SMYRNA (smyena), (Gr. :....:126ppa, smoor'nah, myrrh). A celebrated commercial city of Ionia (Piden). v. 2), situated near the bottom of that gulf of the iEgcan Sea which received its name from it (Aida, i. 17, 3), at the mouth of the small river Aides, and 32o stades north of Ephesus (Strabo, xv. D. 632). It is in north latitude 38° 26', east longitude 27° 7'. Smyrna was a very an cient city, but having been destroyed by the Lydi ans, it lay waste 400 years, to the time of Alexan ___ cumstances. 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 ren ders it peculiarly unclean in the eyes of strict Moslems, whence it has acquired among them the name of Giaour Izmir, or Infidel Smyrna. There arc in it 20,000 Greeks, 8,000 Armenians, 1,000 Europeans, and 9,00o Jews; the rest are Moslems.
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 an cient 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. Of the stadium the ground plot only remains, it being stripped of its seats and marble decorations.
der the Great (Pliny v. 29; Pausan, vii. 5) ; or, according to Strabo, to that of Antigonus. It was rebuilt at the distance of twenty stades from the ancient city (Strabo, xiv. p. 646), 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 (Strabo, iv. 9). 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. ; ii:8-11). It was destroyed by an earthquake' in A. D. 177; but the emperor Marcus Aurelius caused it to 1)2 rebuilt with even more than its former splendor. It afterwards, however, suf fered 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 main tained 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 com puted 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 cir It is supposed to be the place where Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, and probably 'the angel of the church of Smyrna' (Rev. ii :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.