PREFACE
The 12th volume of the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Turkey has been allocated to the İzmir Museum. The modern city of İzmir, ancient Smyrna, is the third largest city of Turkey in western Anatolia. Smyrna was formerly one of the twelve cities in the Aeolis region, which covered a small part of northwest Anatolia, and it later became one of the cities of the Ionia region. Lesbos, Cymeans and Colophonians all had a role in the founding of the city. It is said that the city got its name from an Amazon of the same name. The oldest settlement was on a small peninsula connected to the land by an isthmus. The city was then moved to the slopes of the Pagos Mountain (Kadifekale) during the Hellenistic Period. For this reason, the ruins of the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods lie in the Agora district of İzmir. When the Romans formed the province of Asia in 129 BC, Smyrna also became a city of that province. During this period, Smyrna rapidly developed and became a rich city as a result of the advantages provided by its strategic location.
As for the catalogue, there are 824 coins in total. The regions represented with the most coins are Ionia (244), Lydia (158), Troas (155) and Phrygia (62), respectively, and the cities represented with the most coins are Alexandria Troas (154), Ephesus (108), Smyrna (65) and Pergamum (56). But other regions and cities are also represented in the catalogue, from Bithynia to Pamphylia.
We would like to mention the names of the following people with gratitude: Mehmet Tuna and Hünkar Keser, Museum Directors, who have given us permission to work in the museum; Nuray Pehlivan, G. Elif Erginer, Esra Çakıroğlu, Günay Kemertaş and Duygu Yakınlar, museum curators, who provided all kinds of accomodations and supported us during our work; Arif Yacı, who took nearly all the photos of the coins with the exception of some that were taken by Ender Gökhan Beyazçam, the museum curator; İlkcan Kırlı, Master’s degree student, contributed much during the preparation work of the catalogue; and our colleagues Michel Amandry, Arif Yacı and Aliye Erol Özdizbay, who reviewed the catalogue. We are grateful to the persons cited above. Last but not least, we want to thank the Union Académique Internationale for their kind support.
Oğuz Tekin and Sencan Altınoluk
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