DINOCRATES

, a celebrated ancient architect of Macedonia, of whom several extraordinary things are related. He was taken, by Alexander the Great, into Egypt, where he employed him in marking out and building the city of Alexandria. He formed a design, in which Mount Athos was to be laid out into the form of a man, in whose left hand were designed the walls of a great city, and all the rivers of the mount flowing into his right, and from thence into the sea. Another memorable instance of Dinocrates's architectonic skill, is his restoring and building, in a more august and magnificent manner than before, the celebrated temple of Diana at Ephesus, after Herostratus, for the sake of immortalizing his name, had destroyed it by fire. A third instance, more extraordinary and wonderful than either of the former, is related by Pliny in his Natural History; who says he had formed a scheme, by building the dome of the temple of Arsinoë at Alexandria of loadstone, to make her image all of iron to hang in the middle of it, as if it were in the air; but the king's death, and his own, prevented the execution or attempt of this project.