At length, in April, 1869, Mr. Wood came upon some massive walls, which were proved to have been those of the courtyard in which the Temple had once stood, by an inscription in Greek and Latin, stating that Augustus had rebuilt them; and, finally, in 1870, a marble pavement was lighted on, at the depth of nineteen feet below the alluvial soil of the present plain, together with drums of columns, quite six feet high, one base being still attached to its plinth. The site of the Temple of Diana had been reached, and its style was, at once, seen to have been similar to that of the Temple of Athene Polias at Priene, and of Apollo at Branchidæ. It is scarcely possible to speak too highly of Mr. Wood’s tact and sagacity. Thus, considering the accounts of ancient authors too vague as guides for excavation, his first diggings were essentially tentative, and with the view of meeting with some illustrative inscriptions. In the Great Theatre he was more likely to find them than anywhere else, and here, indeed, he discovered six large stones, originally from the cella of the Temple, and each bearing various decrees. Indeed, by the most important of these, to which we have already alluded, the real clue was afforded as to its whereabouts. The of finding this inscription confirmed Mr. Wood’s original idea of feeling his way to the Temple from one of the city gates, the result being the discovery of two roads,—one of them leading round the mountain Prion or Pion, the other towards the town of Magnesia. He wisely determined to trace the one which showed the greatest amount of wear or use, assuming that if either of them led to the Temple it would be the most used one. In the one round Mount Prion he found four distinct ruts, deeply cut in its pavement of huge blocks of marble, while the other road was worn scarcely at all. He then devoted all his energy, to use his own words, “in exploring the road round Mount Pion,[24] which eventually led to the Temple.” Footnote 24: The spelling of the name of this little eminence does not seem to be quite certain. Pausanias and Pliny call it Pion; Strabo, on the other hand, Prion. There was a mountain so named in the island of Cos. Comp. _Priene_.