Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 173, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1915 — Impresses Visitors at Once. [ARTICLE]

Impresses Visitors at Once.

The first view of the city that a traveler gets coming up the Gulf of Smyrna, encompassed by high hills rising from the water’s edge, is one that is not forgotten. Passing numerous headlands and islands, which were in Greek times resorts for philosophers and later of pirates, the extensive cemeteries on Mount Pagus come into view and the few remains of ancient Smyrna and its citadel. Then the mosques, minarets, cupolas, baths and little brown-roofed wooden houses rising on the terraces of the hill show up above the city itself spread along the gulf for two miles. Like many Turkish cities it is “beautiful at a distance” —more so than at close range, perhaps. Smyrna is one of the cities which claim to be the birthplace of Homer, which is not evidence of particular distinction in the eastern Mediterranean, but it indicates the age of the city and something of its proud position. A rivulet north of the city is pointed out as the true Meles. Anaxagoras, born on an island in the outer gulf, is one of its philosophical heroes. Tradition of City's Founding. Poetic tradition says that Smyrna was founded by an amazon of that

name who had previously conquered Ephesus. The city, whatever its origin, has from the beginnings of recorded history preserved an unbroken identity of name. .

It came early Into the possession of the Aeolians and continued in their confederacy down to 688 B. C., when it fell by an act of treachery, as cities in those days usually fell, according to their historians —into the hands of the lonians and became the thirteenth city of the lonic league. Miletus, and later Ephesus, were trade rivals, but Smyrna with a superior harbor and on the direct path of commerce from Lydia, outdistanced these .cities. City Under Many Rulers. The founder'of the Lydian empire, Alyattis 111, conquered Smyrna in the sixth century, B. C. and for 300 years it lost its place in the list of Greek cities. Alexander the Great, the romantic dreamer who accomplished things as king of Macedon, succeeded in restoring the city. The idea was supposed to have been given him In a dream by Nemesis, ono of the gods worshiped in the temple at Smyrna. The city fell and flourished under the sieges and vicissitudes of Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Turkish rulers. In the Roman period it vied again with Ephesus and Pergamum for the title of the first city of Asia.

When Constantinople became the seat of the government, directing the destinies of the Asia Minor qities, Smyrna declined, trade routes changed and the city was ravaged several times.

Antiquarians have been surprised to find the few relics of antiquity that are still to be seen in Smyrna.