Ancient Smyrna

Roman province

2nd century Greek rhetorician and author

thumb|Smyrna among the cities of Ionia and Lydia ()

confederation of thirteen ancient Greek city-states in the region Ionia on the western coast of Anatolia (present-day Turkey)

Greek sophist (c. 90 – 144)

thumb|Portrait of the poet Diphilus, a Roman copy from the early 1st century

Apsines of Gadara (; fl. 3rd century AD) was a Greek rhetorician. He was a native of the Hellenised city of Gadara, whose ruins stand today at the border of Jordan with Syria and Israel. Apsines went on to study at Smyrna and taught at Athens, gaining such a reputation that he was raised to the consulship by the emperor Maximinus. He was a rival of Fronto of Emesa, and a friend of Philostratus, the author of the Lives of the Sophists, who praises his wonderful memory and accuracy.

c. 110 A.D. epistle attributed to Ignatius of Antioch

Square in the classical-era city of Smyrna