Smyrna. Smyrna was a Greek city founded in antiquity located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defense and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The first site, probably founded by indigenous peoples, rose to prominence during the Archaic Period as one of the principal ancient Greek settlements in western Anatolia. The second, whose foundation is associated with Alexander the Great, reached metropolitan proportions during the period of the Roman Empire. Most of the present-day remains of the ancient city date from the Roman era, the majority from after a 2nd-century AD earthquake. In practical terms, a distinction is often made between these. Old Smyrna was the initial settlement founded around the 11th century BC, first as an Aeolian settlement, and later taken over and developed during the Archaic Period by the Ionians. Smyrna proper was the new city which residents moved to as of the 4th century BC and whose foundation was inspired by Alexander the Great. This Anatolian settlement commanded the gulf. New Smyrna developed simultaneously on the slopes of the Mount Pagos and alongside the coastal strait, immediately below where a small bay existed until the 18th century. Research is being pursued at the sites of both the old and the new cities. Several explanations have been offered for its name. A Greek myth derived the name from an eponymous Amazon named, which was also the name of a quarter of Ephesus. This is the basis of Myrina, a city of Aeolis. In inscriptions and coins, the name often was written as. The name Smyrna may also have been taken from the ancient Greek word for myrrh, smyrna, which was the chief export of the city in ancient times. Further information: Fortifications of ancient Smyrna The region was settled at least as of the beginning of the third millennium BC, or perhaps earlier, as the recent finds in Yesilova Hoyuk suggests. It could have been a city of the autochthonous Leleges before the Greek colonists started to settle along the coast of Asia Minor as of the beginning of the first millennium BC. Throughout antiquity Smyrna was a leading city-state of Ionia, with influence over the Aegean shores and islands. Smyrna was also among the cities that claimed Homer as a resident. The early Aeolian Greek settlers of Lesbos and Cyme, expanding eastwards, occupied the valley of Smyrna. It was one of the confederacy of Aeolian city-states, marking the Aeolian frontier with the Ionian colonies. Strangers or refugees from the Ionian city of Colophon settled in the city. During an uprising in 688 BC, they took control of the city, making it the thirteenth of the Ionian city-states. Revised mythologies said it was a colony of Ephesus. In 688 BC, the Ionian boxer Onomastus of Smyrna won the prize at Olympia, but the coup was probably then a recent event. The Colophonian conquest is mentioned by Mimnermus, who counts himself equally of Colophon and of Smyrna. The Aeolic form of the name was retained even in the Attic dialect, and the epithet Aeolian Smyrna remained current long after the conquest. Smyrna was located at the mouth of the small river Hermus and at the head of a deep arm of the sea that reached far inland. This enabled Greek trading ships to sail into the heart of Lydia, making the city part of an essential trade route between Anatolia and the Aegean. During the 7th century BC, Smyrna rose to power and splendor.