The beautiful harbor city whose ringed acropolis ancient writers praised as 'the crown of Smyrna' — apt, for the letter that promises 'the crown of life' (Rev 2:8-11): one of only two of the seven with no rebuke at all. Rich city, poor congregation, bounded suffering ('ten days'), and the charge kept to the letter two generations on, when its own bishop Polycarp was martyred in the stadium (c. AD 155), refusing to recant. Continuously inhabited ever since — modern İzmir.