Agora of Smyrna
İzmir
- Locality
- İzmir
- Type of place
- BIBLICAL SITE
- Coordinates
- 38.41884° N, 27.13906° E
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History: Agora of Smyrna
The Agora of Smyrna, in the Konak district of modern İzmir, preserves the heart of the late Hellenistic and Roman city. First built by the Greeks in the fourth century BC, it was ruined by an earthquake in AD 178 and rebuilt on the orders of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Excavations began in 1933, and in 2020 the agora was placed on Türkiye's tentative list for World Heritage as part of the historic port city of İzmir.
Smyrna had a Christian church and a bishop from very early times, and it is one of the seven churches addressed in the Book of Revelation, whose message urges it to "be faithful unto death" in a coming time of trial (Revelation 2:10). Ignatius of Antioch visited Smyrna and wrote letters to its bishop, Polycarp, who was martyred in the mid-second century. Irenaeus, who heard Polycarp as a boy, was probably a native of the city.
An interesting detail
A bust of Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius, on an arch of the western stoa records the emperor's part in rebuilding the agora.