Skip to content
Wellsprings

Smyrna

Ionia (Asia Minor)

Smyrna, modern İzmir on the Aegean coast of Turkey, was a leading Ionian Greek polis and a major center of rhetoric and learning under Rome. The sophist Marcus Antonius Polemon taught there, the orator Aelius Aristides was closely associated with the city, and it was one of several places claiming to be the birthplace of Homer. The mathematician Theon of Smyrna and the epic poet Quintus Smyrnaeus take their names from it.

12 most-discussed ideas

Teachers who lived here

Works composed here

Ideas shaped here

Concepts most frequently discussed in the works composed at Smyrna. Click any to trace the idea across time and place.

Explore the interactive map →← All places