38°25N 27°10E, pop (2000e) 2 115 000. Seaport capital of Izmir province, W Turkey, on an inlet of the Aegean Sea; third largest city in Turkey; severely damaged by earthquakes, 1928, 1939; airfield; railway; two universities (1955, 1982); brewing, electronics, packaging, foodstuffs, steel, engines, cement, plastics, paper; largest poultry and egg farm in the Middle East; Kadifekale fortress (4th-c BC), Roman remains; annual international fair (AugSep).
Smyrna (Greek: Σμύρνη) is an ancient city (today İzmir in Turkey) that was founded in a very early stage at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia and, aided by its advantageous port conditions that has been relatively easy to defend and its good inland connections, rose to prominence as of the Classical Era. Its initial location at the northeastern corner of the tip of the Gulf of Smyrna is commonly called "Old Smyrna", and the city after the move to a new location on the slopes of the Mount Pagos (Kadifekale today) at the time of Alexander the Great, constitutes Smyrna proper. The heart of that new city, principally dating from the late Hellenistic and early Roman period, before a great earthquake in 178, forms the large area of Izmir Agora Open Air Museum today (see below). Throughout the period of antiquity Smyrna was a leading city-state of Ionia, with influence over the Aegean shores and islands. Smyrna was also among the cities that claimed Homer as a resident. One of these involve a Greek myth derived from an eponymous Amazon named Smyrna, which was also the name of a quarter of Ephesus, and can also be recognized under the form Myrina, a city of Aeolis. The early Aeolian Greek settlers of Lesbos and Cyme, expanding eastwards, occupied the valley of Smyrna.
Strangers or refugees from the Ionian city of Colophon settled in the city and finally (traditionally in 688 BCE) by an uprising Smyrna passed into their hands and became the thirteenth of the Ionian city-states. Hist. v.31) In 688 BCE the Ionian boxer Onomastus of Smyrna won the prize at Olympia, but the coup was probably then a recent event. The Colophonian conquest is mentioned by Mimnermus (before 600 BCE), who counts himself equally of Colophon and of Smyrna. The Aeolic form of the name was retained even in the Attic dialect, and the epithet "Aeolian Smyrna" remained current long after the conquest.
Smyrna's position at the mouth of the small river Hernus at the head of a deep arm of the sea (Smyrnaeus Sinus) that reached far inland and admitted Greek trading ships into the heart of Lydia, placed it on an essential trade route between Anatolia and the Aegean and raised Smyrna during the 7th century BCE to power and splendor. One of the great trade routes which cross Anatolia descends the Hermus valley past Sardis, and then diverging from the valley passes south of Mount Sipylus and crosses a low pass into the little valley where Smyrna lies between the mountains and the sea. Miletus, and later Ephesus, situated at the sea end of the other great trade route across Anatolia, competed for a time successfully with Smyrna, but after both cities' harbors silted up, Smyrna remained without a rival.
The river Meles, which flowed by Smyrna, is famous in literature and was worshipped in the valley. A common and consistent tradition connects Homer with the valley of Smyrna and the banks of the Meles; his figure was one of the stock types on coins of Smyrna, one class of which numismatists call "Homerian";
The archaic city ("Old Smyrna") contained a Temple of Athena from the 7th century BCE.
Lydian Smyrna
When the Mermnad kings raised the Lydian power and aggressiveness, Smyrna was one of the first points of attack. 687–652) was, however, defeated on the banks of the Hermus, the situation of the battlefield showing that the power of Smyrna extended far to the east. A strong fortress, the ruins of whose ancient and massive walls are still imposing, on a hill in the pass between Smyrna and Nymphi, was probably built by the Smyrnaean Ionians to command the valley of Nymphi. According to Theognis (about 500 BCE), pride destroyed Smyrna. Finally, Alyattes III (609–560 BCE) conquered the city and sacked it, and though Smyrna did not cease to exist, the Greek life and political unity were destroyed, and the polis was reorganized on the village system. Smyrna is mentioned in a fragment of Pindar and in an.
Hellenistic Smyrna
Alexander the Great conceived the idea of restoring the Greek city, in a scheme that was, according to Strabo, actually carried out under Antigonus (316–301 BCE) and Lysimachus, who enlarged and fortified the city (301–281 BCE). The ruined acropolis of the ancient city, the "crown of Smyrna," had been on a steep peak about 1250 ft. The later, Hellenistic city was founded on the modern site of Izmir, partly on the slopes of a rounded hill the Greeks called Pagus near the southeast end of the gulf, and partly on the low ground between the hill and the sea.
Smyrna is shut in on the west by a hill now called Deirmen Tepe, with the ruins of a temple on the summit. Smyrna possessed two harbours, the outer, which was simply the open roadstead of the gulf, and the inner, which was a small basin, with a narrow entrance partially filled up by Tamerlane in 1402. many were named after temples: the main street, called the Golden, ran across the city from west to east, beginning probably from the temple of Zeus Akraios on the west slope of Pagus, and running round the lower slopes of Pagus (like a necklace on the statue, to use the favorite terms of Aristides the orator) towards Tepejik outside the city on the east, where probably stood the temple of Cybele, worshipped under the name of Meter Sipylene, (from Mt. Sipylus, which bounds the Smyrna valley), the patroness of the city.
At the end of the Hellenistic period, in 197 BC, the city suddenly cut her ties with King Eumenes of Pergamum and instead appealed to Rome for help. Because Rome and Smyrna had no ties until then, a cult of city was created to establish a bond and the cult eventually became widespread through the whole Roman Empire.
Roman and Byzantine Smyrna
In the Roman period Smyrna vied with Ephesus and Pergamum for the title First City of Asia. One of the seven churches John of Patmos was instructed to write to in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 2:8-11) was the church at Smyrna: "behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried." Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was martyred AD 153. The bishops of Smyrna were originally subject to the metropolitan of Ephesus;
When Constantinople became the seat of government the trade between Anatolia and the west lost in importance, and Smyrna declined. The Seljuk commander Çaka Bey seized Smyrna in 1084 and used it as a base for naval raids, but the city was recovered by the generals of Alexios I Komnenos. The Mongol conquest was only temporary, but Smyrna was resumed by the Turks under Aydın dynasty after which it became Ottoman, when the Ottomans took over the lands of Aydın, and remained Turkish to this day.
Smyrna Agora
The ruins of agora of Smyrna constitute today the space of Izmir Agora Museum in Izmir's Namazgah quarter, although its area is commonly referred to as "Agora" by the city's inhabitants.
The Agora of Smyrna was built in the Roman period (2nd century AD) according to an urban plan drawn by Hippodamos. The Agora of Smyrna is the largest and the best preserved among Ionian agoras. Inscriptions found here also provide information about the people who provided aid to Smyrna after the earthquake of 178 AD.
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