Lydia 18039 224827335 2008-07-10T16:23:23Z DaughterofSun 6715754 /* External links */ interwiki {{Otheruses1|the ancient kingdom in Anatolia}} {| class="toccolours" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; width: 250px; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" |- | colspan="2" style="margin-left: inherit; background:#DEB887; text-align:center; font-size: medium;" |Ancient Region of Anatolia<br>'''Lydia (Λυδία)''' |- align="center" | colspan="2" | <div style="position:relative; margin: 0 0 0 0; border-collapse: collapse; border="1" cellpadding="0"> [[Image:SardisByzantineShops1February2003.JPG|250px|Byzantine shops at Sardis]]</div> |- style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Location''' | Western [[Anatolia]] |- style="vertical-align: top;" | '''State existed:''' | 15-14th c. BC (as [[Arzawa]])<br>1200-546 BC |- style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Language''' | [[Lydian language|Lydian]] |- style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Historical [[capital]]s''' | [[Sardis]] |- style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Famous rulers''' | [[Gyges]], [[Croesus]] |- style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Persian satrapy''' | [[Lydia (satrapy)|Lydia]] |- style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[[Roman provinces|Roman province]]''' | [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]], [[Lydia]] |- style="vertical-align: top;" |- align="center" | colspan="2" | <div style="position:relative; margin: 0 0 0 0; border-collapse: collapse; border="1" cellpadding="0"> [[Image:Lydia original area of lydia.jpg|250px|Lydia among other regions]]</div> |- style="vertical-align: top;" <!--| colspan=2 | <small>{{{footnotes}}}</small> --> |} '''Lydia''' ([[Assyria]]n: ''Luddu''; [[Greek language|Greek]]: ''{{polytonic|Λυδία}}'') was an [[Iron Age]] kingdom of western [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]] located generally east of ancient [[Ionia]] in [[Turkey]]'s modern provinces of [[Manisa Province|Manisa]] and non-coastal [[Izmir Province|İzmir]]. Its population spoke an [[Anatolian languages|Anatolian language]] known as [[Lydian language|Lydian]]. At its greatest extent, the Kingdom of Lydia covered all of western Anatolia. Lydia was later the name for a [[Roman province]]. [[Coin]]s were invented in Lydia around [[660 BC]]. ==Defining Lydia== {{Cleanup|section|date=April 2008}} Aside from a legend related by [[Herodotus]],<ref>Book I Chapter 7.</ref> who states that the name ''Lydia'' came from king [[Lydus]] at the time of the fall of [[Troy]] (the [[Bronze Age]]), and that Lydus' brother [[Tyrrhenus]] led the Tyrrhenians ([[Etruscans]]) to Italy, the name Lydia is limited to Greek and [[Assyrian]] records and Biblical passages no earlier than the 8th century BC. It seems to be associated with Guggu of Luddu ([[Gyges of Lydia|Gyges]]) in Assyrian records,<ref>{{cite book|first=Russell E.|last=Gmirkin|title=Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch|date=2006|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|location=London, New York|id=ISBN 0567025926|pages=page 143}}</ref> who acceded to the throne about 680 BC as the first of the [[List of Kings of Lydia|Mermnad Dynasty]]. Despite events portrayed as historic in [[Virgil]]'s epic poem the ''[[Aeneid]]'', the Bronze Age [[Sea Peoples|Sea People]] called the Teresh and the Etruscan-like language of the [[Lemnos stele]], the recent decipherment of [[Lydian language|Lydian]] and its classification as an Anatolian language mean that Etruscan and Lydian were not even in the same language family; moreover, there is no substantial evidence of Etruscans in Lydia. Since Ionia was between historical Lydia and the sea, the Lydians had no coastline from as early as at least the 10th century BC from which to launch and maintain fleets{{Fact|date=April 2008}}. Historic Lydia was not a maritime power, and there is no documentary evidence of any state or people possibly called Luddu before the 8th century BC. While the [[Hebrew Bible]] mentions ''[[Lud son of Shem|Lud]]'' in three different places, scholars of various religions are not agreed as to whether all these represent the same entity. The only instance generally agreed to refer to the Anatolian Lydia occurs in [[Isaiah]] 66:19 where Lud is listed with Javan (Ionia) as being one of the people "that draw the bow" who have not heard of God. The name Lydia and its Biblical and Assyrian forms appear to have been or were derived from an [[exonym]] assigned by the Ionian Greeks (who invaded the coastal part of their country) on the basis of some now unknown understanding{{Fact|date=April 2008}}. The [[endonym]] survives in a larger and more official body of records inscribed in bilingual and trilingual stone-carved notices of the [[Achaemenid Empire]]: [[Lydian language|Lydian]] Śfard, the [[satrapy]] of Sparda ([[Old Persian]]), [[Aramaic]] Saparda, [[Babylonian]] Sapardu, [[Elamitic]] Išbarda.<ref>{{cite book|first=J.|last=Tavernier|title=Iranica in the Achaemenid period (ca. 530-330 B.C.): Lexicon of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, attested in Non-Iranian Texts|publisher=Peeters|date=2007|id=ISBN 9042918330|pages=page 91}}</ref> These in the Greek tradition are associated with [[Sardis]], the capital city of [[Gyges]], constructed in the 7th century BC. The inscriptions mean, however, the entire state; moreover, the entire people{{Fact|date=April 2008}}. This array of names evidences the development of the [[Lydian language]] itself: Anatolian p became f and there was extensive [[syncope]] of vowels. Saparda must precede Śfard. If the [[Sepharad]] of the [[Hebrew Bible]] is Śfard that word can be dated to at least as early as 600 BC, before the Persians invaded Lydia{{Fact|date=April 2008}}. Like the Lydian language, the names Lydia and Śfard seem to have appeared out of the [[Greek Dark Ages]] without documentation of their immediate precedents or any known connections to the historical records of the [[Bronze Age]]{{Fact|date=April 2008}}. The cultural ancestors appear to have been associated with or part of the [[Luwians|Luwian]] political entity of [[Arzawa]] and yet Lydian is not part of the Luwian subgroup (as is [[Carian language|Carian]] and [[Lycian language|Lycian]]). The ancestral population was Anatolian but not Luwian{{Fact|date=April 2008}}. In this gap the Greeks placed the Maeonians of the [[Trojan Battle Order]] but the connections are essentially legendary; no documents illuminate them. ==Geography== The boundaries of historical Lydia varied across the centuries. It was first bounded by [[Mysia]], [[Caria]], Phrygia and coastal [[Ionia]]. Later on, the military power of [[Alyattes]] and Croesus expanded Lydia into an empire, with its capital at Sardis, which 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 [[Maeander]] was regarded as its southern boundary, and under Rome, Lydia comprised the country between Mysia and Caria on the one side and Phrygia and the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] on the other. ==Language== The [[Lydian language]] was an [[Indo-European language]] in the [[Anatolian languages|Anatolian language family]], related to [[Luwian]] and [[Hittite language|Hittite]]. It used many [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefixes]] and [[grammatical particle|particles]].<ref>[http://www.allaboutturkey.com/lidya.htm Lydia]</ref> Lydian finally became [[extinct language|extinct]] during the [[1st century BC|first century BC]]. ==History== ===Early history: Maeonia and Lydia=== Lydia arose as a [[Neo-Hittite]] kingdom following the collapse of the [[Hittite Empire]] in the twelfth century BC. In Hittite times, the name for the region had been [[Arzawa]], a Luwian-speaking area. According to Greek source, the original name of the Lydian kingdom was ''Maionia'' (or ''Maeonia''): [[Homer]] (''[[Iliad]]'' ii. 865; v. 43, xi. 431) refers to the inhabitants of Lydia as ''Maiones'' (Μαίονες). Homer describes their capital not as Sardis but as ''Hyde'' (''Iliad'' xx. 385); Hyde may have been the name of the district where Sardis stood.<ref>See Strabo xiii.626.</ref> Later, [[Herodotus]] (''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' i. 7) adds that the "Meiones" were renamed Lydians after their king, [[Lydus]] (Λυδός), son of [[Attis]], in the mythical epoch that preceded the rise of the Heracleid dynasty. This [[etiology|etiological]] [[eponym]] served to account for the [[Greek language|Greek]] ethnic name ''Lydoi'' (Λυδοί). The [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] term for Lydians, ''[[Ludim|{{unicode|Lûḏîm}}]]'' (לודים), as found in [[book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah 46.9]], is similarly considered to be derived from the eponymous [[Lud son of Shem]]; in Biblical times, the Lydian warriors were also famous archers. Some Maeones still existed in historical times in the upland interior along the [[River Hermus]], where a town called Maeonia existed, according to [[Pliny the Elder]] (''Natural History'' book v:30) 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 those myths involving Lydia are mainly in the realm of [[Greek mythology]]. For the Greeks, [[Tantalus]] was a primordial ruler of mythic Lydia, and [[Niobe]] his proud daughter; her husband [[Zethos]] linked the affairs of Lydia with [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], and through [[Pelops]] the line of Tantalus was part of the founding myths of [[Mycenae]]'s second dynasty.<ref>In reference to the myth of [[Bellerophon]], Karl Kerenyi remarked, in ''The Heroes of The Greeks'' 1959, p. 83. "As [[Lycia|Lykia]] was thus connected with [[Crete]], and as the person of [[Pelops]], the hero of Olympia, connected Lydia with the Peloponnesos, so Bellerophontes connected another Asian country, or rather two, Lykia and [[Caria|Karia]], with the kingdom of [[Argolid|Argos]]."</ref> In Greek myth, Lydia was also the first home of the double-axe, the ''[[labrys]]''.<ref>Sources noted in Karl Kerenyi, ''The Heroes of the Greeks'' 1959, p. 192.</ref> [[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 (mythology)|serpent]] of the river Sangarios; <ref>Thus appearing in the heavens as the constellation [[Ophiucus]] (Hyginus, ''Astronomica'' ii.14).</ref> and captured the simian tricksters, the [[Cercopes]]. Accounts speak of at least one son born to Omphale and Heracles: [[Diodorus Siculus]] (4.31.8) and [[Ovid]] (''Heroides'' 9.54) mention a son Lamos, while pseudo-Apollodorus (''[[Bibliotheke]]'' 2.7.8) gives the name Agelaus, and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (2.21.3) names Tyrsenus son of Heracles by "the Lydian woman." All three heroic ancestors indicate a Lydian dynasty claiming descent from Heracles. Herodotus (1.7) refers to a Heraclid dynasty of kings who ruled Lydia, yet were perhaps not descended from Omphale. He also mentions (1.94) 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, pointing out 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 of Lydia|Agron]] was the first to be a king, and included [[Alcaeus]], [[Belus]], and [[Ninus]] in their list of kings of Lydia. Strabo (5.2.2) makes Atys, father of Lydus and Tyrrhenus, to be a descendant of Heracles and Omphale. All other accounts place Atys, Lydus, and Tyrrhenus among the pre-Heraclid kings of Lydia. The gold deposits in the river [[Pactolus]] that were the source of the proverbial wealth of [[Croesus]] (Lydia's last historical king) were said to have been left there when the legendary king [[Midas]] of [[Phrygia]] washed away the "Midas touch" in its waters. ===First coinage=== [[Image:BMC 06.jpg|thumb|Early 6th century BC one-third stater coin.]] According to [[Herodotus]], the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coin, and the first to establish retail shops in permanent locations.<ref>Herodotus. ''Histories'', I, 94</ref> It is believed that these first stamped coins were minted around 650-600 BC. The first coin was made of [[electrum]], a naturally occurring [[alloy]] of gold and silver. It was made in the 1/3 [[stater]] (''trite'') denomination, meaning that it weighed 4.76 grams. It was stamped with a lion's head, the king's symbol. 14.1 grams of electrum was one stater (meaning "standard"). A stater was about one month's pay for a soldier. To complement the stater, fractions were made: the ''trite'' (third), the ''hekte'' (sixth), and so forth, including 1/24 of a stater, and even down to 1/48th and 1/96th of a stater. The 1/96 stater was only about 0.14 to 0.15 grams. The name of Croesus of Lydia became synonymous with wealth. Sardis was renowned as a beautiful city. Around 550 BC, Croesus paid for the construction of the [[Temple of Artemis|temple]] of [[Artemis]] at [[Ephesus]], one of the [[Seven Wonders of the ancient world]]. Croesus was beaten by [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus II]] [[Persian Empire|of Persia]] in 546 BC, and the kingdom became a [[satrapy]]. ===Autochthonous Dynasties=== {{main|List of Kings of Lydia}} [[Image:Map of Lydia ancient times.jpg|thumb|255px|Map of the Lydian Empire in its final period of sovereignty under [[Croesus]], 6th century BC.]] Lydia was ruled by three dynasties: '''Atyads''' (1300BC or earlier) - '''Heraclids''' (Tylonids) (to [[687 BC]]) 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<ref>[http://www.ancientanatolia.com/historical/lydian_period.htm Lydian Period of Anatolia]</ref>. 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 of Lydia|Gyges]], called ''Gugu of Luddu'' in Assyrian inscriptions (687-652 BC or (690-657 BC) - Once established on the throne, Gyges devoted himself to consolidating his kingdom and making it a military power. The capital moved 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 Mursylos — called Candaules "the Dog-strangler" (a title of the Lydian Hermes) 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 shaking off the Assyrian yoke. Some Bible scholars believe that Gyges of Lydia was the Biblical figure of [[Gog]], ruler of Magog, who is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and the [[Book of Revelation]]. *[[Ardys II]] (652-621BC) *[[Sadyattes]] (621-609BC) or (624-610BC) - Herodotus wrote (in Inquiries) that he fought with [[Cyaxares]], the descendant of Deioces, and with the [[Medes]], drove out the [[Cimmerians]] from Asia, took [[Smyrna]], which had been founded by colonists from Colophon, and invaded [[Clazomenae]] and [[Miletus]]. *[[Alyattes II]] (609 or 619-560BC) - one of the greatest rulers of Lydia. When Cyaxares attacked Lydia, the kings of [[Cilicia]] and [[Babylon]] intervened and negotiated a peace in 585 BC, whereby the [[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 fifteen-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]] (560-546 BC) - the expression "rich as Croesus" came from this king. The Lydian Empire came to an end when Croesus attacked the Persian Empire of [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus II]] and was defeated in 546 BC. ===Persian Empire=== {{main|Lydia (satrapy)}} In [[546 BC]], the [[Achaemenid]] king Cyrus II captured Sardis and Lydia became his satrapy. ===Hellenistic Empire=== Lydia remained a satrapy after Persia's conquest by the Macedonian king [[Alexander the Great|Alexander III]] [[Macedon|of Macedon]]. When Alexander's empire fell apart after his death, Lydia went to the major Asian diadoch dynasty, the [[Seleucids]], and when it was unable to maintain its territory in Asia Minor, Lydia fell to the [[Attalid]] dynasty of [[Pergamum]]. Its last king avoided the spoils and ravage of a Roman conquest war by leaving the realm by testament to the [[Roman Empire]]. ===Roman province of Asia=== {{FixBunching|beg}} [[Image:Roman Empire Asia.svg|thumb|right|250px|Roman province of Asia]] {{FixBunching|mid}} [[Image:15th century map of Turkey region.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Photo of a [[15th century]] map showing Lydia]] {{FixBunching|end}} When the Romans entered its capital Sardis in 133 BC, Lydia, as the other western parts of the Attalid legacy, became part of the [[Asia (Roman province)|province of Asia]], a very rich [[Roman province]], worthy of a governor of 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" who came from [[Thyatira]], in what had once been the satrapy of Lydia. Christianity spread rapidly in the 3rd century AD, centered on the nearby Exarchate of Ephesus. ===Roman province of Lydia=== Under the [[tetrarchy]] reform of Emperor [[Diocletian]] in [[296|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 (Ionian islands), it formed the [[diocese]] (under a ''[[vicarius]]'') of Asiana, which was part of the [[praetorian prefecture]] of Oriens, together with the dioceses Pontiana (most of the rest of Asia Minor), Oriens proper (mainly Syria), Aegyptus and Thraciae (on the Balkans, roughly Bulgaria). Under the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (610-641), Lydia became part of [[Anatolikon]], one of the original ''[[Theme (Byzantine administrative unit)|themata]]'', and later of [[Thrakesion]]. Although the [[Seljuk Turks]] conquered most of the rest of Anatolia for Islam, 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 [[İznik|Nicaea]]. ===Under Turkish rule=== Lydia finally fell to new Turkish ''[[Anatolian Turkish Beyliks|beylik]]s'', which were all absorbed by the Ottoman state in 1390. The area became part of the Ottoman ''[[vilayet]]'' (province) of [[Aydin]], ending up as the westernmost part of the modern republic of [[Turkey]]. ==Lydian gods== <div class="references-small"> {{col-begin}} {{col-break|width=25%}} *[[Anat| Annat]] *[[Anax]] *[[Artemis| Artimus]] *[[Asterios]] *[[Atargatis| Atergätus]] *[[Attis| Atys]] {{col-break|width=25%}} *[[Dionysus|Baki]]. See also [[Dionysus|Bacchus]] *[[Bassareus]] *[[Damasēn]] *[[Gugaie/Guge/Gugaia]] *[[Hermos]] *[[Hipta]] {{col-break|width=25%}} *[[Hyllus (river)| Hullos]] *[[Hermes| Kandaulēs]] *[[Kaustros]] *[[Kubaba| Kubebe]] *[[Demeter| Lamētrus]] *[[Lycus (river of Lydia)| Lukos]] {{col-break|width=25%}} *[[Lydian Lion]] *[[Mēles]] *[[Mopsus| Moxus]] *[[Omphale| Omfalē]] *[[Apollo| Pldans]] {{col-end}} </div> ==Notes== <!--This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add references to this article, please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php --> {{reflist}} ==References== *[http://rg.ancients.info/lion/article.html Goldsborough, Reid. "World's First Coin"] *[http://www.knaw.nl/publicaties/pdf/20021051.pdf R.S.P. Beekes. ''The Origin of the Etruscans''.] ==See also== {{commonscat|Maps of Lydia}} *[[List of Kings of Lydia]] *[[List of satraps of Lydia]] *[[Ludim]] *[[Digda]] == External links == * [http://www.livius.org/lu-lz/lydia/lydia.html Livius.org: Lydia] {{Historical regions of Anatolia}} {{History of Anatolia}} [[Category:Historical regions of Anatolia]] [[Category:Lydia| ]] [[Category:Ancient peoples]] [[Category:Archaeological sites in Turkey]] [[Category:History of Turkey]] [[am:ልድያ]] [[ca:Regne de Lídia]] [[cs:Lýdie]] [[cy:Lydia]] [[da:Lydien]] [[de:Lydien]] [[et:Lüüdia]] [[el:Λυδία]] [[es:Lidia]] [[eo:Lidio]] [[fa:لیدیه]] [[fr:Lydie]] [[gl:Reino de Lidia]] [[zh-classical:呂底亞]] [[ko:리디아]] [[id:Lydia]] [[it:Lidia]] [[he:לידיה]] [[la:Lydia (regnum)]] [[lt:Lydija]] [[hu:Lüdia]] [[nl:Lydië]] [[ja:リディア]] [[no:Lydia]] [[pl:Lidia (kraina)]] [[pt:Lídia (Anatólia)]] [[ru:Лидия]] [[sl:Lidija]] [[sr:Лидија (краљевина)]] [[fi:Lyydia]] [[sv:Lydien]] [[th:ลีเดีย]] [[tl:Lydia]] [[tr:Lidya]] [[uk:Лідія]] [[zh:呂底亞]]