Myrina was one of the Aeolian

Aeolians

The Aeolians were one of the four major ancient Greek tribes comprising Ancient Greeks. Their name derives from Aeolus, the mythical ancestor of the Aeolic branch and son of Hellen, the mythical patriarch of the Greek nation...

 cities on the western coast of Mysia

Mysia

Mysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north...

, about 40 stadia to the southwest of Gryneion

Gryneion

Gryneion is an ancient city near Aliağa in İzmir province of Turkey in western Anatolia. It is on the Aegean coast and very close to the modern town of Yeni Şakran....

. Its site is believed to be occupied by the modern Sandarlik at the mouth of the Koca Çay.

It is said to have been founded by one Myrinus before the other Aeolian cities, or by the Amazon

Amazons

The Amazons are a nation of all-female warriors in Greek mythology and Classical antiquity. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia...

 Myrina

Myrina (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the name Myrina or Myrine may refer to the following individuals:* Myrina, a queen of the Amazons. According to Diodorus Siculus, she led a military expedition in Libya and won a victory over the people known as the Atlantians, but was less successful fighting the Gorgons In...

. Artaxerxes

Artaxerxes

Artaxerxes may refer to:The throne name of several Achaemenid rulers of the 1st Persian Empire:* Artaxerxes I of Persia, Artaxerxes I Longimanus, r. 465–424 BC, son and successor of Xerxes I...

 gave Gryneium and Myrina to Gongylus

Gongylus

Gongylus may refer to:* Gongylus of Eretria, the agent by whom the Spartan general Pausanias communicated with Xerxes of Persia in 477 BC.* Gongylus of Corinth, a captain who reinforced Syracuse in 414 BC at a crucial point of the Sicilian Expedition....

, an Eretria

Eretria

Erétria was a polis in Ancient Greece, located on the western coast of the island of Euboea, south of Chalcis, facing the coast of Attica across the narrow Euboean Gulf. Eretria was an important Greek polis in the 6th/5th century BC. However, it lost its importance already in antiquity...

n, who had been banished from his native city for favoring the interests of Persia.

Myrina was a very strong place, though not very large, and had a good harbor. Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 mentions that it bore the surname of Sebastopolis; while, according to Syncellus

Syncellus

Syncellus may refer to:* an office in an Orthodox Church roughly equivalent to that of an episcopal vicar in the Roman Catholic Church.People named Syncellus:* George Syncellus...

, it was also called Smyrna. For some time Myrina was occupied by Philip of Macedon

Philip of Macedon

Philip was the name of several Macedonian monarchs:* Philip I of Macedon * Philip II of Macedon , ruled 359-336 BC, father of Alexander the Great* Philip III of Macedon , ruled 323-315 BC...

; but the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 compelled him to evacuate it, and declared the place free. It twice suffered severe earthquakes; first in the reign of Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...

, on which occasion it received a remission of duties on account of the loss it had sustained; and a second time in the reign of Trajan

Trajan

Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...

. The town was restored each time, and continued to exist until a late period. Myrina minted coins in antiquity, some of which survive.

External Links

• asiaminorcoins.com, Ancient coins of Myrina