1. Location

At the NW corner of the stage building of the Theatre (no.75) of Ephesus, stands a marble fountain house (no.74). It is the culmination of the water transportation system at the convergence of the Marble Street (no.60) with the Arcadian Street (no. 83). The Fountain was constructed during the Hellenistic period.

2. Architectural Design

The fountain house is made of marble in the isodomic masonry system and has a rectangular shape. Originally it measured 3.82 in width x 1.45 m. in depth. When it was expanded during the Roman period, its dimensions changed (depth 3.65-3.90 m). Its height was 3.73 m.

It belongs to the category of fountain houses with a Pi-shaped ground plan, as three of its sides are closed by walls. The original Hellenistic structure was independent of nearby buildings.¹ Its lateral walls culminate in pilasters, and thus its façade, located in its west side, features two columns in antis. The columns of the façade support capitals in the Ionic order² and rest on bases in the Attic-Ionic order. The pilasters and columns of the façade support an entablature comprising a three-fascia epistyle³ and a dentilated cornice.⁴ The sima featured no drain pipes.

The gaps between the columns were closed by low marble parapets. Their existence is confirmed by the dowel holes on the side pilasters and the columns. These parapets framed the cistern which took up the entire interior of the building. As the floor was covered with rectangular limestone slabs the interior of the building remained dry. Water flowed from three spouts in the shape of lions’ heads. The lion-head spouts were placed on the rear wall, at mid-height, where the orthostatai were crowned by a concave-convex cyma. Today only the apertures of the three spouts remain. From the surviving remains it was understood that only the central lion’s head was directly supplied with water from the central pipe carrying water from the river Marna. The two flanking lions’ heads were indirectly supplied, as they were connected to the central one through another system of pipes.

The roof of the building was flat, made of tiles supported by a timber frame, while the roof in the building’s interior was decorated with marble coffers. Apart from the Ionic order column capitals, the other architectural members were not decorated. It is, however, possible that they bore painted decoration.⁵

In the second building phase, an antechamber was added to the fountain house. Thus the lateral walls and the roof of the building were expanded. The new façade also featured two columns in antis, with the difference that these columns had unfluted shafts. The monument’s ground plan was slightly altered, as it was readjusted around the road which crossed outside it, thus acquiring an almost trapezoid shape.⁶

3. Epigraphical evidence

One of the unfluted columns placed in the monument during the second building phase bears the inscription“ἐκ τοῡ Μάρναντος”, which informs us that the fountain was supplied with water from the river Marna (modern Dervend Dere).⁷Although this inscription informs us on the provenance of the water, from the river Marna, it does not elucidate the issue of the water supply pipe. We can not tell whether it was connected to the aqueduct known through inscriptions as “Καινός Μάρνας” (i.e. New Marna).⁸ It is also uncertain whether this is an allusion to the water pipe system funded by proconsul P. Calvisius Rusoin the late Flavian period, which supplied water not only from the Marna but also from the river Claseas.⁹ Perhaps the most plausible view is that the Fountain at the Theatre was supplied with water through an independent system of pipes, which was preserved into the Roman period.¹⁰

4. Dating

On the basis of the monument’s building method and stylistic elements of its architecture, W. Willberg has dated the fountain to the 2^nd century BC.¹¹W. Alzinger has suggested a later date, in the 1^st century BC, relying on details of the monument’s architectural decoration, without, however, advancing particularly convincing arguments.¹² Most likely the fountain was erected rather earlier, perhaps in the 3^rd century BC, which is also the construction date of the Hellenistic conduit supplying water from the river Marna.¹³ The fountain’s second building phase, during which the structure was expanded, dates to the Roman Period, more specifically not before the 2^nd century AD. This is clear from the study of the style of the inscription’s letters.¹⁴

5. Current State and History of Research

The fountain house was unearthed in 1897during excavations carried out in the theatre of Ephesus.The overall architectural form of the monument has been published in the third volume of the Austrian Institute’s excavational reports from Ephesus.¹⁵ The drawing of the monument by G. Niemann,included in the edition, is rather well-grounded, given that a large percentage of the building’s architectural members survive.Alzinger mentions this fountain house in brief in his work on the architecture of the Augustan era at Ephesus,¹⁶ while a more detailed description of the structure can be found in the collective study of Fountain houses in the cities of Asia Minor byCl. Dorl-Klingenschmid.¹⁷Today the monument survives in an excellent state of preservation.