| Smyrna
is an ancient city (today Izmir in Turkey) that was founded
at a very early period at a central and strategic point on
the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Aided by its advantageous port
conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections,
Smyrna rose to prominence before the Classical Era. Its importance
can be said to have remained practically uninterrupted to
this day. 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 Mount Pagos (Kadifekale today) at the time of Alexander
the Great, constitute 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).
The region was settled as of the beginning of the third millennium
BCE. It is said to have been a city of the autochthonous Leleges
before the Greek colonists started to settle in the coast
of Asia Minor as of the beginning of the first millennia BCE.
Throughout 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.
There are several explanations brought forth as regards its
name. 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.
It was one of the confederacy of Aeolian city-states, marking
the Aeolian frontier with the Ionian colonies.
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. Revised mythologies made it a colony
of Ephesus 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 seventh 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 epithet Melesigenes was applied to him; the cave where
he was wont to compose his poems was shown near the source
of the river; his temple, the Homereum, stood on its banks.
The steady equable flow of the Meles, alike in summer and
winter, and its short course, beginning and ending near the
city, are celebrated by Aristides and Himerius. The description
applies admirably to the stream which rises from abundant
springs east of the city and flows into the southeast extremity
of the gulf.
The archaic city ("Old Smyrna") contained a Temple of Athena
from the seventh century BCE. |
