Colophon (city)

Colophon (Greek Κολοφών ) was in Greek antiquity one of the largest cities in the Asia Minor landscape Ionia. She lay in the present-day village Değirmendere in the Turkish administrative district of İzmir, İzmir between, the ancient Smyrna ( in the north) and Ephesus ( in the south), north of the port city of Notion.

As one of the mother cities of the Ionians colophon was part of the Ionian Federation ( Dodekapolis ). Thirteen kilometers south of Colophon was the famous oracle of Claros. The coniferous trees and colophon supplied the resin rosin, which is then as now used for the stringing of bows of stringed instruments.

The city was supposedly founded by two sons of Kodros, king of Athens, (which would fall in the period after 1089 BC). Their most famous sons are the philosopher Xenophanes, the poet and the painter Apelles Mimnermus. Colophon was also one of the Ionian cities, which competed to to have been birthplace of Homer.

Colophon was in archaic times as one of the richest cities of Ionia and was compared with the southern Italian Sybaris, but lost their wealth in the classical period, a largely. After 479 BC, the city was a member of the Athenian confederacy; 430 BC it was Persian by party struggles and entered 409 back on the side of Athens. In the year 404 colophon fell again under Persian suzerainty, then BC to share the general fate of Ionia in the 4th century. Lysimachus, one of the Successors of Alexander the Great around 300 BC forced the population to relocate to Ephesus, which was built under his command at a new location. In order for the city Colophon lost its importance, even if it was built by Lysimachus ' death 281 BC again. Colophon united with the port city of Notion, but lost in the Hellenistic period each important.

There are few remains of the city received.