Smyrna

(İzmir)

A Greek city in Ionia (western Asia Minor) at the head of the gulf that bears its name, into which flowed the river Hermus (Gediz). The original city, Old Smyrna, stood on a hilly peninsula (Haci Mutso) on the northeastern coast of the gulf (east of Bayraklı, two-and-a-half miles north of modern İzmir). This settlement existed since Neolithic times but its founders, according to legend, included Amazons, Leleges and Tantalus of Phrygia.

In 1050/950 BC (as pottery finds indicate), the site was occupied by Aeolian Greeks (mainly from Lesbos) and then by Ionians (from Colophon [Deǧirmendere]), and excavation has shown the presence of a stout fortification wall skillfully built c 850, and repaired and thickened a century later. Before 700 Old Smyrna seems to have contained four or five hundred houses, and a population of about two thousand Greeks (other than slaves), with perhaps another thousand living in an extramural suburb. According to a local tradition perpetuated by later coinage but disputed by Chios and other cities, Homer had been a native of Smyrna; and it was the birthplace of the elegiac poet and musician Mimnermus. During the seventh century the city was remodelled, with parallel streets flanked by regularly constructed, spacious houses and containing a large temple of Athena; the uncovering of this building, and of the previous settlement has provided us with a unique picture of an early Greek city, indicating that a rectangular gridiron street plan was already in use at an early date. Rare electrum (pale gold) coinages of this period (depicting the open-jawed head of a lion—the emblem of the mother-goddess Cybele) are attributed to Smyrna. The town provided an export outlet for the agricultural products of the interior. In 600/575, however, it was captured by King Alyattes of Lydia, by means of a siege-mound that enabled him to overrun its massive defences. This disaster resulted in very severe damage, which was repeated c 545 by the Persians when they destroyed the temple of Athena.

After a prolonged period in which, according to Strabo, the inhabitants had retreated to villages—though inscriptions and housing quarters dating from the early fourth century show that the destruction at the hands of the Lydians and Persians had not been total, or, if so, had been partially repaired—Smyrna was rebuilt on its present site around and on Mount Pagos (Kadife Kale), five miles along the bay to the south, beside the river Meles (Kemer Çayı). This refoundation was attributed to Alexander the Great, and it was probably he who drew up the plan; but it was carried out by his successors Antigonus I Monophthalmos (d. 301) and Lysimachus (d. 281). Protected by an acropolis on the hilltop and by walls running down to a crescent-shaped harbor, this new Smyrna became one of the greatest centers of Asia Minor. After periods of Seleucid and Pergamene overlordship, during which spasmodic resumptions of coinage in the course of the fourth and third centuries were followed by substantial issues in the second, the city subsequently possessed `free’ status within the Roman province of Asia (133), and sided with Rome against Mithridates VI of Pontus. In 43, however, it was the scene of the treacherous murder of Gaius Trebonius—Julius Caesar's assassin, who had become governor of Asia—at the hands of Publius Cornelius Dolabella.

During the Principate Smyrna prospered greatly from the production and export of wine, clothing, perfumes and prawns. In AD 26 Tiberius allowed its citizens to build a temple in his honor, and they benefited from the munificence of Hadrian (117–38, whose beloved Antinous was commemorated on local medallions), Marcus Aurelius (following an earthquake in 178), and Caracalla (211–17). Local coinage celebrates `alliances’ with many other cities of the region, boasts of holding the `First Games of Asia,’ displays a varied array of deities, and depicts a temple of Tiberius and Hadrian and Rome, as well as shrines of Tyche (Fortune) and the two Nemeses (symbolized by griffins). It was these Nemeses, according to a legend, who had appeared to Alexander the Great in a dream and directed him to build the city on Mount Pagos, on which he is shown, by coins of several imperial epochs, sleeping beneath a palm tree on the occasion when this message was delivered.

Smyrna was centered, however, on flat ground beside the harbor, where a temple of Cybele and a gymnasium were situated. Strabo also mentions a Homereion, and records that the two principal streets, the Sacred Way and the Golden Road, ran from east to west, so that the wind coming from the sea cooled the town. Traces of these streets, with a roofed-over sidewalk, have been unearthed. But the most impressive monument of New Smyrna is provided by the remains of its huge rectangular agora, which has likewise now been partially excavated. It was flanked on three sides by colonnades and on the fourth by an aisled, two-storeyed basilica, terminating in a tribunal and possessing an unusual vaulted basement. A theater and a stadium have also been identified. Christianity had come early to Smyrna, and it was one of the `Seven Churches of Asia’ in the Book of Revelation.