23. After the completion of the temple, which, he says, was the work of Cheirocrates (the same person who built Alexandria, and also promised Alexander that he would form Mount Athos into a statue of him, which should represent him as pouring a libation into a dish out of an ewer; that he would build two cities, one on the right hand of the mountain, and another on the left, and a river should flow out of the dish from one to the other,)[59]—after the completion of the temple, he says that the multitude of other sacred offerings were purchased by the Ephesians, at the value set on them by artificers, and that the altar was almost entirely full of the works of Praxiteles. They showed us also some of the performances of Thraso, namely, the Hecatesium, a Penelope,[60] and the old woman Eurycleia. The priests were eunuchs, who were called Megabyzi. It was the practice to send to various places for persons worthy of this office, and they were held in high honour. They were obliged to appoint virgins as their colleagues in their priesthood. At present some of their rites and customs are observed, and some are neglected. The temple was formerly, and is at present, a place of refuge, but the limits of the sanctity of this asylum have been frequently altered; Alexander extended them to the distance of a stadium. Mithridates discharged an arrow from the angle of the roof, and supposed that it fell a little beyond the distance of a stadium. Antonius doubled this distance, and included within the range of the sanctuary a certain portion of the city. This was attended with much evil, as it placed the city in the power of criminals and malefactors. On this account Augustus Cæsar abolished the privilege. 24. The city has an arsenal and a harbour. The entrance of the harbour was made narrow, by order of the king Attalus Philadelphus, who, together with the persons that constructed it, was disappointed at the result. The harbour was formerly shallow, on account of the embankment of earth accumulated by the Caÿster; but the king, supposing that there would be [CAS. 641] deep water for the entrance of large vessels of burden, if a mole were thrown up before the mouth of the river, which was very wide, gave orders for the construction of a mole; but the contrary effect took place, for the mud, being confined within the harbour, made the whole of it shallow to the mouth. Before the construction of the mole, the flow and ebb of the sea cleared the mud away entirely, by forcing it outwards. Such then is the nature of the harbour. The city, by the advantages which it affords, daily improves, and is the largest mart in Asia within the Taurus. 25. Among illustrious persons in ancient times natives of Ephesus were Heracleitus, surnamed Scoteinus, or the Obscure, and Hermodorus, of whom Heracleitus himself says: