Lydia (c.1200-133 BC)
Lydia was an ancient kingdom in western Anatolia. It was part of a region known in Hittite times as Arzawa, a Luwian-speaking area. Lydia rose as a Neo-Hittite kingdom following the Hittite collapse. Originally it was called Maeonia, and the capital described as Hyde, which may have been the district where the capital Sardis stood.
Although the earliest evidence for settlement at Sardis belongs in the Early Bronze Age, the first documented occupation of the city occurred in the Late Bronze Age. The seventh and sixth century BC city contained an acropolis (‘high point of a city’), usually a refuge, and a walled lower settlement covering perhaps as much as 250 ha (≈620 acres).
Herodotus (c.484-c.425 BC) informs us that three autochthonic (indigenous) dynasties ruled successively in Lydia: Atyads (before 1300 BC); Heraclids (Tylonids) and the Mermnads. The last Heraclid king, Candaules (r.c.697-c.680 BC), was assassinated by Gyges (r.c.680-c.652 BC), who founded the Mermnad Dynasty (c.680-546 BC).
Gyges devoted himself to consolidating his kingdom and making it a military power. When the Cimmerians ravaged Phrygia, Gyges formed an alliance with Ashurbanipal (r.668-631 BC). After the Cimmerians had been defeated, Gyges sent troops to help liberate Egypt from Assyria (c.658 BC). In a second attack the Cimmerians ransacked Lydia and Gyges, who had naturally been refused help by Assyrians, was killed. Gyges was succeeded by his son Ardys II (r.c.652-c.624 BC), who annexed Phrygia and restored good relations with Assyria. Ardys II was followed by Sadyattes (r.c.624-c.610 BC).
Alyattes II (r.c.610-c.560 BC) finally expelled the Cimmerians, but Indo-European migrations brought the Scythians and Medes into Asia Minor. Alyattes waged a war with the Median ruler Cyaxares (r.625-585 BC), which can be dated by the solar eclipse that occurred in its sixth year (28 May 585 BC). The war ended with a peace treaty that set the Halys River as the boundary between the Lydian and Median kingdoms.
Alyattes’ son Croesus (r.c.560-c.546 BC) is famous because of his wealth, obtained from the gold (electrum) extracted from the bed of the Pactolus River. Under Croesus, Lydia subjugated all of Anatolia west of the Halys, except for Caria and Lycia. In 546 BC Cyrus II (c.46; r.559-530 BC) captured Sardis and made Lydia a Persian satrapy. Lydia passed into the empires of Alexander (334 BC), Antigonus-I (318 BC), Lysimachus (301 BC), the Seleucids (281 BC), the Attalids of Pergamum (188 BC), and the Romans (133 BC). Lydia then became part of the Roman province of Asia.
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