Magnesia on the Maeander is an ancient Greek city in Anatolia, located on the Maeander river upstream from Ephesus. It was founded by colonists from the inhabitants of Magnesia -- also known as the Magnetes in Greece, who provided its name. It lay within Ionia, but because it had been settled by Aeolians from Magnesia of Greece, was not accepted into the Ionian League.
Gyges, king of Lydia captured it and afterward it suffered from the Cimmerian raids, and was often under the control of the Persians. Themistocles retired to Magnesia. There was a Temple of Artemis but little remains at the site today.
Magnesia was also the source for the mysterious stones that could attract or repel each other, and thus its name came to be used for the phenomenon known as magnetism.
MAGNESIA, in ancient geography the name of two cities in Asia Minor and of a district in eastern Thessaly, lying between the Vale of Tempe and the Pagasaean Gulf.
According to tradition, reinforced by the similarity of names, it was founded by colonists from the Thessalian tribe of the Magnetes, with whom were associated, according to Strabo, some Cretan settlers (Magnesia retained a connexion with Crete, as inscriptions found there attest).
South and west of the temple are many other remains of the Roman city, including a fairly perfect theatre excavated by Hiller von Gartringen, and the shell of a large gymnasium.
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