence of princes, and it is likely, were erected under him and his nephew Amir. The marble materials of ancient Ephesus, then in ruins, were amassed for these buildings, which have contributed largely to the present nakedness of its site.

On the second evening of our stay at Aiasalúck, heavy clouds began to arrive apace, with a southerly wind, and to settle upon the mountains round us; when all became black and gloomy. At night frequent flashes of pale lightning, each making a momentary day, gleamed into the plain; while awful thunder, prolonged by repeated reverberations, moved solemnly along upon the summits. The explosions were

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near, and loud, and dreadful, far beyond any I ever heard before. Well might the devout heathen, unskilled in natural causes, ascribe to a present deity so grand an operation; and while the tremendous God drove, as he conceived, his terrible chariot through the darkness, tremble at the iminense display of his power, and be filled with apprehension of his wrath.

The rain, pouring down violently in large drops, soon made its way through our slender shed, and fell plentifully on us and our bedding, tinged with soot and dirt. Our horses were without shelter, and our men in an instant wet to the skin. It held up again about ten in the morning, and we crossed the plain to the ruins of Ephesus, but soon after the thunder and rain re-commenced, and forced us to return. In the afternoon the plain was deluged with water

from the mountains, running down like a torrent, and rendering it, in many places, impassable. The aga of Aiasalúck being absent, we visited his deputy, our men carrying, as usual, some coffee and small loaves of sugar as a present. He received us very graciously, sitting cross-legged on the roof of an old bath, which was his habitation.

CHAP. XXXV.

Ephesus-The stadium-The theatre-The odéum, &c.-The gymnasium-A street-Another-A temple-Square tower -Extent of the city-Avenues-Prion, a mountain of marble-A place of burial-The quarries, &c.

EPHESUS was situated by the mountains, which are the southern boundary of the plain, and comprehended within its wall a portion of Mount Prion and of Corissus. Mount Prion is a circular hill resembling that of Aiasalúck, but much larger. Corissus is a single lofty ridge, extending northward from near Mount Pactyas and approaching Prion, then making an elbow and running westwardly toward the sea. This city as well as Smyrna was built by Lysimachus, who also enrolled its senate, and provided for its civil go

vernment.

We entered Ephesus from Aiasalúck with Mount Prion and the exterior lateral wall of a stadium, which fronted the sea, on our left hand. Going on and turning, we passed that wing of the building, and the area opened to us. We measured it with a tape, and found it six hundred and eighty seven feet long. The side next the plain was raised on vaults, and faced with the strong wall before mentioned. The opposite

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side, which overlooks it, and the upper end, both rested on the slope of the hill. The seats, which ranged in numerous rows one above another, have all been removed; and of the front only a few marbles remain with an arch,* which terminates the left wing, and was one of the avenues provided for the spectators. Upon the key-stone of the back front is a small mutilated figure. This part of the fabric was restored, or repaired, when the city had declined in splendour, and was partly ruinous; for it is composed of marbles, which have belonged to other buildings. A bass relief, rudely carved, is inserted in it; and several inscriptions, effaced, or too high to be read; besides fragments, some with Roman letters.

The preaching of St. Paul produced a tumult at Ephesus, the people rushing into the theatre, and shouting "Great is Diana." The vestiges of this structure, which was very capacious, are further on in the side of the same mountain. The seats and the ruins of the front are removed. In both wings are several architectural fragments; and prying about the side next to the stadium, we discovered an inscription over an arch, once one of the avenues, and closed up perhaps to strengthen the fabric. It bids the reader, if he approached not the festive scene, still to be pleased with the achievements of the architect, who had saved the vast circle of the theatre; all-conquering Time having yielded to the succour he had contrived. That it is of a low age, may be inferred from the form of the characters, and from the ligatures, which render it difficult to be deciphered. The early advocates for Christianity inveighed against the fashionable diversions; but the public relish for the stage, for the athletic exercises, races,

* See a view of this arch in Le Brun, p. 31. + See Inscript. Ant. p. II.

and spectacles, was inveterate; and the theatre, the stadium, and the like places of resort, continued to be frequented long after them, even at Ephesus.:

Going on from the theatre, which had a stoa, or portico, annexed to it, as may be collected from the pedestals and bases of columns ranging along on this side, and concealed partly in the ground, you come to a narrow valley, which divides Mount Prion from Corissus. Near the entrance, in a small water-course, was a marble with an inscription, which I copied ; and we could discern a few letters on another stone overwhelmed with rubbish. Close by were ruins of a church, and a stone carved with the Greek cross. Within the valley, you find broken columns and pieces of marble, with vestiges of an odéum, or music-theatre, in the slope of Prion. This, which was not a large structure, is stripped of the seats, and naked. Near it are some piers with small arches, each of a single stone, almost buried in soil. It is a precept of Vitruvius, that the odéum be on the left hand coming from the theatre.

Beyond the odéum the valley opens gradually into the plain of Aiasalúck. Keeping round by Prion, you meet with vestiges of buildings, and come to the remains of a large edifice resembling that with an arcade at Troas. The top of one of the niches is painted with waves and fishes, and among the fragments lying in the front are two trunks of statues, of great size, without heads, and almost buried; the drapery, which is in both the same, remarkable. This huge building was the Gymnasium, which is mentioned as behind the city. We pitched our tent among its ruins, when we

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