AKHENATON: see IKHNATON.
(anc. THYATEIRA, the "town of Thya"), a town situated in a fertile plain on the Gurdiik Chai (Lycus), in the Sarnkhan vilayet, 58m. N.E. of Smyrna. Pop. Thyateira was an ancient town re-peopled with Macedonians by Seleucus about 290 B.C. It became an important station on the Roman road from Pergamum to Laodicea, and one of the "Seven Churches" of Asia (Rev. ii. 18), but was never a metropolis or honoured with a neocorate, though made the centre of a conventus by Caracalla. The modern town is connected with Smyrna by railway, and exports cotton, wool, opium, cocoons and cereals. Cotton of excellent quality is grown in the neighbourhood, and the place is celebrated for its scarlet dyes.
See W. M. Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Churches (1904) ; M. Clerc, De rebus Thyatirenorum (1893).