|
[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ]
[ Next ]
“Smyrna was founded as a Greek colony more than a
thousand years before Christ; but that ancient Aeolian
Smyrna was soon captured by Ionian Greeks, and made into
an Ionian colony. Ionian Smyrna was a great city, whose
dominion extended to the east far beyond the valley, and
whose armies contended on even terms against the power
of Lydia. Battles fought against the Lydians on the
banks of the Hermus are mentioned by the Smyrnaean poet
Mimnermus in the seventh century. But Lydian power with
its centre at Sardis was increasing during that period,
and Smyrna gradually gave way before it, until finally
the Greek city was captured and destroyed about 600 BC
by King Alyattes. In one sense Smyrna was now dead; the
Greek city had ceased to exist; and it was only in the
third century that it was restored to the history of
Hellenic enterprise in Asia. There was, however, a State
named Smyrna during that long interval, when the Ionian
Smyrna was merely a historical memory. It is mentioned
in an inscription of 368 BC as a place of some
consequence; but it was no longer what the Greeks called
a city. It was essential to the Greek idea of a city
that it should have internal freedom, that it should
elect its own magistrates to manage its own affairs, and
that its citizens should have the education and the
spirit which spring from habitually thinking imperially.
This Asiatic Smyrna between about 600 and 290 was, as
Strabo says, a loose aggregate of villagers living in
various settlements scattered over the plain and the
surrounding hills; it possessed no sovereign power or
self-governing institutions; and it has left no trace on
history. Aristides, however, says that there was a town
in that period intermediate in position between the old
and the later city” (Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven
Churches of Asia, Chapter 19).
On our Holy Days 2000 Page, by following the Pentecost 2000 links,
you may access both audio and transcripts relating the significance of Smyrna to church history. This series by Fred R. Coulter is
entitled The Seven Church Harvest.
This site offers pictures of Old Smyrna in 700 BC.
Visit this site for a short history of ancient Smyrna, which was
founded by Amazon Warriors.
Ephesus: The City of Change
Pergamum: The Royal City: The City of Authority
Thyatira: Weakness Made Strong
Sardis: The City of Death
Philadelphia: The Missionary City
Laodicea: The City of Compromise
|
