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Greek city of
Smyrna under the name
Eurydikeia in
Ionia
Bronze 17mm (3.97 grams) Struck 288-280 B.C.
Reference: Sear 4560; B.M.C. 14.56,75-6; SNG von Aulock 2159
Certification:
NGC Ancients F 4285281-043
Veiled head of Eurydike right.
Tripod, surmounted by laurel-wreath; EYPYΔIKEΩN to left.
Lysimachso
renamed Smyrna in honor of his daughter, Eurydike. The city reverted to its
original name after Lysimahcos’ death.
An important city at the head of the gulf of Smyna, it was
refounded by Antigonos late in the 4th century B.C., nearly three centuries
after the destruction of the original settlement by Alyattes of Lydia. It rose
to be one of the great cultural centers of the East in Roman times. Smyrna
claimed to be the birthplace of Homer.
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Eurydice (Greek: Εὐρυδίκη, born c. 312 BC or
earlier-after 287 BC) was a Greek Princess who
was of Macedonian and Thessalian descent.
She was the first daughter and second child born to the diadochus who was
King of Thrace , Asia Minor and Macedonia , Lysimachus from his first wife the
Queen consort , Nicaea of Macedon . Eurydice had one older brother called
Agathocles and a younger sister called Arsinoe . Her paternal grandfather was
Agathocles of Pella [6] a nobleman who was a contemporary to King
Philip II of Macedon who reigned 359 BC-336 BC, while her maternal grandfather
was the powerful Regent Antipater .
Eurydice was named in honor of her maternal aunt Eurydice of Egypt , another
daughter of Antipater, who was one of the wives of the Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy I
Soter . The name Eurydice, is a dynastic name of the Argead dynasty
(see Eurydice -Historical women). The name also reveals her relations to the
Argead dynasty as her maternal grandfather and her maternal great-uncle
Cassander were distant collateral relatives to the Argead dynasty.
At an unknown date, Lysimachus renamed the city Smyrna to Eurydiceia
in honor of Eurydice, an innovation that did not last long. Lysimachus issued
coinage depicting Eurydice on the obverse as a veiled woman, although Eurydice
never owned nor had any control of the city. Little is known on her life prior
to marrying.
Lysimachus gave Eurydice to marry her maternal cousin Antipater , the son of
the rulers of Macedonia, Cassander and Thessalonike . Eurydice’s marriage to
Antipater, thereby extended into the next generation the historical link between
Thrace and Macedonia. In her life, Eurydice was a participant in the never
ending conflict over control over Macedonia in the generations after the death
of Alexander the Great .
Antipater was co-King of Macedonia from 297 BC-294 BC and through marriage,
she became a Queen consort . On the death of her maternal uncle, Thessalonike
divided the kingdom into two: one part to be ruled by Antipater’s oldest brother
Alexander V and his wife Lysandra and the other part to be ruled by Antipater
and Eurydice. Alexander V wanted the whole kingdom to rule for himself and had
his mother killed.
Alexander V appealed to Demetrius I Poliorcetes for help. When Demetrius I
arrived with his troops he had Alexander V murdered and drove out Antipater and
Eurydice out of Macedonia. Demetrius I then made himself master of Macedonia.
Eurydice and Antipater returned to her father and his wife Arsinoe II .
Lysimachus made peace with Demetrius I, which resulted in Antipater quarrelling
with Lysimachus about his Macedonian inheritance and Lysimachus had put
Antipater to death. Eurydice siding with her cousin-husband was put into prison
by her father and probably died there.
Smyrna (Ancient Greek: Σμύρνη or Σμύρνα) was an ancient city
located 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. The ancient city is located at two sites
within modern Izmir , Turkey . While the first site, likely to have started as a
native foundation, rose to prominence during the Archaic Period as one of the
principal ancient Greek settlements in western Anatolia , the second, whose
foundation is associated with Alexander the Great , reached metropolitan
proportions especially during the period of the Roman Empire , from which time
and particularly from after a 2nd century AD earthquake, most of the present-day
remains date.
In practical terms, a distinction is often made between Old Smyrna,
the initial settlement founded around the 11th century BC, first as an Aeolian
settlement, and later taken over and developed during the Archaic Period by the
Ionians , and Smyrna proper, the new city moved into from the
older one as of the 4th century BC and whose foundation was inspired, and
perhaps also initiated, by Alexander the Great . Old Smyrna was located on a
small peninsula connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus at the
northeastern corner of the inner Gulf of İzmir , at the edge of a fertile plain
and at the foot of Mount Yamanlar which had seen the earlier Anatolian
settlement commanding the gulf. New Smyrna developed simultaneously on
the slopes of the Mount Pagos (Kadifekale today) and alongside the coastal
strait immediately below where a small bay existed until the 18th century. The
core of the late Hellenistic and early Roman Smyrna forms today the large area
of İzmir Agora Open Air Museum at this site. Research is being
pursued at the sites of both the old and the new cities in a continuous manner
and in a regionalized structure, since 1997 for Old Smyrna and since 2002 for
the Classical Period city, in collaboration between İzmir Archaeology Museum and
the Metropolitan Municipality of İzmir.
//
Etymology
For full explanations on etymology of the city’s name, see İzmir
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 . Smyrna is an ancient Greek word for myrrh .
Third millennium to 687 BC
The region was settled at least as of the beginning of the third millennium
BC , or perhaps earlier as the recent finds in Yeşilova Höyük suggests. It could
have been a city of the autochthonous Leleges before the Greek colonists started
to settle along the coast of Asia Minor as of the beginning of the first
millennium BC. 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.
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 BC) 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 BC 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 BC), 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 Hermus 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 BC 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 were situated at the sea end of the other great trade route across
Anatolia and competed for a time successfully with Smyrna; but after both
cities’ harbors silted up, Smyrna remained without a rival.
The Meles River, which flowed by Smyrna, is famous in literature and was
worshiped 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 BC.
Lydian period
Map of Smyrna and Other Cities within the Lydian Empire
When the Mermnad kings raised the Lydian power and aggressiveness, Smyrna was
one of the first points of attack. Gyges (ca. 687—652 BC) 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 was built probably
by the Smyrnaean Ionians to command the valley of Nymphi, the ruins of which are
still imposing, on a hill in the pass between Smyrna and Nymphi. According to
Theognis (circa 500 BC), it was pride that destroyed Smyrna. Mimnermus laments
the degeneracy of the citizens of his day, who could no longer stem the Lydian
advance. Finally, Alyattes II (609—560 BC) 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 inscription of 388 BC, but
its greatness was past.
Hellenistic period
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 BC) and Lysimachus (301 BC—281 BC), who enlarged and fortified the
city. The ruined acropolis of the ancient city, the “crown of Smyrna,” had been
on a steep peak about 1250 feet high, which overhangs the northeast extremity of
the gulf. Modern Izmir was constructed atop the later Hellenistic city, partly
on the slopes of a rounded hill the Greeks called Pagos near the
southeast end of the gulf, and partly on the low ground between the hill and the
sea. The beauty of the Hellenistic city, clustering on the low ground and rising
tier over tier on the hillside, was frequently praised by the ancients and is
celebrated on its coins.
Smyrna is shut in on the west by a hill now called Deirmen Tepe, with the
ruins of a temple on the summit. The walls of Lysimachus crossed the summit of
this hill, and the acropolis occupied the top of Pagus. Between the two the road
from Ephesus entered the city by the Ephesian gate, near which was a gymnasium.
Closer to the acropolis the outline of the stadium is still visible, and the
theatre was situated on the north slopes of Pagus. Smyrna possessed two
harbours. The outer harbour was simply the open roadstead of the gulf, and the
inner was a small basin with a narrow entrance partially filled up by Tamerlane
in 1402 AD .
The streets were broad, well paved and laid out at right angles; 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 Tepecik outside the city on the east, where probably stood the temple of
Cybele , worshipped under the name of Meter Sipylene, the patroness of the city.
(name deriving from the nearby Mount Sipylus, which bounds the valley of the
city’s backlands). The plain towards the sea was too low to be properly drained,
and hence in rainy weather the streets of the lower town were deep with mud and
water.
At the end of the Hellenistic period, in 197 BC, the city suddenly cut its
ties with King Eumenes of Pergamum and instead appealed to Rome for help.
Because Rome and Smyrna had had no ties until then, Smyrna created a cult of
Rome to establish a bond, and the cult eventually became widespread through the
whole Roman Empire. As of 195 BC, the city of Rome started to be deified, in the
cult to the goddess Roma . In this sense, the Smyrneans can be considered as the
creators of the goddess Roma.
In 133 BC, when the last Attalid king Eumenes III died without an heir, his
will conferred his entire kingdom, including Smyrna, to the Romans. They
organized it into the Roman province of Asia , making Pergamum the capital.
Smyrna, however, as a major seaport, became a leading city in the newly
constituted province.
Roman and Byzantine period
As one of the principal cities of Roman Asia, Smyrna vied with Ephesus and
Pergamum for the title “First City of Asia.”
A Christian church existed here from a very early time, probably originating
in the considerable Jewish colony. It was one of the seven churches addressed in
the Book of Revelation . Saint Ignatius of Antioch visited Smyrna and later
wrote letters to its bishop, Polycarp . A mob of Jews and pagans abetted the
martyrdom of Polycarp in AD 153.[6] Saint Irenaeus , who heard
Polycarp as a boy, was probably a native of Smyrna. Another famous resident of
the same period was Aelius Aristides .
Polycrates reports a succession of bishops including Polycarp of Smryna, as
well as others in nearby cities such as Melito of Sardis. Related to that time
the German historian W. Bauer wrote:
Asian Jewish Christianity received in turn the knowledge that henceforth the
“church” would be open without hesitation to the Jewish influence mediated by
Christians, coming not only from the apocalyptic traditions, but also from the
synagogue with its practices concerning worship, which led to the appropriation
of the Jewish passover observance. Even the observance of the sabbath by
Christians appears to have found some favor in Asia…we find that in
postapolstolic times, in the period of the formation of ecclesiastical
structure, the Jewish Christians in these regions come into prominence.
In the late second century, Irenaeus also noted:
Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many
who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the
Church in Smyrna…always taught the things which he had learned from the
apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To
these things all the Asiatic Churches testify, as do also those men who have
succeeded Polycarp.
Tertullian wrote circa 208 A.D.
Anyhow the heresies are at best novelties, and have no continuity with the
teaching of Christ. Perhaps some heretics may claim Apostolic antiquity: we
reply: Let them publish the origins of their churches and unroll the catalogue
of their bishops till now from the Apostles or from some bishop appointed by the
Apostles, as the Smyrnaeans count from Polycarp and John, and the Romans from
Clement and Peter; let heretics invent something to match this.
Hence, apparently the church in Smyrna was one of only two that Tertullian
felt could have had some type of apostolic succession. During the mid-third
century, however, changes occurred in Asia Minor, and most there became
affiliated with the Greco-Roman churches.
When Constantinople became the seat of government, the trade between Anatolia
and the West diminished 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 city was several
times ravaged by the Turks , and had become quite ruinous when the emperor John
Ducas Vatatzes about 1222 rebuilt it.
Ottoman period
Main article: Izmir
Ibn Batuta found it still in great part a ruin when the homonymous chieftain
of the Beylik of Aydın had conquered it about 1330 and made his son Umur
governor. It became the port of the emirate. Soon afterwards the Knights of
Saint John established themselves in the town but failed to conquer the citadel.
In 1402 Tamerlane stormed the town and massacred almost all the inhabitants. The
Mongol conquest was only temporary, but Smyrna was recovered by the Turks under
the Aydın dynasty after which it became Ottoman , when the Ottomans took over
the lands of Aydın.
Greek influence was so strong in the area that the Turks called it “Smyrna of
the infidels” (Gavur Izmir). While Turkish sources track the emergence of the
term to the 14th century when two separate parts of the city were controlled by
two different powers, the upper İzmir being Muslim and the lower part of the
city Christian.[ neededcitation][
neededclarification]
The Ottomans continued to control the area, with the exception of the
1919-1922 period , when the city was assigned to Greece by the Treaty of Sevres
. The Great Fire of Smyrna destroyed much of the city just after the conflict.
Agora
The remains of the agora of Smyrna constitute today the space of İzmir
Agora Museum in İzmir’s Namazgah quarter, although its area is commonly
referred to as “Agora” by the city’s inhabitants.
Situated on the northern slopes of the Pagos hills, it was the commercial,
judicial and political nucleus of the ancient city, its center for artistic
activities and for teaching.
İzmir Agora Open Air Museum consists of five parts, including the
agora area, the base of the northern basilica gate, the stoa and the ancient
shopping centre.
The agora of Smyrna was built during the Hellenistic era. After a destructive
earthquake in 178 AD, Smyrna was rebuilt in the Roman period (second century AD)
under the emperor Marcus Aurelius , according to an urban plan drawn by
Hippodamos . The bust of the emperor’s wife Faustina on the second arch of the
western stoa confirms this fact. It was constructed on a sloping terrain in
three floors, close to the city center. The terrain is 165 m wide and 200 m
long. It is bordered on all sides by porticos . Because a Byzantine and later an
Ottoman cemetery were located over the ruins of the agora, it was preserved from
modern constructions. This agora is now the largest and the best preserved among
Ionian agoras. The agora is now surrounded by modern buildings that still cover
its eastern and southern parts. The agora was used until the Byzantine period.
On entering the courtyard, too the left is the western stoa, in the back the
basilica and on the right side the Ottoman cemetery. The courtyard was
surrounded by porticoes on three sides. The basilica and the western portico
were built over an infrastructure of basements with round arches to protect them
against future earthquakes. The eastern end and the southern porticoes consisted
of a two-floor compounded structure. Beneath the basilica was a covered market
place. The design of the basement has a strong resemblance with the
crypto-porticus constructions of the western provinces. The monumental entrance
at the eastern side was one of the most magnificent and arched structures of the
Hellenistic era.
A two-storied stoa, 17.5 m wide, was constructed at the eastern and western
side of the agora. Each stoa was divided in three galleries by two rows of
columns. Each stoa had an upper story. The stoas were protected from sun and
rain by a roof. These impressive structures measured 75 m by 18 m. The southern
part of the western stoa has many water channels and large water reservoirs,
pointing to the presence of water in the agora.
Excavations
Engraving with a view of the site of Smyrna Agora a few years after the
first explorations (1843)
Although Smyrna was explored by Charles Texier in the 19th century and the
German consul in İzmir had purchased the land around the ancient theater in 1917
to start excavations, the first scientific digs can be said to have started in
1927. Most of the discoveries were made by archaeological exploration carried as
an extension during the period between 1931-1942 by the German archaeologist
Rudolf Naumann and Selâhattin Kantar , the director of İzmir and Ephesus
museums. They uncovered a three-floor, rectangular compound with stairs in the
front, built on columns and arches around a large courtyard in the middle of the
building.
New excavations in the agora began in 1996 and are being continued regularly
since 2002 under the sponsorship of the Metropolitan Municipality of İzmir. A
primary school that was adjacent to agora and that fell victim to a fire in 1980
not having been reconstructed, its space could be incorporated into the
historical site. This meant that not only could the area of agora be increased
to 16,590 square metres but also new digs could be launched in a previously
unexplored zone. The archaeologists and the local authorities, means permitting,
are also keenly eyeing a neighbouring multi-storey car park, which is known to
cover an important part of the ancient settlement. During the present
renovations the old restorations in concrete are gradually being replaced by
marble.
The most important result of the new studies has been the discovery of the
agora’s northern gate. It has been concluded that embossed figures of the
goddess Hestia found in these digs were a continuation of the Zeus altar
uncovered during the first digs. Statues of the gods Hermes , Dionysos , Eros
and Heracles have also been found, as well as many statues, heads, embossments,
figurines and monuments of people and animals, made of marble, stone, bone,
glass, metal and terracotta. Inscriptions found here list the people who
provided aid to Smyrna after the earthquake of 178 AD.
Several American cities have been named after Smyrna, including Smyrna,
Georgia ; Smyrna, Tennessee ; Smyrna, Delaware and New Smyrna Beach, Florida .
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