Smyrna

Smyrna was an ancient Greek city and important seaport located at a central and strategic point on the western coast of Anatolia (today Izmir in western Turkey). The early Hellenic settlement lay on a small peninsula, inhabited since the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, on the northeast coast of the Gulf of Smyrna. Excavations have brought to light some of the most important ruins of the city. Two sites of the ancient city are today within the boundaries of İzmir. The first site, Old Smyrna, has a few remains dating to the Archaic Period on the northeastern side of the bay of Izmir. The second, known as New Smyrna and whose foundation is associated with Alexander the Great, reached metropolitan proportions during the period of the Roman Empire. Smyrna competed with Pergamon and Ephesus for the title “First City of Asia”, claiming to be the poet Homer‘s birthplace.

Coordinates: 38° 25′ 7″ N, 27° 8′ 21″ E

The Gulf of Smyrna was supposedly settled by Aeolians (Greeks from the sector north of Athens) at the beginning of the first millennium BC and later by Ionians (Athenians and their immediate neighbours). The site of the original settlement occupied an area of around 90,000 squares and was inhabited for about 3,000 years until the second half of the 4th century BC. Smyrna’s principal place of worship was the Temple of Athena. Its ruins, located in the Bayrakli district of Izmir, date from 725-700 BC.

Old Smyrna was attacked by the Lydian king Alyattes around 627 BC and established control over the coastal communities. Alyattes destroyed the city and expelled its inhabitants, and henceforth, for 400 years, it was deserted and in ruins. The polis became a rural village, paying taxes to the Lydian king and subsequently to the Medes and the Persians.

Map of Old Smyrna.

In the time of Alexander the Great, a new, larger city was founded on the slope of Mount Pagus. According to legend, Alexander is said to have wanted to rebuild the city in this location. During one of his hunting expeditions on the slopes of Mount Pagus, Alexander, exhausted by the chase, fell asleep under a tree and had a dream in which two Nemeses instructed him to build a city on this very spot. And so Mount Pagus became the acropolis of New Smyrna. But Alexander did not live to carry this plan into effect, which was only accomplished by his successors Antigonus and Lysimachus. New Smyrna was built at a distance of twenty stadia to the south of Old Smyrna.

View of Smyrna in the Roman period from the Acropolis of Mount Pagus. Illustration by Balage Balogh / archaeologyillustrated.com

New Smyrna was built on the slopes and plains between the Acropolis Hill (Kadifekale) and the port (Kemeraltı), and the Agora of Smyrna was located at the centre of the ancient city. According to Strabo, the streets of New Smyrna were well paved with stone, and the city contained several squares, porticoes, fountains, a public library, and numerous temples and other public buildings. A temple dedicated to Zeus Akraios stood on the slopes of Mount Pagus. Smyrna also possessed a harbour where the Temple of the Mother Goddess and the gymnasium stood.

After establishing the Roman Province of Asia in 133 BC, Smyrna was rewarded with various grants and privileges, having sided with the Romans against the war with Mithridates. In AD 26, Tiberius granted Smyrna the privilege of building a local temple for the emperor (first neokoria).

Map of New Smyrna.

The city became “twice neokoros” under Hadrian, whose benefactions to Smyrna exceeded all expectations. On a visit to the city in AD 124, Hadrian encountered one of the most renowned orators of his time, Antonius Polemon. Born in Laodicea, Polemon came to Smyrna as a youth to study rhetoric. He became the leading sophist of his generation and had his own school in Smyrna, which attracted students from all over the Greek world. As a result of his fame, he became a prominent political leader and used his talents to benefit his adopted home.

Thanks to the interventions of Polemon, Smyrna was allowed to build a second provincial temple, dedicated to Hadrian. The façade of a hexastyle temple is seen on the reverse of the city coins struck under the administration of Strategos Sextus (RPC III, 1970). According to Philostratus, Polemon, who had won the emperor’s favour, persuaded Hadrian to spend “ten million” drachmas on Smyrna to reconstruct a grain market and a splendid gymnasium as “a temple that can be seen from afar”.

Silver coin of Hadrian minted in Smyrna.
(obverse) Bare head of Hadrian, right.
(reverse) Temple with four columns, within which the two Nemeses stand facing one another (the single goddess worshipped elsewhere became two at Smyrna).
© The Trustees of the British Museum

Hadrian’s benefactions are also attested by an inscription (IGR IV 1431), which lists the emperor’s gifts mentioned by Philostratus (but at a spend of 1,500,000 drachmae) along with 98 columns of Synnadic and Numidian marble and porphyry to adorn the gymnasium, as well as immunity from taxes. In addition, ‘Olympian Hadrianic games’ (Hadrianeia Olympia) were established at Smyrna with musical and dramatic competitions. The sacred games were held in the stadium of Smyrna, where two altars dedicated to Hadrian Olympios have been discovered (ISmyrna 625 & ISmyrna 623).

Funerary stele of a gladiaror, Roman period.

In AD 178, a major earthquake hit Smyrna, destroying most of the city. Reconstruction work started shortly after the event with the help of Marcus Aurelius. This is confirmed by a portrait of his wife, Faustina the Younger, still visible over an arch of the west colonnade of the Agora. A famous governor of Smyrna in the 3rd century AD was Cassius Dio, the Roman politician and historian best known for his 80-volume Roman History, who was appointed by Emperor Macrinus in AD 218 to this prestigious position.

To Christians, Smyrna was one of the Seven Churches of Asia. A Christian community was established there very early, and bishop Polycarp was among the early Christians who suffered martyrdom in Smyrna at the time of Marcus Aurelius. After the Roman Empire was divided into two distinct entities, Smyrna became a territory of the Eastern Roman Empire. However, in Late Antiquity, particularly after the foundation of Constantinople, Smyrna entered a phase of decline.

The studies and archaeological excavations have been intense in the last three decades. The buildings most studied are those from the Agora of New Smyrna, which, in its current form, dates from the Roman rebuilding phase, and the Archaic Temple of Athena of Old Smyrna. An expropriation process has continued in the Agora since 1997, and archaeologists have recently extended the site’s excavation field.

The most recent significant discovery is a rich collection of graffiti found in the Agora during excavation work inside the cryptoporticus of the Basilica. The graffiti (155 pictorial and 170 textual) are preserved on the plaster covering the north wall and many of the pillars of the basement of the Basilica. They show scenes of daily life with images of trade ships, animals and gladiators. One graffito could even be interpreted as a representation of the Temple of Hadrian that was built after his visit. They are estimated to date from the later 2nd century (after an earthquake in 178) through at least the 3rd century AD. The Basilica has been covered to protect the workers and the graffiti from the elements.

The graffiti showing gladiators [Credit: DHA]
Greek graffiti from Smyrna (by Anadolu Ajansi)

At the site of Old Smyrna, Archaeologists have recently discovered ashes from the eruption of Thera on the island of Santorini some 3,600 years ago. About 100 people, including academics and experts from Turkey and abroad, participated in the Smyrna excavation.

There is still much to discover about Smyrna, as modern constructions still cover many ancient remains. Archaeological works are currently unearthing the Hellenistic theatre, which was buried for hundreds of years (see here). The first information about the Theatre of Smyrna comes from Vitruvius’ De Architectura. Vitruvius (5.9.1) notes that there is a portico of the Temple of Aphrodite Stratonikis or an independent portico called Stratonikeion adjacent to or in the immediate vicinity of the skēnē (stage building) of the Theatre of Smyrna. Archaeologists have also recently unearthed the remains of a gymnasium and an adjoining bathhouse dating from the time of Hadrian (see here). The gymnasium could, therefore, be the gymnasium mentioned by Philostratus.

PORTFOLIO

  • Old Smyrna
Overview of Old Smyrna with the Archaic Temple of Athena in the background.
The Archaic temple dedicated to Athena and its well-preserved temenos terrace. The temple was the first religious building built by the Hellenes in Anatolia. It underwent four construction periods from 725 to 550 BC.
Ekrem Akurgal’s reconstruction of six columns across the rear of the Temple of Athena. The temple cella was reconstructed as peripteral with 6 x 11 columns. However, the reconstruction of the temple building is open to question.
Architectural elements from the Temple of Athena made of white tufa, around 600 BC.
Izmir Museum of History and Art.
Aeolic capitals from the Temple of Athena, carving of white tufa, 570 BC.
Izmir Museum of History and Art.
The Temple of Athena had andesite foundations and a plan reconstructed with a peristyle of 11 x 15 Aeolic columns around a cella with a pronaos and possibly four columns in antis.
Meeting house Megaron dated to the last quarter of the 7th century BC. The megaron was the great hall in very early ancient Greek palace complexes. Architecturally, it was a rectangular hall that was surrounded by four columns, fronted by an open, two-columned portico, and had a central, open hearth that vented through an oculus in the roof.
Houses with courtyards dating to the 4th century BC. The ruins of Old Smyrna include three housing complexes of rooms built around central courtyards.
The eastern section of the fortification walls dating to the 1st half of the 7th century BC.
Andesite blocks of the fortification walls.
Archaic Fountain House, built of andesite stones. Belonging to the last quarter of the 7th century BC, it is thought to have been used continuously until the middle of the 4th century BC. The reservoir inside the fountain collected water from a small stream flowing to the east of Old Smyrna.
Western fortification wall.
A small necropolis was located in front of the fortification walls with limestone sarcophagi. It was used for a short period, between the end of the 7th century BC and the middle of the 6th century BC.
Mudbrick fortification wall, dated to the 9th century BC.
  • New Smyrna
The entrance to the İzmir Agora Open Air Museum.
The excavated area of the Agora so far measures 129 m x 83 m. It is bordered on the east and west sides by porticoes, while the Basilica occupies the northern side. It is so far the largest and best preserved among the Ionian Agoras.
The Agora of New Smyrna was constructed during the Hellenistic period and was rebuilt in the Roman period under Marcus Aurelius. It was a multi-storey building with many spaces on different levels and an open courtyard.
The bust of the emperor’s wife, Faustina, on the second arch of the western stoa, confirms the restoration phase under Marcus Aurelius.
The Gate of Faustina.
The Western Portico surrounded the courtyard of the Agora. It was 20 m wide and just over 100 m long. The porticoes of Smyrna were a two-storied structure with a basement underneath.
The basement of the Western Portico was constructed by using arches and consisting of three galleries.
The Bouleuterion, built in the 2nd century AD during the reign of Marcus Aurelius over an earlier late 1st century BC Bouleuterion. With 16 rows of seats, it had a capacity of approximately 950 people.
The Mosaic Building, a structure most likely used for social and cultural events as well as political meetings. It is thought to have been built at the end of the 2nd century after the AD 178 earthquake, with major repairs in the 4th century AD.
A water channel underneath the floor of the Mosaic Building.
Architectural fragments of the Agora’s porticoes.
On this architrave of the first storey of the western Portico was engraved a 35m-long inscription dedicated to the two Nemeses and to other gods.
Architectural fragments of the Agora.
Architectural fragments of the Agora’s porticoes.
The western section of the portico basement was made a part of the water system in late Antiquity.
Honorary inscription for Hadrian by the initiates (mystai) of the great Breiseus Dionysos, dated AD 129/132. ISmyrna 622
Inscribed statue base (SEG 47-1637) of Claudius Aristophanes Aurelianus, neocoros of the cult of the Emperor at Smyrna, Severan period. The title “neocoros” is used for an elite person who was honoured to officiate at the imperial cult temple at Smyrna.
A marble sculptural group of three deities, Artemis, Poseidon and Demeter. The statues were used in an altar complex located in a central place in the Agora. Dated to the Antonine Period. Izmir Museum of History and Art.
The well-preserved basement of the Basilica consisted of 4 galleries measuring 4.40 m in height and 5 m in width. The first and second galleries on the south were covered by 55 arches and connected by passages or doorways.
Cross vaults located at the western end of the first and second galleries of the Basilica were added after the earthquake of AD 178.
Architectural fragments of the Basilica. White marble was used for the columns, while reddish conglomerate was used inside the building for the columns on both storeys.
Agora of New Smyrna.
The Theatre of Smyrna, built in the 2nd or 1st century BC, expanded during the reing of Trajan or Hadrian and repaired after the AD 178 earthquake.
The Theatre of Smyrna had a capacity of around 16,000. It had a three-storey stage building and a three-tiered cavea with a diameter of 152 m, divided by two diazomas rising 30 m above the semicircular orchestra.
Smyrna’s streets were broad, well-paved and laid out at right angles. The main street, called the Golden Street, ran across the city from West to East, beginning probably from the temple of Zeus Akraios and ending towards the temple of Cybele.

Links & references:

  • SMYRNA (Izmir) Turkey – The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
  • Smyrna Antik Kenti (official site)
  • oldsmyrna.org (official site)
  • Ruscio Caterina, “Smyrna (Antiquity)”, 2008, Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=12483>
  • Burrell, Barbara. Neokoroi: Greek Cities and Roman Emperors. Leiden, The Netherlands: BRILL, 2003.
  • Bagnall, Roger S., et al. Graffiti from the Basilica in the Agora of Smyrna. NYU Press, 2016.
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