Some three and a half centuries earlier the Magi had a different reaction when Alexander the Great was born. Plutarch relates that on the day Alexander was born, the temple of Diana at Ephesus was also burned. “All the magi who were then at Ephesus looked on the fire as a sign which betokened a much greater misfortune: they ran about the town, beating their faces, and crying, ' that the day had brought forth the great scourge and destroyer of Asia.'”