“The Ephesians, youths and all, deserve hanging, for expelling Hermodorus, an honest citizen,[61] a citizen distinguished for his virtues, and saying, let there be no such amongst us; if there be, let it be in another place and among other people.” Hermodorus seems to have compiled laws for the Romans. Hipponax the poet was an Ephesian, and the painters Parrhasius and Apelles. In more recent times was Alexander the orator, surnamed Lychnus, or the Lamp;[62] he was an administrator of state affairs, a writer of history, and left behind him poems which contain a description of the heavenly phenomena and a geographical account of the continents, each of which forms the subject of a distinct poem. 26. Next to the mouth of the Caÿster is a lake called Selinusia, formed by the overflowing of the sea. It is succeeded by another, which communicates with this. They afford a large revenue, of which the kings, although it was sacred, deprived the goddess, but the Romans restored it; then the tax-gatherers seized upon the tribute by force, and converted it to their own use. Artemidorus, who was sent on an embassy to Rome, as he says, recovered possession of the lakes for the goddess, and also of the territory of Heracleotis, which was on the point of separating from Ephesus, by proceeding in a suit at Rome. In return for these services, the city erected in the temple to his honour a statue of gold. In the most retired part of the lake is a temple of a king, built, it is said, by Agamemnon. 27. Next follows the mountain Gallesius, and Colophon, an Ionian city, in front of which is the grove of Apollo Clarius, where was once an ancient oracle.[63] It is said that the prophet Calchas came hither on foot, on his return from Troy with Amphilochus, the son of Amphiaraus, and that meeting at Clarus with a prophet superior to himself, Mopsus, the son of Mantus, the daughter of Teiresias, he died of vexation. Hesiod relates the fable somewhat in this manner: Calchas propounds to Mopsus something of this kind: “I am surprised to see how large a quantity of figs there is on this small tree; can you tell the number?” Mopsus answered: “There are ten thousand; they will measure a medimnus, and there is one over, which you cannot comprehend.” Thus he spoke; the number and measure were exact. Then Calchas closed his eyes in the sleep of death. But Pherecydes says, that Calchas proposed a question respecting a pregnant sow, and asked how many young she had; the other answered, “three, one of which is a sow.” Upon his giving the true answer, Calchas died of vexation. According to others, Calchas propounded the question of the sow, and Mopsus that of the fig-tree; that Mopsus returned the true answer, and that Calchas was mistaken, who died of vexation, according to some oracular prophecy.