SHYRNA (Jamie), one of the most ancient Greek cities in Asia Minor. There was an Old Smyrna and New Smyrna. The old town lay on the north-east side of the Herman Gulf or Gulf of Smyrna. According to some traditions it was originally an lEolian colony, and was afterwards taken possession of by some Ionian exiles of Colophon. (Herod., i. 16, 149.) It is said by Strabo to have been founded by an Ionian colony of Ephesus, where a part of the old town is said to have borne the name of Smyrna from an Amazon of the same name. Afterwards however the Ephesian colonists are said to have been expelled by the sEoliates, and to have fled to Colophon, whence a short time after they returned, and recovered their original home. (Strabo, xiv.) Subsequently, about the year B.C. 700, Smyrna, which had hitherto belonged to sEolis, was admitted into the Ionian con federacy. This ancient town of Smyrna was by some supposed to have been the birthplace of Homer ; and in its vicinity, on tho banks of the little river Melee, there was a grotto in which Homer was said to have composed his poems. The Lydian king Sadyattes took and destroyed Smyrna, and distributed the inhabitants among a number of villages in the neighbourhood. (Strabo, xiv., p. 640 ; Herod., i. 16.) In this state they remained, according to Strabo, fur 400 years; after which the town was rebuilt with great splendour by Antigonus and Lysimachus, or, according to Pausanias (vii. 5, § 1), and Pliny (v. 31), by Alexander the Great. This new town however was 20 stadia distant from the site of Old Smyrna, and 320 stadia from Ephesus, and was situated on the north bank of the river Melee, covering the plain as far as the sea, and occupying also a part of a Lill which Pliny calls Mastusia. The city was or soon became the finest and largest in Asia Minor. (Strabo, xiv., p. 646.) When Asia Minor fell into the bands of the Romans, Smyrna became the scat of a con ventus juridicus (Pliny, v. 31), and flourished as a commercial town. Trebonius, one of Cmsar's murderers, was besieged in Smyrna by Dolabella, who took the city, and destroyed a great part of it. (Strabo; Cie., 'Philip.,' xi. 2.) But Smyrna soon recovered and flourished as before. Christianity was early established here, chiefly owing to the zeal of St. Polycarp, who was the first bishop of Smyrna, aud suffered martyrdom there. (Ireu., iii., 3, 4.) Smyrna appears in early times, as at present, to have been subject to frequent earthquakes. It was destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 178, but it was restored by the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Before the introduction of Christianity the Smyrnmens worshipped chiefly the heroine Smyrna, Nemesis, Homer, and the mother of the gods, whose temple stood near the sea coast, and whose bead is represented on the coin of which a reps: mutation is given in this article.
During the Eastern empire Smyrna again experienced several severe vicissitudes. Towards the close of the 11th century it fell into tho hands of Teaches, a Turkish pirate, and was nearly destroyed by a Greek fleet under John Duces. It was restored by the emperor
Comnenus, but soon after fell into the hands of the Genoese, who continued in possession of it until the year 1364. In 1402 it was taken by Tamerlane, and suffered very severely. The conqueror erected within its walls a tower constructed of stones and of the heads of his enemies. Soon after it came under the dominion of the Turks, under whom it has always been the most flourishing city of the Levant, not withstanding that it has frequently been visited by earthquakes, fires, and the plague. One of the most destructive conflagrations that ever occurred in Smyrna took place on the night of July 28,1841, whereby above 12,000 houses, many bazaars, mosques, end other public buildings, were destroyed.
Smyrna, the most important city of Asia Minor, and the centre of the rises in the form of an amphitheatre from the sea, and upon the hill above it (called Mount Pagus) there is an old castle which forms the citadel; over one of the gates there is a head which either represents Apollo or an Amazon, and over another a Roman eagle. It stands in 38 25' N. lat., 27° 9' E. long., about 210 miles S.S.W. from Constantinople, at the bottom of a capacious bay, which has excellent anchorage, and is so deep that large ships come close to the wharfs. The bay extends into the city, and its margin is lined with quays, on which there are handsome atone houses, so that the city, with its domes and minarets, has a fine appearance on approaching it from the bay ; but a great part of the interior, and especially that part which is built on the aide of the bill, consists of low wooden houses, and the streets are ill-paced, narrow, crooked, and dirty. The inhabitants are probably about 180,000, of whom about 80,000 are Turks, 4,0,000 Greeks, 15,000 Jews, 10,000 Armenians, and about 5000 Franks. The Franks reside in Smyrna for purposes of commerce, and occupy, for the most part, the beat quarter of the city near the bay. The Armenian quarter is on the lower slope of the hill, the upper part and western side are occupied by the Turkish part of the population. The Jews are confined to two small nooks between the Turks and Armenians. Except in the Frankish quarter the houses are chiefly built of wood, and only one story high. The town extends nearly two miles round the bey. The warehouses on the marina, or quays, are whitewashed. The port is frequented by ships from all nations, freighted with valuable cargoes both outward and inward. The chief imports are, coffee, sugar, indigo, tin, iron, lead, cotton-goads, and cotton-twist, rum and brandy, apices, cochineal, and a variety of other articles. The priucipal exports are, silk, opium, drugs and gums, galls, cotton-wool, ralonia, fruit, figs and raisins. Besides these exports there are various kinds of skins, goats' wool, olive oil, wax, and a variety of other articles. The Turkish government has imposed hardly any restrictions on commerce; the duties are few and light. Most European states have consuls at Smyrna.