238
læstræ. But the method would not have been practicable
for any considerable distance. From the quarries to the
temple is a length of not more than eight thousand feet,
and the interval is a plain without any declivity. Within
our own times, when the base of the colossal statue of
Apollo in the temple of that god, was decayed through
age: to prevent the fall and destruction of it, a contract
for a base from the same quarry was made with Pæonius.
It was twelve feet long, eight feet wide, and six feet
high. Pæonius, driven to an expedient, did not use the
same as Metagenes did, but constructed a machine for
the purpose, by a different application of the same prin-
ciple. He made two wheels about fifteen feet diameter,
and fitted the ends of the stone into these wheels. To
connect the two wheels he framed into them, round their
circumference, small pieces of two inches square not
more than one foot apart, each extending from one wheel
to the other, and thus enclosing the stone. Round
these bars a rope was coiled, to which the traces of the
oxen were made fast, and as it was drawn out, the stone
rolled on by means of the wheels, but the machine by its
constantly swerving from a direct straightforward path,
stood in need of constant rectification, so that Pæonius
was at last without money for the completion of his
contract.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE QUARRY WHENCE STONE
WAS PROCURED FOR THE TEMPLE OF DIANA AT
EPHESUS.
I MUsT digress a little, and relate how the quarries of
Ephesus were discovered. A.shepherd, of the name of
Pixodarus, dwelt in these parts at the period in which