Martinsburg journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1920-1977, 1921-07-23

"The name of the town of Ismid,
where the recent retreat of Greek
forces made possible an attack on
Constantinople by the Turkish Ma
tionalists and raised the first grave
threat of drawing other European
powers into the fray, would have
appeared many times in heavy
black headlines IL the modern news
paper had existed throughout his
toric times" says a bulletin issued
by the National Geographic Society
from its Washington, D. c., head
quarters.
'Ismids once important harbor is
now silted and it's population is
barely 10000. But before CONSTANT
nople was enlarged by Constantine
he great, Ismid-then Nicomedia
was for q time the capital Of the
conan Empire and the metropolis
the Near East.
Once Great Caravan Port
Situated at the head of the Gulf
Ismid, which forms the sharp
attic end Of the Sea of Marmora,
l with high ground behind 1t, the
lay III Tic CUuLt VI tIiS JldIul a.
'Nway from Syria, Persia, Meso-
amia and the entire Near East
the Bosporus and Europe. In the
d days camel caravans innumer-
Die carrying the riches Of the East
'Odded around the end of the gulf,
aused to pay commercial tribute
10 the strategically situated city,
and continued west along the low
coast of the gulf for the so miles
that separated Nicomedia from By
/ zantium and now separate Ismid
from Constantinople. And when the
steel highway and iron horse that
were to connect Berlin and Bagdad
came to replace the more pictures
que but less efficient camel and his
dusty road, the same natural path
was utilized and Ismld became
/ railway station.
Darius and his hosts swarmed
through the site of the present Is
mid five hundred years before
Christ, to bridge the Bosporus and
conquer Thrace and Macedonia.
! XenOphon and his ten thousand
Greeks passed through the place in
| their memorable retreat from Per
STA to their homes. Near there the
defeated Hannibal, a refugee from
the Romans, committed suicide; and
in a villa close by Constantine the
Great died. Force after force OF
Crusaders held the town during the
middle ages.
Seat Of Constantine The Great
Prom Nicomedia Diocletian d.
rected his implacable campaign OF
persecution against the Christians
and later the first Christian emper-
or. Constantine, governed from It's
palaces. Barely twenty miles to the
south at Mecca the church council
sat which framed the Nlcene
Creed; and only short distance to
the west on the Ismid peninsula in
ASH A. D. was held the ecclesiastl-
cal assembly from which the AT
menians bolted to form the separ-
ate Armenian church, which, with
the Roman Catholic, the Greek
Catholic and the Protestant chur-
ches helps make up the four major
divisions OF Christianity.
History Is closely repeating it.
self at Ismid Just as the Turkish
Nationalist drove the modern
Greeks from the town in recent
wasks. so in ISL the Moslems, push
ing far into the Asiatic territory or
the Byzantine Greeks, defeated
their armies at Nicomedia and
camped on the east bank OF the
Bosporus. The Empress Irene ran
somed the city and the other occu-
pied territory. But the Mohamme'
dams slowly encroached, and IN
1888 Nicomedia fell permanently in
to the hands of the Turks. 1t re-
NAMED a threat to Constantinople
until 1853 when the threat was
made good, and Constantinople be-