Magnesia ad Maeandrum Archaeological Site
Until its voluntary alliance with Alexander the Great (334 BC), it was under Persian rule, and later under the rule of the Hellenistic kingdoms established by his commanders, first the Seleucid Kingdom (240 BC) and later the Kingdom of Pergamum (189 BC). These years were the city's most glorious period. The city held a commercially and strategically important position within the triangle of Priene, Ephesus, and Tralleis. Inscriptions indicate that Magnesia, having won the war with Miletus during these years, expanded its borders to the Hybandos River (modern-day Kisir River near Söke), thus bordering Miletus.
In 133 BC, with the Kingdom of Pergamum annexed to the Roman Empire through tutelage, Magnesia became one of the Roman cities in Anatolia, known as the province of Asia. Sulla rewarded the city with independence in 87 BC, after it demonstrated its loyalty to Rome by resisting the Pontic king Mithridates VI. During the Roman period, the population of Magnesia increased further and the city may have expanded beyond the city walls and spread to the opposite bank of the Gümüşçay.
