Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-07-22
HISTORIC CITY OF IsIMID# J
Scene Of Many Struggles for World. Il !.
:. MaSterShlp. :is::l
ONCE CAPITAL OF EASTERN EApIRE.I. !.
Population Has Dwindled :BeeauseSof
Filling of Harbors-Iron Horse Nov
Does the Work Of the Picturesque

Filling of Harbors--Iron II Horse Vow:
Does the Work Of the PieturesqueS
Camel. 4, = ~ .:.,y. go;
1.-The name Of the town. Of sIsrnid
where the recent retreat Of Creek
forces made possible an attack on
Constantinople by the Turkish Nat
onalists and raised the first graye:.
threat Of drawing Iother European:
powers into the fray, would have .ap-s
peared many times in heavy black
headlines If the modern newspaper had !;
existed throughout historic times
says bulletin issued by the NATIONAL |
Geographic society from its Washing
ton, D: C. Headquarters. .j;55 ~. j.
"Ismid's once important harbor 5;tss
now silted and its population, is bare.
Ivy 10000; But before Constanttnopl pleS,
was enlarged by Constantine the
Great, .Ismid--rthen: Nicomedia--was
for time, the capital Of the Roman
Empire. and the metropolis Of e the
Near East. +, J.i :$ u =. t;;;:s;t ~:
Once Great Caravan Port. si: IL: =:
Situated at the head Of the Gulf of
Ismid, which forms the sharp Asiatic
end Of the Sea Of Marmora, and with
high ground behind it. the town lay:
in the route Of the natural highway
frorni Syria, Persia, Mesopotamia$ and
the entire Near. East to the. Bosporus2
and Europe. In the old days camel;
caravans innumerable carrying the,
riches of the East plodded around the
end of the gulf. paused TO pay com; COM
mercial tribute to the strategically;
situated city, and continued west;
along the low coast Of the gull Tor the.
so miles that separated Nieomedia
from Byzantium and, now separate sass
mid from Constantinople. nd when.
the. steel highway and iron horse thats
were to- connect Berlin and = Bagdadi
come to replace the more picture resdus:
but; less efficient camel and, his dusty
road, the same naturali path was e
lied and .Isnlid became railway sta:
ton. Z: =: t s. =. sessy
DARIUS and his hosts sWarmed,
through the site of the present Ismid;
five hundred years: before Christ TO.
bridge the BosporaIs 5 ! and onquers
Thrace and Macedonia. Xenophon
and his ten thousand Greeks ,;passsa!
through the place in their memorable
retreat from Persia to their home.
Near there the defeated Hannibal Sa.
refugee from the Romans; committed.
suicide; and in a villa close by Con-
stantine the Great, died. Force after
force of Crusaders held the town dur
ing the middle ages. -. ~ 55,s
Seat of Constantine the Great. ~,
i"From Nicomedia Diocletian direct,
ed his implacable, campaign of perse- :
cution against the Christians and later;
the first, Christian emperor, Constan-
tine, governed from its palaces. Bare
lyJ twenty miles to the south at Ntcea
the Church council sat which framed
the Nicene Creed; and only short
distance to the west on the Ismid PEN,
| insula in 451 A. D. was held the ec-:
clesiastical assembly from which the
Armenians bolted to form the separ-
ate Armenian church, which, with the
Roman Catholic, the Greek Catholic
and the Protestant churches helps
make up the four major divisions OF
Christianity. :.s.:.l-:::: y
History is closely repeating itself
at Ismid. Just as the Turkish Nation-
alists drove the modern Greeks from
the town in recent weeks, so In Isl the
Moslcms, pushing far into the ,Asiatlc
territory of the Byzantine Greeks,gde:
feated their armies at Nicomedia and
camped on the east bank of thesBos-
porus. The Empress Irene ransomed
the city and the other occupied terri:
tory. But the Mohammedans slowly
encroached and in 1888 Nicomedia fell
permanently into the hands Of the
| Turks. It remained threat to Con-
stantinople until 1853 when the threat
was made good. and Constantinople
become Stamboul and the. church OF
Sancta Sophia a Mohammedan' mos
que.
1.-THE Ismid of today has little to re-
mind the observer of it's glorious his
tory. An old Greek acropolis fanked
by Roman and Byzantine towers is
about the only remaining link with Its
opulent past. The iron and wood car
avans of the Bagdad railway do not
need to pause in Ismid as did the
camel trains, and its toll from COM
merce has dwindled away. To 1t the
world no longer looks either for creeds
Of the treasures of Araby-only for a
modest supply of silk cocoons, tobacco,
and forest products"
R. J. Thompson, comptroller Of the
HORNED Packing company, Of Austin,
NJ