On the night of July 21, 356 BCE, two important events took place in the Mediterranean Basin.
One created history, the other erased it.
He was Alexander the Great.
The other event was more prosaic: an arsonist set fire to a temple.
That temple, however, was no ordinary temple.
Dedicated to goddess Artemis, the temple was supposedly the first Greek temple to be built of marble.
The colossal structure was more than a hundred meters long and half as wide.
These columns were carved in elaborate relief.
He walked into the Temple of Artemis and set it on fire.
A model of the Temple of Artemis, at Miniaturk Park, Istanbul, Turkey.
Photo credit:Zee Prime/Wikimedia
The first-century Roman historianValerius Maximusmentions Herostratus again by name.
Here is appetite for glory involving sacrilege.
This madness he unveiled when put upon the rack.
Indeed, Herostratus name continues to appear in history books throughout the centuries.
After Herostratus sacrilegious act, the citizens constructed an even more magnificent temple in place of the one destroyed.
It took some time for the Ephesians to raise the funds.
Stones of the collapsed temple were carried off and used in construction of other buildings.
The ruins of the Temple of Artemis today.
Photo credit:OPIS Zagreb/Shutterstock.com
