Smyrna

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myr
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


SMYRNA (also and more strictly Zmyrna) was founded as a colony from Greece earlier than b.c. 1000, but the early foundation, which had been Æolian, was captured by its southern neighbours the Ionian Greeks and made an Ionian colony. This second foundation became a powerful State, possessing territory far to the E., and as late as the 7th cent. b.c. fought on equal terms against the great Lydian power (see Sardis). It gradually gave way, however, and was captured and destroyed about b.c. 600 by Alyattes, king of Lydia. It now ceased to be a Greek city, and it was not till the 3rd cent. b.c. that it became so again. There was a State called Smyrna between 600 and 290, but it was mainly a loose congeries of villages scattered about the plain and the surrounding hills, and not in the Greek sense a polis (city-State). Alexander the Great intended to re-found the city, but did not carry out his plan. It was left for one of his successors, Lysimachus, who accomplished it in b.c. 290. The old city had been on a steep high hill on the N. side of the extreme eastern recess of the gulf; the new was planted on the S.E. shore of the gulf, about 2 miles away. The object of the change was to obtain a good harbour and a suitable point for the starting of a land trade-route to the E. There were in reality two ports—a small inner one with a narrow entrance, and a mooring ground; the former has gradually filled up through neglect. Its maritime connexion brought it into contact with the Romans, who made an alliance with Smyrna against the Seleucid power. In b.c. 195 Smyrna built a temple to Rome, and ever afterwards remained faithful to that State through good fortune and bad. Rome showed a thorough appreciation of this friendship and loyalty, and in a.d. 26 this city was preferred before all others in Asia as the seat of the new temple to be dedicated by the confederacy of that province to Tiberius.
The city was of remarkable beauty. Its claim to be the chief city of Asia was contested by Ephesus and Pergamum, but in beauty it was easily first. In addition to its picturesque situation it was commended by its handsome and excellently paved streets, which were fringed by the groves in the suburbs. The city was well wailed, and in the pagos above possessed an ideal acropolis, which, with its splendid buildings in orderly arrangement, was known as the crown or garland of Smyrna. The protecting divinity of the city was a local variety of Cybele, known as the Sipylene Mother, and the towers and battlements of her head-dress bore an obvious resemblance to the appearance of the city. (The Greeks identified her with Nemesis, who here alone in the Greek world was worshipped, and not as one but as a pair of goddesses.) There was one street known as the Street of Gold. It went from W. to E., curving round the sloping hill, and had a temple on a hill at each end. For its length and fine buildings it was compared to a necklace of jewels round the neck of a statue. The life of the city was and is much benefited in the hottest period of the day by a west wind which blows on it with great regularity, dying down at sunset. This was counterbalanced by a disadvantage, the difficulty of draining the lowest parts of the city, a difficulty accentuated by this very wind. Smyrna boasted that it was the birthplace of Homer, who had been born and brought up beside the river Meles. This stream is identified by local patriotism with the Caravan Bridge River, which flows northwards till it comes below the pagos, then flows round its eastern base and enters the sea to the N.E. of it. But this is a mistaken view. The Meles is undoubtedly to be identified with the stream coming from the Baths of Diana and called Chalka-bounar, as it alone satisfies the minute description of the Smyrnæan orator Aristides (flourished 2nd cent. a.d.) and other ancient writers. It rises in the very suburbs of the city, and is fed by a large number of springs, which rise close to one another. Its course is shaped-shaped at first, and afterwards it flows gently to the sea like a canal. Its temperature is equable all the year round, and it never either overflows or dries up. The city has suffered from frequent earthquakes (for instance, in a.d. 180), but has always risen superior to its misfortunes. It did not become a Turkish city till Tamerlane captured it in a.d. 1402. Even now the Christian element is three times as large as the Mohammedan, and the Turks call the city Infidel Smyrna. It has always been an important place ecclesiastically.
The letter to the Church at Smyrna (Rev_2:8-11) is the most favourable of all. The writer puts its members on a higher plane than any of the others. They have endured persecution and poverty, but they are rich in real wealth. They are the victims of calumny, but are not to be afraid. Some are even to be sent to prison as a prelude to execution, and to have suffering for a time. If they are faithful they shall receive real life. The church was dead and yet lived, like the city in former days. The Jews in Smyrna had been specially hostile to the Christians, and had informed against them before the Roman officials. Most of them were probably citizens of Smyrna, but became merged in the general population and were not confined to a certain tribe, since the Romans ceased to recognize the Jews as a nation after a.d. 70. The hatred of the Jews there can be explained only by the supposition that many of the Christians were converted Jews. Similarly they helped in the martyrdom of Polycarp (a.d. 155). The city and its Christianity have survived all attacks.
A. Souter.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


A city on the coast of Ionia, at the head of the gulf, having a well sheltered harbour; N. of Ephesus; beautified by Alexander the Great and Antigonus, and designated "the beautiful." Still flourishing, and under the same name, after various vicissitudes, and called "the Paris of the Levant," with large commerce and a population of 200,000. The church here was one of the seven addressed by the Lord (Rev_2:8-11). Polycarp, martyred in A.D. 168, 86 years after conversion, was its bishop, probably "the angel of the church in Smyrna." The Lord's allusions to persecutions accord with this identification. The attributes of Him "which was dead and is alive" would comfort Smyrna under persecution. The idol Dionysus at Smyrna was believed to have been killed and come to life; in contrast to this lying fable is Christ's title, "the First and the Last, which was dead and is alive" (Rev_2:8).
As death was to Him the gate of life, so it is to His people. Good "works," "tribulation," "poverty" owing to "spoiling of goods," while she was "rich" in grace (contrast Laodicea, "rich" in her own eyes and the world's, poor before God), were her marks. The Jews in name, really "the synagogue of Satan," blasphemed Christ as "the Hanged One." At Polycarp's martyrdom they clamoured with the pagan for his being cast to the lions; the proconsul opposed it, but, impotent to restrain the fanaticism of the mob, let them He him to the stake; the Jews with their own hands carried logs for the pile which burned him. The theater where he was burned was on a hill facing the N. It was one of the largest in Asia. Traces of it may be seen in descending from the northern gateway of the castle. A circular letter from the church of Smyrna describes his martyrdom.
When urged to recant he said, "four-score years and six I have served the Lord, and He never wronged me; how then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?" The accuser, the devil, cast some of the Smyrna church into prison, and "it had tribulation ten days," a short term (Gen_24:55; Num_11:19), whereas the consequent joy is eternal (many Christians perished by wild beasts or at the stake because they refused to throw incense into the fire to sacrifice to the genius of the emperor): a sweet consolation in trial. Ten is the number of the world powers hostile to the church (Rev_13:1). Christ promises Smyrna "a crown of life" (compare Jas_1:12; 2Ti_4:8 "of righteousness," 1Pe_5:4 "of glory") in reward for "faithfulness unto death."
The allusion is to the "crown-wearing" (stefanofori), leading priests at Smyrna It was usual to present the superintending priest with a crown at the end of his year of office; several persons of both sexes are called "crown bearers" in inscriptions. The ferocity of the populace against the aged Polycarp is accounted for by their zealous interest in the Olympian games celebrated here, in respect to which Christianity bore an antisocial aspect. Smyrna ("myrrh") yielded its perfume in being bruised to death. Smyrna's faithfulness is rewarded by its candlestick not having been wholly removed; from whence the Turks call it "infidel Smyrna." Persecuted Smyrna and Philadelphia are the only churches which the Lord does not reprove. (See PHILADELPHIA.)
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Smyr'na. (myrrh). A city of Asia Minor, situated on the Aegean Sea, 40 miles north of Ephesus. Allusion is made to it in Rev_2:8-11. It was founded by Alexander the Great, and was situated twenty shadesm (2 1/2 miles)m from the city of the same name, which, after a long series of wars with the Lydians, had been finally taken and sacked by Halyattes. The ancient city was built by some piratical Greeks 1500 years before Christ. It seems not impossible that the message to the church in Smyrna contains allusions to the ritual of the pagan mysteries which prevailed in that city.
In the time of Strabo, the ruins of the old Smyrna still existed, and were partially inhabited, but the new city was one of the most beautiful in all Asia. The streets were laid out as near as might be at right angles. There was a large public library there, and also a handsome building surrounded with porticos, which served as a museum. It was consecrated as a heroum to Homer, whom the Smyrnaeans claimed as a countryman. Olympian games were celebrated here, and excited great interest. (Smyrna is still a large city of 180,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, of which a larger proportion are Franks than in any other town in Turkey; 20,000 are Greeks, 9000 Jews, 8000 Armenians, 1000 Europeans, and the rest are Moslems. ? Editor).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


a city of Asia Minor, and one of the finest in all the Levant. It contended for the honour of giving birth to Homer, and its title is by many thought to be the best founded. The Christian church in Smyrna was one of the seven churches of Asia to which the Apostle John was commanded to address an epistle, Rev_2:8-10. The present Smyrna, which the Turks call Esmir, is about four miles in circumference, and contains a population of about a hundred thousand souls. It, is less remarkable for the elegance of its buildings than for the beauty of its situation, the extent of its commerce, and the riches of its inhabitants.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


The port of Smyrna was in the Roman province of Asia, not far north of Ephesus. (For map see ASIA.) The church there was probably formed during Paul’s three-year stay in Ephesus, when the Ephesian converts took the gospel to the surrounding area (Act_19:8-10; Rev_2:8).
John’s letter to the church in Smyrna shows that the Christians were very poor. Spiritually, however, they were rich (Rev_2:9). They were also persecuted, mainly by the Jews, who throughout Asia were bitterly anti-Christian (Rev_2:9; cf. Act_21:27). God encouraged them with the promise that, no matter how much they might suffer in the present world, he would preserve the faithful for his heavenly kingdom (Rev_2:10-11).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.


smûr?na (Σμύρνα, Smúrna):

1. Ancient:
Smyrna, a large ancient city on the western coast of Asia Minor, at the head of a gulf which reaches 30 miles inland, was originally peopled by the Asiatics known as the Lelages. The city seems to have been taken from the Lelages by the Aeolian Greeks about 1100 BC; there still remain traces of the cyclopean masonry of that early time. In 688 BC it passed into the possession of the Ionian Greeks and was made one of the cities of the Ionian confederacy, but in 627 BC it was taken by the Lydians. During the years 301 to 281 BC, Lysimachus entirely rebuilt it on a new site to the Southwest of the earlier cities, and surrounded it by a wall. Standing, as it did, upon a good harbor, at the head of one of the chief highways to the interior, it early became a great trading-center and the chief port for the export trade. In Roman times, Smyrna was considered the most brilliant city of Asia Minor, successfully rivaling Pergamos and Ephesus. Its streets were wide and paved. Its system of coinage was old, and now about the city coins of every period are found. It was celebrated for its schools of science and medicine, and for its handsome buildings. Among them was the Homerium, for Smyrna was one of several places which claimed to be the birthplace of the poet. On the slope of Mt. Pagus was a theater which seated 20,000 spectators. In the 23 AD year a temple was built in honor of Tiberius and his mother Julia, and the Golden Street, connecting the temples of Zeus and Cybele, is said to have been the best in any ancient city. Smyrna early became a Christian city, for there was one of the Seven Churches of the Book of Revelation (Rev_2:8-11). There Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, was martyred, though without the sanction of the Roman government. It seems that the Jews of Smyrna were more antagonistic than were the Romans to the spread of Christianity, for it is said that even on Saturday, their sacred day, they brought wood for the fire in which Polycarp was burned. His grave is still shown in a cemetery there. Like many other cities of Asia Minor, Smyrna suffered frequently, especially during the years 178-80 AD, from earthquakes, but it always escaped entire destruction. During the Middle Ages the city was the scene of many struggles, the most fierce of which was directed by Timur against the Christians. Tradition relates that there he built a tower, using as stones the heads of a thousand captives which he put to death, yet Smyrna was the last of the Christian cities to hold out against the Mohammedans; in 1424 it fell into the hands of the Turks. It was the discovery of America and the resulting discovery of a sea route to India which ruined the Smyrna trade.

2. Modern:
Modern Smyrna is still the largest city in Asia Minor, with a population of about 250,000, of whom half are Greek and less than one-fourth are Mohammedans. Its modern name, Ismir, is but a Turkish corruption of the ancient name. Even under the Turkish government the city is progressive, and is the capital of the Aidin vilayet, and therefore the home of a governor. Several railroads follow the courses of the ancient routes into the distant interior. In its harbor ships from all parts of the world may be seen. The ancient harbor of Paul's time has been filled in, and there the modern bazaars stand. The old stadium has been destroyed to make room for modern buildings, and a large part of the ancient city lies buried beneath the modern houses and the 40 mosques of which the city boasts. The better of the modern buildings, belonging to the government and occupied by the foreign consuls, stand along the modern quay. Traces of the ancient walls are still to be found. West of Mt. Pagus is the Ephesian gate, and the Black-gate, as the Turks call it, is near the railroad station. The castle upon Mt. Pagus, 460 ft. above the sea, dates from Byzantine times. The prosperity of Smyrna is due, not only to the harbor and the port of entry to the interior, but partly to the perfect climate of spring and autumn - the winters are cold and the summers are hot; and also to the fertility of the surrounding country. Figs, grapes, valonia, opium, sponges, cotton and liquorice root are among the chief articles of trade. See also CHURCHES, SEVEN.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Smyr?na, a celebrated commercial city of Ionia, situated near the bottom of that gulf of the Aegean Sea which received its name from it, at the mouth of the small River Meles, and 320 stades north of Ephesus. It is in N. lat. 38? 26′, E. long. 27? 7′. Smyrna was a very ancient city, but having been destroyed by the Lydians it lay waste 400 years, to the time of Alexander the Great. It was rebuilt at the distance of twenty stades from the ancient city, and we soon find it flourishing greatly; and in the time of the first Roman emperors it was one of the finest cities of Asia. It was at this period that it became the seat of a Christian church, which is noticed in the Apocalypse, as one of the seven churches of Asia' (Rev_1:11; Rev_2:8-11). It was destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 177; but the emperor Marcus Aurelius caused it to be rebuilt with even more than its former splendor. It afterwards, however, suffered greatly from earthquakes and conflagrations, and must be regarded as having declined much from its ancient importance, although from the convenience of its situation it has still maintained its rank as a great city and the central emporium of the Levantine trade. The Turks call it Izmir. It is a better built town than Constantinople, and in proportion to its size there are few places in the Turkish dominions which have so large a population. It is computed at 130,000, of which the Franks compose a far greater proportion than in any other town of Turkey; and they are generally in good circumstances. Next to the Turks the Greeks form the most numerous class of inhabitants, and they have a bishop and two churches. The unusually large proportion of Christians in the town renders it peculiarly unclean in the eyes of strict Muslims, whence it has acquired among them the name of Giaour Izmir, or Infidel Smyrna. There are in it 20,000 Greeks, 8000 Armenians, 1000 Europeans, and 9000 Jews: the rest are Muslims.
The prosperity of Smyrna is now rather on the increase than the decline.
It stands at the foot of a range of mountains, which enclose it on three sides. The only ancient ruins are upon the mountains behind the town, and to the south. But nearly the whole of the relics of antiquity have been carried away. The stadium, of which the ground-plot only remains, is supposed to be the place where Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, and probably 'the angel of the church of Smyrna' (Joh_2:8), to whom the Apocalyptic message was addressed, suffered martyrdom. The Christians of Smyrna hold the memory of this venerable person in high honor, and go annually in procession to his supposed tomb, which is at a short distance from the place of martyrdom.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.



(Σμύρνα, myrrh), a city which derived its Biblical importance from its prominent mention as the seat of one of the Apocalyptic churches of Asia Minor (Rev_2:8-11). In the following account we freely condense the ancient and modern information on the subject.
I. History. — This celebrated commercial city of Ionia (Ptol. 5, 2) is situated near the bottom of that gulf of the Aegean Sea which receives its name from it (Mela, 1, 17, 3), at the mouth of the small river Meles, and 320 stadia north of Ephesus (Strabo, 15, 632). It is in N. lat. 38° 26', E. long. 27° 7'. Smyrna is said to have been a very ancient town founded by an Amazon of the name of Smyrna, who had previously conquered Ephesus. In consequence of this, Smyrna was regarded as a colony of Ephesus. The Ephesian colonists are said afterwards to have been expelled by Aeolians, who then occupied the place, until, aided by the Colophonians, the Ephesian colonists were enabled to reestablish themselves at Smyrna (ibid. 14, 633; Steph. B. s.v.; Pliny, 5, 31). Herodotus, on the other hand (1, 150), states that Smyrna originally belonged to the Aeolians, who admitted into their city some Colophonian exiles; and that these Colophonians afterwards, during a festival which was celebrated outside the town, made themselves masters of the place. From that time Smyrna ceased to be an Aeolian city, and was received into the Ionian confederacy (comp. Paus. 7, 5, 1). So far, then, as we are guided by authentic history, Smyrna belonged to the Aeolian confederacy until the year B.C. 688, when, by an act of treachery on the part of the Colophonians, it fell into the hands of the Ionians and became the thirteenth city in the Ionian League (Herod. loc. cit.; Paus. loc. cit.).
The city was attacked by the Lydian king Gyges, but successfully resisted the aggressor (Herod. 1, 14; Pans. 9, 29, 2). Alyattes, however, about B.C. 627, was more successful; he took and destroyed the city, and henceforth, for a period of 400 years, it was deserted and in ruins (Herod. 1, 16; Strabo, 14, 646), though some inhabitants lingered in the place, living κωμηδόν, as is stated by Strabo, and as we must infer from the fact that Scylax (p. 37) speaks of Smyrna as still existing. Alexander the Great is said to have formed the design of rebuilding the city (Paus. 7, 5, 1) soon after the battle of the Granicus, in consequence of a dream when he had lain down to sleep after the fatigue of hunting. A temple in which two goddesses were worshipped under the name of Nemeses stood on the hill, on the sides of which the new town was built under the auspices of Antigonus and Lysimachus, who carried out the design of the conqueror after his death. The new city was not built on the site of the ancient one, but at a distance of twenty stadia to the south of it, on the southern coast of the bay, and partly on the side of a hill which Pliny calls Mastusia, but principally in the plain at the foot of it extending to the sea. After its extension and embellishment by Lysimachus, new Smyrna became one of the most magnificent cities, and certainly the finest in all Asia Minor.
The streets were handsome, well paved, and drawn at right angles, and the city contained several squares, porticos, a public library, and numerous temples and other public buildings; but one great drawback was that it had no drains (Strabo, loc. cit.; Marm. Oxon. No. 5). It also possessed an excellent harbor which could be closed, and continued to be one of the wealthiest and most flourishing commercial cities of Asia. It afterwards became the seat of a conventus juridicus which embraced the greater part of Aeolis as far as Magnesia, at the foot of Mount Sipylus (Cic. Pro Flacc. p. 30; Pliny, 5, 31). During the war between the Romans and Mithridates, Smyrna remained faithful to the former, for which it was rewarded with various grants and privileges (Liv. 35:42; 37:16, 54; 38:39). But it afterwards suffered much when Trebonius, one of Caesar's murderers, was besieged there by Dolabella, who in the end took the city, and put Trebonius to death (Strabo, loc. cit.; Cic. Phil. 11, 2; Liv. Epit. 119; Dion Cass. 47, 29). In the reign of Tiberius, Smyrna had conferred upon it the equivocal honor of being allowed, in preference to several other Asiatic cities, to erect a temple to the emperor (Tac. Ann. 3, 63; 4, 56). During the years 178 and 180 Smyrna suffered much from earthquakes, but the emperor M. Aurelius did much to alleviate its sufferings (Dion Cass. 71, 32). It is well known that Smyrna was one of the places claiming to be the birthplace of Homer, and the Smyrnaeans themselves were so strongly convinced of their right to claim this honor that they erected a temple to the great bard, or a ῾Ομήρειον, a splendid edifice containing a statue of Homer (Strabo, loc. cit.; Cic. Pro Arch. 8): they even showed a cave in the neighborhood of their city, on the little river Meles, where the poet was said to have composed his works. Smyrna was at all times not only a great commercial place, but its schools of rhetoric and philosophy also were in great repute. The Christian Church also flourished through the zeal and care of its first bishop, Polycarp, who is said to have been put to death in the stadium of Smyrna in A.D. 166 (Iren. 3, 176). Under the Byzantine emperors the city experienced great vicissitudes. Having been occupied by Tzachas, a Turkish chief, about the close of the 11th century, it was nearly destroyed by a Greek fleet, commanded by John Ducas. It was restored, however, by the emperor Comnenus, but again subjected to severe sufferings during the siege of Tamerlane. Not long after, it fell into the hands of the Turks, who have retained possession of it ever since.
II. Characteristics. — Smyrna contained a temple of the Olympian Zeus, with whose cult that of the Roman emperors was associated. Olympian games were celebrated here, and excited great interest. On one of these occasions (in the year 68), a Rhodian youth of the name of Artemidorus obtained greater distinctions than any on record, under peculiar circumstances which Pausanias relates. He was a pancratiast, and not long before had been beaten at Elis from deficiency in growth. But when the Smyrnaean Olympia next came round, his bodily strength had so developed that he was victor in three trials on the same day — the first against his former competitors at the Peloponnesian Olympia, the second with the youths, and the third with the men; the last contest having been provoked by a taunt (Paus. 5, 14, 4). The extreme interest excited by the games at Smyina may perhaps account for the remarkable ferocity exhibited by the population against the aged bishop Polycarp. It was exactly on such occasions that what the pagans regarded as the unpatriotic and anti-social spirit of the early Christians became most apparent; and it was to the violent demands of the people assembled in the stadium that the Roman proconsul yielded up the martyr. The letter of the Smyrnaeans, in which the account of his martyrdom is contained, represents the Jews as taking part with the Gentiles in accusing him as an enemy to the state religion-conduct which would be inconceivable in a sincere Jew, but which was quite natural in those which the sacred writer characterizes as “a synagogue of Satan” (Rev_2:9).
In the vicinity of Smyrna was a Macedonian colony settled in the country under the name of Hyrcani. The last are probably the descendants of a military body in the service of Seleucus, to whom lands were given soon after the building of new Smyrna, and who, together with the Magnesians, seem to have had the Smyrnaean citizenship then bestowed upon them. The decree containing the particulars of this arrangement is among the marbles in the University of Oxford. The Romans continued the system which they found existing when the country passed over into their hands. Not only was the soil in the neighborhood eminently productive, so that the vines were even said to have two crops of grapes, but its position was such as to render it the natural outlet for the produce of the whole valley of the Hermus. The Pramnean wine (which Nestor, in the Iliad, and Circe, in the Odyssey, are represented as mixing with honey, cheese, and meal, to make a kind of salad dressing) grew even down to the time of Pliny in the immediate neighborhood of the temple of the Mother of the Gods at Smyrna, and doubtless played its part in the orgiastic rites both of that deity and of Dionysus, each of whom in the times of imperial Rome possessed a guild of worshippers frequently mentioned in the inscriptions as the ἱερὰ σύνοδος μυστῶν μητρὸς Σιπυληνῆς and the ἱερὰ σύνοδος μυστῶν καὶ τεχνίτων Διονύσου. One of the most remarkable of the chefs-d'oeuvre of Myron which stood at Smyrna, representing an old woman intoxicated, illustrates the prevalent habits of the population.
The inhabitants of new Smyrna appear to have possessed the talent of successfully divining the course of events in the troublous times through which it was their destiny to pass, and of habitually securing for themselves the favor of the victor for the time being. Their adulation of Seleucus and his son Antiochus was excessive. The title ο ῾ θεὸς καὶ σωτήρ is given to the latter in an extant inscription; and a temple dedicated to his mother, Stratonice, under the title of]Αφροδίτη Στρατονικίς, was not only constituted a sanctuary itself, but the same right was extended in virtue of it to the whole city. Yet when the tide turned, a temple was erected to the city of Rome as a divinity, in time to save the credit of the Smyruaeans as zealous friends of the Roman people. Indeed, though history is silent as to the particulars, the existence of a coin of Smyrna with the head of Mithridates upon it indicates that this energetic prince also, for a time at least, must have included Smyrna within the circle of his dependencies. However, during the reign of Tiberius, the reputation of the Smyrnaeans for an ardent loyalty was so unsullied that on this account alone they obtained permission to erect a temple, in behalf of all the Asiatic cities, to the emperor and senate, the question having been for some time doubtful as to whether their city or Sardis (q.v.) — the two selected out of a crowd of competitors — should receive this distinction. The honor which had been obtained with such difficulty was requited with a proportionate adulation. Nero appears in the inscriptions as σωτὴρ τοῦ σύμπαντος άνθρωπείου γένους.
It seems not impossible that just as Paul's illustrations in the Epistle to the Corinthians are derived from the Isthmian games, so the message to the Church in Smyrna contains allusions to the ritual of the pagan mysteries which prevailed in that city. The story of the violent death and reviviscence of Dionysus entered into these to such an extent that Origen, in his argument against Celsus, does not scruple to quote it as generally accepted by the Greeks, although by them interpreted metaphysically (4, 171, ed. Spence). In this view, the words ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος, ὅς ἐγένετο νεκρςὸ καὶ ἔζησεν (Rev_2:8) would come with peculiar force to ears perhaps accustomed to hear them in a very different application. The same may be said of δώσω σοι τὸν στέφανον τῆς ζωῆς, it having been a usual practice at Smyrna to present a crown to the priest who superintended the religious ceremonial, at the end of his year of office. Several persons of both sexes have the title of στεφανηφόροι in the inscriptions; and the context shows that they possessed great social consideration. These allusions derive additional force from the superstitious regard in which the Smyrneans held chance phrases (κληδόνες) as a material for augury. They had a κληδόνων ἱερόν just above the city outside the walls, in which this mode of divination was the ordinary one (Pausan. 9, 11, 7).
III. Present Condition. — From the convenience of its situation, Smyrna has still maintained its rank as a great city and the central emporium of the Levantine trade; and seeing the terrible decay which has fallen upon the numerous great and beautiful cities of Asia Minor, its relative rank among the existing cities of that region is probably greater than that which it anciently bore. The Turks call it Izmir. It is a better built town than Constantinople, and in proportion to its size there are few places in the Turkish dominions which have so large a population. It is computed at from 180, 000 to 200, 000, according to the season of the year; and the Franks compose a far greater proportion than in any other town of Turkey; and they are generally in good circumstances. Next to the Turks the Greeks. form the most, numerous class of inhabitants, and they have a bishop and two churches. The unusually large proportion of Christians in the town renders it peculiarly unclean in the eyes of strict Moslems, whence it has acquired among them the name of Giaour Izmir, or Infidel Smyrna. There are in it 20, 000 Greeks, 8000 Armenians, 1000 Europeans, and 9000 Jews: the rest are Moslems.
The prosperity of Smyrna is now rather on the increase than the decline; houses of painted wood are giving way in all directions to mansions of stone; and probably not many years will elapse before the modern town may not unworthily represent that city which the ancients delighted to call “the lovely — the crown of Ionia the ornament of Asia.” It is the seat of a pashalik, and is the center of all important movements in Asia Minor.
Smyrna stands at the foot of a range of mountains which enclose it on three sides. The only ancient ruins are upon the mountains behind the town, and to the south. Upon the highest summit stands an old dilapidated castle, which is supposed by some to mark the previous (but not the most ancient) site of the city; frequent earthquakes having dictated the necessity of removing it to the plain below, and to the lower declivities of the mountains. Mr. Arundell says, “Few of the Ionian cities have furnished more relics of antiquity than Smyrna; but the convenience of transporting them, with the number of investigators, has exhausted the mine. It is therefore not at all wonderful that of the stoas and temples the very ruins have vanished; and it is now extremely difficult to determine the sites of any of the ancient buildings, with the exception of the stadium, the theater, and the Temple of Jupiter Acraeus, which was within the acropolis” (Discoveries in Asia Minor, 2, 407). Of the stadium here mentioned the ground plot only remains, it being stripped of its seats and marble. decorations. It is supposed to be the place where Polycarp, the disciple of John, and probably “the angel of the Church of Smyrna” (Joh_2:8), to whom the Apocalyptic message was addressed, suffered martyrdom. The Christians of Smyrna hold the memory of this venerable person in high honor, and go annually in procession to his supposed tomb, which is at a short distance from the place of martyrdom.
Smyrna has a deep interest to Christians from this fact. During one of the Roman persecutions many Christians suffered the most dreadful torments here. They were put to death at the stake, or by wild beasts in the amphitheater; and the only test applied to them was whether they would throw a few grains of incense into the fire as a sacrifice to the genius of the emperor, or whether they would refuse. A circular letter addressed to the churches in the Christian world from that of Smyrna gives a most interesting account of Polycarp's death, and Neander has admirably translated, abridged, and systematized it. The proconsul before whom Polycarp was accused did all he could to save the venerable bishop, now in his ninetieth year; and when, like Pontius Pilate before him, he found it impossible to restrain the popular fury, he refused to allow any wild beasts to be let loose, and Polycarp, abandoned to the populace, was fastened to a stake and soon surrounded with flames. An old tradition states that the flames formed an arch above the head of the martyr, and left him uninjured; seeing this, a Roman soldier pierced him to the heart with a spear, and the fire then did its office, and consumed the lifeless body. It is, however, as Neander observes, more rational to believe that Polycarp died as Ridley and Latimer have done in more modern times. It is by no means improbable that Polycarp was confined in some one of the arched vaults within the acropolis, which remain to this day. An ancient mosque is also standing, which is said to have been the Church of St. John; but tradition is not much to be depended upon for assigning the correct site to such buildings, and the edifices of Smyrna are constructed of a white and peculiarly friable marble not adapted for great permanency. The Apocalyptic message to the Church at Smyrna is one which conveys no reproach, and, it has been often brought forward as a proof of the inspiration of the book in which it is found, that Smyrna has been always a flourishing city, and that there has been, ever since the days of the apostle, a numerous congregation of Christians among her inhabitants. This, however, has not been, strictly speaking, the case, and it is easy to carry such a mode of proving the truth of Scripture too far; but it is satisfactory to know that true religion is greatly on the increase in this important city, and that the labors of Protestant missionaries have been abundantly successful.
IV. Authorities. —
1. Ancient — Strabo, 14, 183 sq.; Herodotus, 1, 16; Tacitus, Annal. 3, 63; 4, 56; Pliny, H.N. 5, 29; Bockh, Inscript. Groec. “Smyrnaean Inscriptions,” especially Nos. 3163-3176; Pausanias, loc. cit., and 4, 21, 5; Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1, 18.
2. Modern. — Rosenmuller, Alterthumsk. 1, 2, 224 sq.; Turner, Travels, 3, 138-141, 285-291; Arundell, ut sup.; Richter, p. 495; Schubert, 1, 272- 283; Narrative of Scottish Mission, p. 328-336; Eothen, ch. 5; M'Farlane, Progress of the Turkish Empire; Prokesch, in the Wiener Jahrb. d. Literatur, 1834; Wrangel, Skizzen aus d. Osten (Dantz. 1839); Murray, Handbook for Turkey in Asia, p. 262 sq. SEE ASIA MINOR.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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