The founder of Smyrna is disputed; some confer the reputation of it on Tantalus, others on the Amazons; but after various vicissitudes of earthquake, conflagration, war, and pestilence, it was splendidly re-edified by Alexander the Great, and became the chief of the twelve cities of the Ionian confederacy, and distinguished for its magnificence as well as its power. It contained temples of Jupiter, Cybele, Apollo, and Diana, the latter more beautified, though less extensive, than that at Ephesus. Games were periodically celebrated, like those of Elis and Olympia; and the reputation of being a learned people, was among the laudable ambitions of the citizens of Smyrna. They laid claim to Homer as a native, and pointed out the cavern, on the banks of their river Meles, where his immortal Iliad was composed, and from hence the poet is called _Melesigenes_, and his works _Meletææ chartæ_. The people erected statues to him, taught rhetoric in a temple dedicated to him, and impressed his head and name upon their coins; and of all the seven towns[1] Which claim the poet dead, Through which the living poet begged his bread, the assumptions of Smyrna seem to be the best founded; but whatever doubt may rest on Homer’s place of nativity, it is certain that Bion, Mimnermus, and other distinguished writers, were natives of Smyrna, and ennobled the city of their birth. Thus distinguished as an honoured and enlightened city of the pagans, its citizens were among the foremost that embraced the doctrines of Christianity when proposed to them. The apostle established here one of the seven churches; and while he denounced that “the candlestick of Ephesus should be removed,” he exhorted the Christians of Smyrna “to be faithful unto death, and he would give them the crown of life.” Ephesus is no more, but Smyrna still flourishes. It was assaulted by the Saracens, and nearly extinguished as a Christian city; it was restored by the emperor Alexius, and greatly enlarged when it was captured by the Turks. In the beginning of the last century it contained 28,000 persons, of whom 11,000 were Christians of the Greek, Armenian, and Latin churches, which have their respective temples, monasteries, and bishops. The present population is estimated at 100,000. It contains a number of Protestants sufficient to form a congregation for religious worship; and it is the only one of the towns of the Apocalypse in which is established a church of the Reformation.