Magnesia (Asia Minor)

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Magnesia was a city of Lydia, situated about 65 km northeast of Smyrna on the river Hermus at the foot of Mount Sipylus. Nowadays this is the location of Manisa in Turkey, population 214,000.

No mention of the town is found till 190 BC, when Antiochus the Great was defeated in the battle of Magnesia by the Roman consul Lucius Scipio Asiaticus. It became a city of importance under the Roman dominion and, though nearly destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, was restored by that emperor and flourished through the Roman empire. It was one of the few towns in this part of Asia Minor which remained prosperous under the Turkish rule. The most famous relic of antiquity is the Niobe of Sipylus on the lowest slopes of the mountain about 6 km east of the town. This is a colossal seated image cut in a niche of the rock, of Hittite origin, and perhaps that called by Pausanias the very ancient statue of the Mother of the Gods, carved by Broteas, son of Tantalus, and sung by Homer. Near it lie many remains of a primitive city, and about a kilometer east is the rock-seat conjecturally identified with Pausanias' Throne of Pelops. There are also hot springs and a sacred grotto of Apollo.

During the Asia Minor Expedition of 1919 - 1922, Magnesia was occupied on May 25, 1919 by the Greek Army. Before the population exchange, it had a Greek minority comprising roughly 10% of the total population.

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