Among the Greek authors, the most amusing account is that given by Lucian in his ‘Dialogues of the Dead.’ He there makes Mausolus say, in reply to the scoffing inquiry of Diogenes (after recounting his exploits), “Besides that personal superiority, I am beautiful, tall of stature, and of so robust a constitution as enabled me to sustain all the hardships and fatigues of war; but, to be brief, the principal point is, I have a prodigious monument raised over me at Halicarnassus, which for magnitude and beauty has not its equal in the whole world. It is decorated with the most exquisite figures of men and horses, all carried to such a degree of perfection, and in such exceedingly fine marbles, as you will not easily find even in a Temple.” Further on, Diogenes remarks, “As to your monument and the costly marble of which it is built, the inhabitants of Halicarnassus may certainly have reason to show it to strangers, and to think much of themselves for possessing so costly a work within their walls; but, my handsome friend, I do not see what sort of enjoyment you should have in it. You should only say that you bear a heavier load than the rest of us, since you have such an enormous heap of stones lying on you!” The few words found in Pausanias add little to our knowledge, but serve to show the estimation in which the Mausoleum was held. He says, “Although there are many sepulchres worthy of admiration, two may especially be mentioned; one at Halicarnassus, the other that of Helena of Adiabene at Jerusalem.” With regard to the first he adds, “It was erected for Mausolus, who reigned at Halicarnassus, and was so wonderful, not only on account of the magnitude of the work, but also from the magnificence of its ornaments, that the Romans considered it among the wonders of the world, and called all their most magnificent tombs _mausolea_, after it.”[6] Strabo merely mentions that it was considered one of the wonders of the world. From this time to that of its final demolition by the Knights of St. John between 1402 and 1522 A.D., the Mausoleum is mentioned as still standing by Gregory of Nazianzum in the fourth century, and later by Nicetus of Cappadocia and by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the tenth century; but the most important fact is the mention of it by Eustathius, two centuries afterwards, who, in his commentary on the ‘Iliad,’ says of the Mausoleum, that “it was _and is_ a wonder.”[7] From all this we are justified in assuming that down to the twelfth century the Mausoleum was at least sufficiently perfect to convey a correct idea of its original magnificence. Between this period and the year 1402, when the city was taken possession of by the Knights of St. John, we are led to infer that the building must have been ruined, most probably by the shock of an earthquake,—the position of many of the fragments found being such as to be explicable only on such an hypothesis.