On the night of July 21, 356 BC, two things happened that would echo through history. In Macedonia, Alexander the Great — the future conqueror of half the known world — was born. And on the coast of what is now western Turkey, in the Greek city of Ephesus, a young man named Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis. This wasn’t just any building. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: 127 marble columns, each eighteen meters tall. It was considered the most beautiful structure on Earth.
0%
Ghosts & Curses·6/7·1′
The place
Ephesus Ancient City
The Man Who Set Fire to Eternity
He burned a Wonder of the World just so you’d remember his name
Classical Greek Period (356 BC)Ephesus Ancient City
Moral of the Story
“The obsession with fame at any cost is one of humanity’s most dangerous impulses. And the cruelest irony: trying to erase someone from history is the surest way to make them immortal.”
Characters
H
HerostratusE
Ephesian magistratesT
Theopompus (historian)A
Alexander the Great (born same night)Source
Theopompus, Philippica; Strabo, Geography XIV; Valerius Maximus