Evening journal., 1921-07-18
ISMID Once
CARAVAN PORT
Scene of Retreat of Greek
Forces Seat of Con-
Stantine
NO EVIDENCE OF
GLORIOUS HISTORY

The name Of the town OF Ismid.
whore 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 II the modern newspaper
had existed throughout historic
times" says a bulletin issued by the
National Geographic Society from
its Washington. ID. c., headquarters.
"Ismid's once important harbor is
now silted and its population is
barely 10000. But before Constan-
tinople was enlarged by Constantine
the Great-then Nicomedia-was for
time the capital of the Roman
Empire and the metropolis Of the
Near East.
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 from Syria. Persia, Meso-
potamia and the entire Near East
TO the Bosphorus and Europe. In
the old days, camel caravans in
Vulnerable, carrying the riches Of
the East plodded around the end OF
the gulf, paused TO pay commercial
tribute TO the strategically situated
city. and continued west along the
low coast OF the gulf for the so miles
that separated Nicomedia from Byz-
antium 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 picturesque but
less efficient camel and his dusty
road, the same natural path was
utilized and Ismid became a railwy
station.
Darius and his hosts swarmed
through the site Of the present Ismid
five hundred years before Christ. to
bridge the Bosphorus and conquer
Thrace and Macedonia. Xenophon
and his ten thousand Greeks passed
through the place in their memorable
retreat from Persia to their homes.
Near there the defeated Hannibal. a
refugee from the Romans. commit
ted suicide, and in a villa close BY.
Constantine the Great died. Force
after force OF Crusaders held the
town during. the middle ages.
From Nicomedia. Diocletian di-
rected his implacable campaign OF
persecution against the Christians
and later the first Christian emperor.
Constantine, governed from its pal
aces Barely twenty miles to the
south. at Nicea. the Church council
sat which framed the Nicene Greed
and only a short distance to the west
on the Ismid peninsula. In 451 A. D..
was held the ecclesiastical assembly
from which the Armenians bolted
to form the separate Armenian
Church. which. with the Roman
Catholic, the Greek Catholic and tho
Protestant churches. helps make up
the four major divisions Of Chris
tianity.
History is closely repeating itself
at Ismid. Just as the Turkish Ma
tionalists drove the modern Greeks
from the town in recent weeks. so
In f6l the Moslems, pushing far into
the Asiatic territory Of the Byzantine
Greeks. defeated their armies I'm
Nicomedia and camped on the east
bank Of the Bosphorus. The En-.
press Irene ransomed the city and
the other occupied territory. But
the Mohammedans slowly encroach-
ed, and in 1873 Nicodemia fell per.
manently in the hands Of the Turks
It remained a threat to CONSTANT.
nople until 1883. when the threat
was mtde good. and Constantinople
became Stamboul and the church OF
Sancta Sophia a Mohammedar
3 mosque
THE Ismid Of today has little ts
remind the observer Of its glorious
e history. An old Greek acropoli,
9 hanked by Roman and Byzantin,
! towers is about the only remainins
link with its opulent past The iror
r and wood caravans Of the Bagdat
o railway do not need to pause ir
Ismid as did the camel trains. ant
% its toll from commerce has dwindlet
C away. To It the world no Longer
- looks either for creeds or the treas
:. ures Of Araby-only for a modes
q supply Of silk cocoons, tobacco ant
2 forest producfg"