In the Roman time Smyrna was perhaps the most brilliant and splendid of the cities of Asia. No other city of the province could vie with it for the handsomeness of its streets, the excellence of the oavint' and the skill with which it was laid out in i-ectaiu'ular blocks ; but it was badly drained, and the streets were liable to be Hooded in rain. It stretched along the southern shore of the gulf, not far from its eastern extremity. On the west a lull which overhangs the sea was enclosed witlun lU walls • and on the south a still loftier elevation called' Pagos, ' the hUl,' * 460 ft. high, served as its
• P;."os is, indubitably, an ancient name ; but the hill appears also to have had the special name Mastusia, alluding to its iilpe as seen from the sea (though the likeness to a breast is wento be iUusor^- when one goes round it. or ascends).
acropolis, and ailbrded a strong line of defence foi the walls of Lvsimaclius. The modern city stretches beyond the ancient walls on the east side, but leaves out part of the ancient city on the west. On the lower ground west from Pagos, about tlie south-western extremity of the city, was the 'Ephesian Gate,' whence issued the ancient road to Metropolis, Ephesus, and the south generally.
Another gate near the modern station of the Hermus Valley Railway is still called the Black Gate (Kara Kapu). The most splendid street in ancient Smyrna was called the Golden Street ; it led perliaps from the temple of Zeus on tbe hiU over the sea to the temple of Cybele on the liUlock east from SmjTna called Tepejik (if, as is probable, the temple stood there), issuing from the city prob- ably through Kara Kapu. .
There was, in addition to the moonng-groiuid in the open gulf, an inner harbour nearly land-locked, which was sufficiently commodious for ancient vessels. It was in the heart of the modern city ; and the Bazaars now occupy part of its area. In A D. 1402 the entrance to it was blocked by lamer- lane with a mole, to facilitate his assault on the stronghold of the Rhodian Knijrhts beside the sea. Even before that, it had probably been a good deal neglected in the troubles and the weak govern-
ment that prevailed for centuries ; and afterwards under Turkish rule the harbour became more and more choked up, till in the 18th century it hnalJy disappeared. , i »
Smyrna has sutiered much from earthquakes. A severe one occurred in A.D. ISO, and great shocks seem often to be felt in the latter part of a century. The last was in 1880.
There was no specially famous cultus at Smyrna. The ' Mother of Sipvlos' was worshipped in a great temple, which probably stood on the alreadv mentioned mound outside the city on the east side ; the priest'ess of the goddess in ironl of the cit> .jipim nf«To/.i«<;) is mentioned in an inscription ; and the ileur -yip'.l- U,us is a common type and legend on the coins of i'°i3>n^ But her cultus was common to other cities round lit. faipj los, and the Smvrnaian worship did not become famous and im- porunt like" those ot Ephesus, Magnesia etc The temple of She .Nemescis, or Fates, and a Hieron of the hledona. in which divination was practised from chance words or Phrases or acts are mentioned; but it seems very probable that those t»o foundations may have been only a single hol.v place. According to the legend, the two Nemeseis had appeared to Alexander the Great in a dream, and ordered him to rebuild Smyrna. In Sm.\rna alone was the ordinary singular conception ot Nemesis ilouliled as a pair of divine figures. . ^ ♦>,. KirfhnH,-,.
Smyrna wii one ot tlie cities claiming to be the birthplace ot Uonier The poet is often represented on its coins ; and there wL a building in or near the city, calkd the flo.»eroon. Trwlition connected him with the sacred river, «> 'ed Meles The descriptions of the river by Aehus Anstidea, and -^ f«^red character, show that it was not any ol the ™--.ving streamy dry in summer and torrents in the rainy season which lave been identified by different authorities as the Meles (especially the s reau, on the eastern skirts of the -nodern city, crossed by Caravan Bridge on the great road leading to the cast). 1 he ^ieU■s was the unvarying stream rising in ti"*^ ^P^^*^ -J,""^ springs called Dianas Bath, more than a mile east 'rom Cara- van Bridge, and flowing in a steariy uniform stream through a partly artificial channel (as Aristides says) into the go It^ The whole character of the localities, both springs and channel, has been changed by modern engineering opeiations.
The Church of Smyrna has had an honourable history. The message sent to it anumg the letters to the seven Churches, Rev 2 and 3, is more uni- formlv laudatory than those sent to the other Churches ; even Philadelpliia is hardly praised so hi.'hlv as Smyrna, and the others are all blamed iirvaryiu" degrees. But the Smyma^an Church was apparently kept pure by contmnal siittenng : the Church was poor and oppressed : it was not exposed to the dangers of riches, but was rich spiritually. The Jews of Smyrna are described as bitterly hostile. Few or none of them seem to have adopted Christianity, and they are described as not being really Jews, but merely a synagogue of Satan. This probably means both (1) that the GentUe Church of Smyrna represents the true