Bible Synapse
Agora of Smyrna
Site · Hellenistic; rebuilt after AD 178 · The early church · also called Smyrna, İzmir Agora
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- Hellenistic; rebuilt after AD 178 (the agora)
- Found
- İzmir, Turkey. Excavated from 1933 to 1941 by the İzmir Museum and the Turkish Historical Society, in rescue digs from 1996 to 2006, and since 2007 by a team led by Akın Ersoy of İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University.
- Now
- At the site, İzmir, Turkey
- Passages
- Revelation 1:11, Revelation 2:8–11
What it is
The civic agora of ancient Smyrna, on the lower slope of Mount Pagos (Kadifekale) in the centre of modern İzmir. It was laid out in the Hellenistic period, but most of what survives belongs to the rebuilding after the earthquake of AD 178, carried out with help from Marcus Aurelius; a portrait of his wife Faustina decorates the arch of the western gate. Along the north side runs a huge basilica, 165 by 28 metres, whose vaulted basement walls carry many Roman-period graffiti.
How it connects to the Bible
Smyrna is the second of the seven churches addressed in Revelation (1:11; 2:8–11). Its letter speaks of a church that is poor yet rich, slandered by “the synagogue of Satan” and warned of prison, and promises “a crown of life”. Some commentators link the crown image to the civic honours of a proud city like Smyrna; others see ordinary biblical language. Most of the agora visible today was rebuilt some 80 years after Revelation is usually dated (about AD 95).