Almost nothing is known about Xenophon of Ephesus who wrote it. Suidas mentions his romance the _Ephesiaca_ in ten books (instead of the present eight) and speaks also of a work he wrote on the city of Ephesus. Xenophon probably was a native of Ephesus, for he shows intimate acquaintance with many details of the cult of Artemis there. His date can be given only approximately, but considerable internal evidence helps us to place him. He imitates certain passages in Chariton, so he must be later than the second century A.D. Certain references are very important. He is later than Augustus, for he refers to the prefect of Egypt and of course there was none until after 30 B.C.[65] He mentions the Irenarch of Cilicia, and this official was not known before Hadrian.[66] He refers to the Artemision of Ephesus as if it were at the height of its glory and contemporary.[67] It was pillaged and burned by the Gauls in 263 and only in part rebuilt. But, as Dalmeyda points out,[68] these details give us only vague indications of the date. Until some fragment of papyrus which can be dated is discovered, we can place Xenophon merely with some probability about the end of the second century of our era. The novel itself is simple in language and brief in scope, but complicated in plot from many kaleidoscopic changes of scenes. There are so many exits and reentries of the characters that we lose track of them. The brevity of the narrative, the laconic expressions of emotion in it have made certain critics maintain the theory that it is only an epitome of a story, or a kind of scenario written as a preliminary sketch of a longer work. It seems to me possibly an intentionally short romance written briefly and simply by an author whose taste was akin to that of Chariton and who perhaps was intentionally showing a definite reaction against the verbosity of other novelists. Partly because of the brevity of the romance a synopsis of the plot has to be long. So much is crowded into small space, so many rapid transitions from scene to scene are made, that a full sequential outline must be given before we can study the significance and color of the romance. Here then is the plot. The chief characters are: _Habrocomes_ of Ephesus, the handsome hero _Anthia_ of Ephesus, the beautiful heroine _Apsyrtos_, a pirate chieftain _Manto_, the daughter of Apsyrtos _Moeris_, a Syrian, husband of Manto _Lampon_, a goatherd, slave of Manto _Hippothoos_, a brigand _Perilaos_, a high police official of Cilicia _Eudoxos_, a physician _Psammis_, a rajah of India _Araxos_, an old soldier in Egypt _Cyno_, his wicked wife _Aegialeus_, a Syracusan who kept a mummy _Polyidos_, a captain in Egypt _Rhenaea_, his jealous wife A procurer of Taras _Leucon_, a male slave of Habrocomes and Anthia _Rhode_, a female slave, his wife