Smyrna

, a celebrated seaport town of Ionia in Asia Minor, built, as some suppose, by Tantalus, or, according to others, by the Æolians. It has been subject to many revolutions, and been severally in the po e ion of the Æolians, Ionians, Lydians, and Maced on i ans. Alexander, or according to Strabo, Lysimachus, rebuilt it 400 years after it had been destroyed by the Lydians. It was one of the richest and most powerful cities of Asia, and became one of the 12 cities of the Ionian confederacy. The inhabitants were given much to luxury and indolence, but they were universally esteemed for their valour and intrepidity when called to action. Marcus Aurelius repaired it after it had been destroyed by an earthquake, about the 180th year of the christian era. Smyrna still continues to be a very commercial town. The river Meles flows near its walls. The inhabitants of Smyrna believed that Homer was born among them, and to confirm this opinion they not only paid him divine honours, but showed a place which bore the poet’s name, and also had a bra coin in circulation which was called Homerium . Some suppose that it was called Smyrna from an Amazon of the same name who took po e ion of it. Hero dot us , bk. 1 , ch. 16 , . — Strabo , bks. 12 & 14.— Silius Italic us , bk. 8 , li. 565 .— Pausanias , bk. 5 , ch. 8 .— Mela , bk. 1 , ch. 17 .――A daughter of Thias, mother of Adonis.――An Amazon.――The name of a poem which Cinna, a Latin poet, composed in nine years, and which was worthy of admiration, according to Catullus , poem 94.