Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia
in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population
spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian. At its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia
covered all of western Anatolia. Lydia was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire,
with Sardis as its capital. Tabalus, appointed by Cyrus the Great, was the first satrap..)
Lydia was later the name of a Roman province. Coins are said to have been invented in Lydia
around the 7th century BC.
Defining Lydia The endonym Śfard survives in bilingual and
trilingual stone-carved notices of the Achaemenid Empire: the satrapy of Sparda, Aramaic Saparda,
Babylonian Sapardu, Elamitic Išbarda. These in the Greek tradition are associated with
Sardis, the capital city of King Gyges, constructed during the 7th century BC.
The cultural ancestors appear to have been associated with or part of the Luwian political
entity of Arzawa; yet the Lydian language is not part of the Luwian subgroup.
An Etruscan/Lydian association has long been a subject of conjecture. The Greek historian
Herodotus stated that the Etruscans came from Lydia, repeated in Virgil's epic poem the
Aeneid, and Etruscan-like language was found on the Lemnos stele from the Aegean Sea island
of Lemnos. However, recent decipherment of Lydian and its classification as an Anatolian
language mean that Etruscan and Lydian were not even part of the same language family.
Nevertheless, a recent genetic study of likely Etruscan descendants in Tuscany found strong
similarities with individuals in western Anatolia. Geography
The boundaries of historical Lydia varied across the centuries. It was bounded first
by Mysia, Caria, Phrygia and coastal Ionia. Later, the military power of Alyattes II and
Croesus expanded Lydia, which, with its capital at Sardis, controlled all Asia Minor west
of the River Halys, except Lycia. Lydia never again shrank back into its original dimensions.
After the Persian conquest the River Maeander was regarded as its southern boundary, and
during imperial Roman times Lydia comprised the country between Mysia and Caria on the
one side and Phrygia and the Aegean Sea on the other.
Language The Lydian language was an Indo-European language
in the Anatolian language family, related to Luwian and Hittite. It used many prefixes
and grammatical particles. Lydian finally became extinct during the 1st century BC.
History Early history: Maeonia and Lydia
Lydia developed as a Neo-Hittite kingdom after the hi of the Hittite Empire in the 12th century
BC. In Hittite times, the name for the region had been Arzawa; it was a Luwian-speaking
area. According to Greek source, the original name of the Lydian kingdom was Maionia, or
Maeonia: Homer refers to the inhabitants of Lydia as Maiones. Homer describes their capital
not as Sardis but as Hyde; Hyde may have been the name of the district in which Sardis was
located. Later, Herodotus adds that the "Meiones" were renamed Lydians after their king Lydus,
son of Atys, during the mythical epoch that preceded the Heracleid dynasty. This etiological
eponym served to account for the Greek ethnic name Lydoi. The Hebrew term for Lydians, Lûḏîm,
as found in the Book of Jeremiah(46.9), has been similarly considered, beginning with
Flavius Josephus, to be derived from Lud son of Shem; however Hippolytus of Rome offered
an alternative opinion that the Lydians were descended from Ludim, son of Mizraim. During
Biblical times, the Lydian warriors were famous archers. Some Maeones still existed during
historical times in the upland interior along the River Hermus, where a town named Maeonia
existed, according to Pliny the Elder and Hierocles.
Lydia in Greek mythology Lydian mythology is virtually unknown, and
their literature and rituals lost, in the absence of any monuments or archaeological
finds with extensive inscriptions; therefore myths involving Lydia are mainly from Greek
mythology. For the Greeks, Tantalus was a primordial
ruler of mythic Lydia, and Niobe his proud daughter; her husband Amphion associated Lydia
with Thebes in Greece, and through Pelops the line of Tantalus was part of the founding
myths of Mycenae's second dynasty. In Greek myth, Lydia was also the origin-place
of the double-axe, the labrys. Omphale, daughter of the river Iardanos, was a ruler of Lydia,
whom Heracles was required to serve for a time. His adventures in Lydia are the adventures
of a Greek hero in a peripheral and foreign land: during his stay, Heracles enslaved the
Itones, killed Syleus who forced passers-by to hoe his vineyard; slew the serpent of the
river Sangarios and captured the simian tricksters, the Cercopes. Accounts tell of at least one
son born to Omphale and Heracles: Diodorus Siculus and Ovid mention a son Lamos, while
pseudo-Apollodorus gives the name Agelaus, and Pausanias names Tyrsenus son of Heracles
by "the Lydian woman." All three heroic ancestors indicate a Lydian
dynasty claiming Heracles as their ancestor. Herodotus refers to a Heraclid dynasty of
kings who ruled Lydia, yet were perhaps not descended from Omphale. He also mentions the
recurring legend that the Etruscan civilization was founded by colonists from Lydia led by
Tyrrhenus, brother of Lydus. However, Dionysius of Halicarnassus was skeptical of this story,
indicating that the Etruscan language and customs were known to be totally dissimilar
to those of the Lydians. Later chronographers also ignored Herodotus's statement that Agron
was the first to be a king, and included Alcaeus, Belus, and Ninus in their list of kings of
Lydia. Strabo makes Atys, father of Lydus and Tyrrhenus, to be a descendant of Heracles
and Omphale. All other accounts name Atys, Lydus, and Tyrrhenus as being among the pre-Heraclid
kings of Lydia. The gold deposits in the river Pactolus that were the source of the proverbial
wealth of Croesus were said to have been left there when the legendary king Midas of Phrygia
washed away the "Midas touch" in its waters. In Euripides' tragedy The Bacchae, Dionysus,
while he is maintaining his human disguise, declares his country to be Lydia.
First coinage
According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to use gold and silver coins
and the first to establish retail shops in permanent locations. It is not known, however,
whether Herodotus meant that the Lydians were the first to use coins of pure gold and pure
silver or the first precious metal coins in general. Despite this ambiguity, this statement
of Herodotus is one of the pieces of evidence often cited in behalf of the argument that
Lydians invented coinage, at least in the West, even though the first coins were neither
gold nor silver but an alloy of the two. The dating of these first stamped coins is
one of the most frequently debated topics of ancient numismatics, with dates ranging
from 700 BC to 550 BC, but the most common opinion is that they were minted at or near
the beginning of the reign of King Alyattes, who ruled Lydia c. 610-550 BC. The first coins
were made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver that occurs naturally but that was
further debased by the Lydians with added silver and copper.
The largest of these coins are commonly referred to as a 1/3 stater denomination, weighing
around 4.7 grams, though no full staters of this type have ever been found, and the
1/3 stater probably should be referred to more correctly as a stater, after a type of
a transversely held scale, the weights used in such a scale, which also means "standard."
These coins were stamped with a lion's head adorned with what is likely a sunburst, which
was the king's symbol. To complement the largest denomination, fractions were made, including
a hekte, hemihekte, and so forth down to a 96th, with the 1/96 stater weighing only about
0.15 grams. There is disagreement, however, over whether the fractions below the twelfth
are actually Lydian. Alyattes' son was Croesus, who became associated
with great wealth. Sardis was renowned as a beautiful city. Around 550 BC, near the
beginning of his reign, Croesus paid for the construction of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus,
which became one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Croesus was defeated in battle
by Cyrus II of Persia in 546 BC, with the Lydian kingdom losing its autonomy and becoming
a Persian satrapy. Autochthonous dynasties
Lydia was ruled by three dynasties: Atyads – Heraclids
According to Herodotus the Heraclids ruled for 22 generations during the period from
1185 BC, lasting for 505 years). Alyattes was the king of Lydia in 776 BC. The last
king of this dynasty was Myrsilos or Candaules. Candaules - After ruling for seventeen years
he was assassinated by his former friend Gyges, who succeeded him on the throne of Lydia.
Mermnads Gyges, called Gugu of Luddu in Assyrian inscriptions
- Once established on the throne, Gyges devoted himself to consolidating his kingdom and making
it a military power. The capital was relocated from Hyde to Sardis. Barbarian Cimmerians
sacked many Lydian cities, except for Sardis. Gyges was the son of Dascylus, who, when recalled
from banishment in Cappadocia by the Lydian king Myrsilos—called Candaules "the Dog-strangler"
by the Greeks—sent his son back to Lydia instead of himself. Gyges turned to Egypt,
sending his faithful Carian troops along with Ionian mercenaries to assist Psammetichus
in ending Assyrian domination. Some Bible scholars believe that Gyges of Lydia was the
Biblical character Gog, ruler of Magog, who is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and the
Book of Revelation. Ardys II.
Sadyattes or - Herodotus wrote that he fought with Cyaxares, the descendant of Deioces,
and with the Medes, drove out the Cimmerians from Asia, captured Smyrna, which had been
founded by colonists from Colophon, and invaded the city-states Clazomenae and Miletus.
Alyattes II - one of the greatest kings of Lydia. When Cyaxares attacked Lydia, the kings
of Cilicia and Babylon intervened and negotiated a peace in 585 BC, whereby the River Halys
was established as the Medes' frontier with Lydia. Herodotus writes:
"On the refusal of Alyattes to give up his supplicants when Cyaxares sent to demand them
of him, war broke out between the Lydians and the Medes, and continued for five years,
with various success. In the course of it the Medes gained many victories over the Lydians,
and the Lydians also gained many victories over the Medes."
The Battle of the Eclipse was the final battle in a five year war between Alyattes II of
Lydia and Cyaxares of the Medes. It took place on May 28, 585 BC, and ended abruptly due
to a total solar eclipse. Croesus - the expression "rich as Croesus"
refers to this king. The Lydian Empire ended when Croesus attacked the Persian Empire of
Cyrus II and was defeated in 546 BC. Persian Empire
In 547 BC, the Lydian king Croesus besieged and captured the Persian city of Pteria in
Cappadocia and enslaved its inhabitants. The Persian king Cyrus The Great marched with
his army against the Lydians. The Battle of Pteria resulted in a stalemate, thus forcing
the Lydians to retreat to their capital city of Sardis. Some months later the Persian and
Lydian kings met at the Battle of Thymbra. Cyrus won and captured the capital city of
Sardis. Hellenistic Empire
Lydia remained a satrapy after Persia's conquest by the Macedonian king Alexander III of Macedon.
When Alexander's empire ended after his death, Lydia was possessed by the major Asian diadoch
dynasty, the Seleucids, and when it was unable to maintain its territory in Asia Minor, Lydia
was acquired by the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum. Its last king avoided the spoils and ravage
of a Roman war of conquest by leaving the realm by testament to the Roman Empire.
Roman province of Asia
When the Romans entered the capital Sardis in 133 BC, Lydia, as the other western parts
of the Attalid legacy, became part of the province of Asia, a very rich Roman province,
worthy of a governor with the high rank of proconsul. The whole west of Asia Minor had
Jewish colonies very early, and Christianity was also soon present there. Acts of the Apostles
16:14-15 mentions the baptism of a merchant woman called "Lydia" from Thyatira, known
as Lydia of Thyatira, in what had once been the satrapy of Lydia. Christianity spread
rapidly during the 3rd century AD, based on the nearby Exarchate of Ephesus.
Lydia had numerous Christian communities, and after Christianity became the official
religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century became one of the provinces of the diocese
of Asia in the patriarchate of Constantinople. The ecclesiastical province of Lydia had a
metropolitan diocese at Sardis and suffragan dioceses for Philadelphia, Thyatira, Tripolis,
Settae, Gordus, Tralles, Silandus, Maeonia, Apollonos Hierum, Mostene, Apollonias, Attalia,
Hyrcania, Bage, Balandus, Hermocapella, Hierocaesarea, Acrassus, Dalda, Stratonicia, Cerasa, Gabala,
Satala, Aureliopolis and Hellenopolis. Bishops from the various dioceses of Lydia were well
represented at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and at the later ecumenical councils.
Roman province of Lydia Under the tetrarchy reform of Emperor Diocletian
in 296 AD, Lydia was revived as the name of a separate Roman province, much smaller than
the former satrapy, with its capital at Sardis. Together with the provinces of Caria, Hellespontus,
Lycia, Pamphylia, Phrygia prima and secunda, Pisidia and the Insulae, it formed the diocese
of Asiana, which was part of the praetorian prefecture of Oriens, together with the dioceses
Pontiana, Oriens proper, Aegyptus and Thraciae. Under the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, Lydia
became part of Anatolikon, one of the original themata, and later of Thrakesion. Although
the Seljuk Turks conquered most of the rest of Anatolia, forming the Sultanate of Ikonion,
Lydia remained part of the Byzantine Empire. During the occupation of Constantinople in
the Fourth Crusade, Lydia continued to be a part of the Byzantine orthodox 'Greek Empire'
based at Nicaea. Under Turkish rule
Lydia was captured finally by Turkish beyliks, which were all absorbed by the Ottoman state
in 1390. The area became part of the Ottoman Aydın Province, and is now the westernmost
part of the modern republic of Turkey. Episcopal sees
Ancient episcopal sees of the late Roman province of Lydia listed in the Annuario Pontificio
as titular sees:
Lydian gods
See also List of Kings of Lydia
List of satraps of Lydia Ludim
Digda Notes
References Goldsborough, Reid. "World's First Coin"
R.S.P. Beekes. The Origin of the Etruscans. External links
Livius.org: Lydia