ACRATUS, THE TEMPLE SPOILER
The next day at early dawn the harbour was filled with shipping. There
were the light-sailing laburnae, the stately biremes, majestic triremes,
and quadriremes, with sterns rising high and crowned with castellated
cabins, each with its great square yard and spray-beaten sail. On every
prow blazed forth a sign, and on each quarter shone the image of a
tutelary god. The ship of Lucius was among them, with great red flag
denoting rank, and bearing a murderous ram, the fiercest of them all.
Masses of Roman troops, with polished shields and glittering arms,
thronged the vessels. Two legions were there--one half of them Praetorian
men, with tribunes and centurions, with Acratus, the freed man of Nero,
to lead them.
The great sails were closely furled, and the ships moored in regular
order towards the quays. At the sound of trumpets the soldiers
disembarked, and were hailed welcome by a host of Roman warriors who
were stationed in Ephesus.
Soon the city was crowded with armed men, and on the walls the silver
eagles shone resplendent in the sunlight.
The people were confounded. No tumult, no voice of war, yet the place
was filled with martial strains, and Roman troops lined the ways from
the city port, past the great Gymnasium, Forum, Theatre, away up the
streets towards the city gates and onwards to the Temple Way. All was
occupied with soldiers. A swift messenger had come into the Agora,
telling the breathless people the Roman troops reached past the Temple
and surrounded it, paying no respect to sacred groves or old traditions
of the Temple's rights.
'What could this mean?' exclaimed the Ephesians.
They had not long to wait for an answer. Soon it was known that a body
of priests, standing in the way of the Romans, guarding the precincts of
the holy shrine, had been struck down--dead. And the swarming hosts of
Nero had poured within, and finding the Temple closed, battered down the
beautiful gates of gold and ivory, and were carousing within the sacred
place.
Nothing was too vile for the plunderers. They had received their orders
from the arch-fiend Nero, and license for themselves. They were to sack
the Temple, and take the spoils to Rome. Such must be accomplished, no
matter how.
The great space within the parabolus walls running around the Temple of
Diana with the white brow was filled with laughing, jesting soldiers.
They had not an enemy to fight against. 'Twas a cold-blooded affair.
They were fighting-men, and in battle would have told well, but as
robbers they were ashamed of their work. Acratus foresaw this, and gave
them wine, and the wine brought forth lawlessness.
Virgin priestesses ran to and fro with hair dishevelled, crying on their
goddess, only to fall into the hands of Syrians, Africans, and
Gauls--vile allies, a part of Nero's guard, sent with the regular Roman
troops, to act as drunken jackals; and each of these, so far as he
could, took a virgin priestess for his mate, and no restriction was put
on them by Acratus.
The beautiful veil concealing the image of the holy goddess was pulled
down. The gold and the jewels adorning it and the great statue were torn
from their strong settings, and piled up on the marble floor.
On the sacred altar the soldiers lit their fires and cooked their
rations, and washed themselves with the water of the holy fountain
Hypelaeus--the fountain ornamented by Thrason, and the altar sacred to
the genius of Ionia. What cared those brutal marauders? Had not he who
sent them desecrated everything, even the statue of the Syrian goddess,
and laughed at it? What harm if they should do the same?
Within, the Temple was one horrible scene of lewd riot and plunder;
without, the people were rising in masses, and thousands from adjacent
towns were gathering around the city walls, and all crying loudly for
revenge; but none could enter. The Romans held the gates, and every
tower and battlement along the great red-brick walls, hard as adamant,
was crowded with glistening spears. Nothing could be done from without,
and there was little chance of help to come from within. A scheme was
proposed to burn the fleet, but this got noised abroad too early, and
the ships were moved from the wharves to the centre of the city port.
The day wore on in tumult and distress, and the people, seeing no chance
of saving the treasures of their holy place, gave way to grief, loudly
charging Saronia as the cause of all. The murder of the High Priest, her
blasphemy in the Temple, and the want of action in not killing her right
away, was the cause of the desertion of the goddess from her home.