The public buildings at Smyrna during the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

In the Hellenistic and Roman Periods, Smyrna city was spread around Mount Pagus and its surroundings. In these areas which were uninterruptedly populated until today, that the ancient period city plan and architecture were perfectly executed played important role in that Smyrna had gained the name ?the first city of Asia in beauty and size? during the Roman period. With this definition, it was probably wanted to state excellence of the buildings and perfectness of the city planning. From the ancient period to the modern times, the natural location of the city which formed an integrity with the city buildings was deemed suitable to describe by writers. In so much that, some of the writers stated that the view from Pagus presented the most beautiful scene in Levant.Among the Great Hellen-Rome cities, Smyrna was the least known city topographically. The modern city of the Middle Age and today was built on the ancient one. When stone or lime was needed, existing building remains were used and in this way, the ancient buildings were faded away and their locations were filled by new ones. For this reason, in this study, the observations of travelers, topographical examinations, epigraphical and numismatical evidences are in the foreground because of the insufficiency of the archeological data. Since the year of built of the most buildings is not known and it is not possible to compare the gained information with the ancient architecture, general datings were purposed in the light of the collecting data.The studies being made revealed a major line layout where public oriented buildings were grouped. These buildings are examined under the titles of ?Religious Buildings?, ?Policy, Culture, Sports and Trade Oriented Buildings? and ?Defence Buildings and Waterways?.