|
Lydia
Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, the Lydian people achieved some sort of political cohesion, and existed as an independent kingdom by the 600s BC. At its greatest extent, during the 7th century BC, it covered all of western Anatolia. In 546 BC, it became a Lydia (satrapy), satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, known as ''Sparda'' in Old Persian. In 133 BC, it became part of the Roman Republic, Roman Asia (Roman province), province of Asia. Lydian coins, made of electrum, are among the oldest in existence, dated to around the 7th century BC. Geography Lydia is generally located east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak Province, Uşak, Manisa Province, Manisa and inland İzmir Province, İzmir.Rhodes, P.J. ''A History of the Classical Greek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alyattes
Alyattes ( Lydian language: ; ; reigned c. 635 – c. 585 BC), sometimes described as Alyattes I, was the fourth king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Sadyattes, grandson of Ardys, and great-grandson of Gyges. He died after a reign of 57 years and was succeeded by his son Croesus. Alyattes was the first monarch who issued coins, made from electrum (and his successor Croesus was the first to issue gold coins). Alyattes is therefore sometimes mentioned as the originator of coinage, or of currency. Name The most likely etymology for the name derives it, via a form with initial digamma (), itself originally from a Lydian ( Lydian alphabet: ). The name meant "lion-ness" (i.e. the state of being a lion), and was composed of the Lydian term (), meaning "lion", to which was added an abstract suffix (). Chronology Dates for the Mermnad kings are uncertain and are based on a computation by J. B. Bury and Russell Meiggs (1975) who estimated c.687–c.652 BC fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lydian Religion
The Lydian religion refers to the mythology, ritual practices and beliefs of the Lydians, an ancient people of Iron Age Anatolia. Based on limited evidence, Lydian religious practices were centred around the fertility of nature, as was common among ancient societies which depended on the successful cultivation of land. Sources The Lydian religion is marginally attested due to the known sources covering it being largely of Greek origin, while Lydian inscriptions regarding religion are small in number and no Lydian corpus of ritual texts like the Hittite ritual tablets have been recovered. Development The early Lydian religion exhibited strong connections to Anatolian as well as Greek traditions. Although Lydia had been conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire in , native Lydian traditions were not destroyed by Persian rule, and most Lydian inscriptions were written during this period. Despite the small size of the recorded Lydian corpus, the various inscriptions relating t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lydian Language
Lydian is an extinct Indo-European language, Indo-European Anatolian languages, Anatolian language spoken in the region of Lydia, in western Anatolia (now in Turkey). The language is attested in graffiti and in coin legends from the late 8th century or the early 7th century to the 3rd century BCE, but well-preserved inscriptions of significant length are so far limited to the 5th century and the 4th century BCE, during the period of Achaemenid Empire, Persian domination. Thus, Lydian texts are effectively contemporaneous with those in Lycian language, Lycian. Strabo mentions that around his time (1st century BCE), the Lydian language was no longer spoken in Lydia proper but was still being spoken among the multicultural population of Kibyra (now Gölhisar) in southwestern Anatolia, by the descendants of the Lydians, Lydian colonists, who had founded the city. Text corpus and decipherment In 1916 the Sardis bilingual inscription, a bilingual inscription in Aramaic and Lydian all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Croesus
Croesus ( ; ; Latin: ; reigned: ) was the Monarch, king of Lydia, who reigned from 585 BC until his Siege of Sardis (547 BC), defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 547 or 546 BC. According to Herodotus, he reigned 14 years. Croesus was renowned for his wealth; Herodotus and Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias noted that his gifts were preserved at Delphi. The fall of Croesus had a profound effect on the Greeks, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least", James Allan Stewart Evans, J. A. S. Evans has remarked, "Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology." Name The name of Croesus was not attested in contemporary inscriptions in the Lydian language. In 2019, D. Sasseville and K. Euler published a research of Lydian coins apparently minted during his rule, where the name of the ruler was rendered as ''Qλdãns''. The name comes from the Latin language, Latin transliteration of the Greek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lydian People
The Lydians (Greek language, Greek: Λυδοί; known as ''Sparda'' to the Achaemenids, Old Persian cuneiform Wikt:𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭, 𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭) were an Anatolians, Anatolian people living in Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spoke the distinctive Lydian language, an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language of the Anatolian languages, Anatolian group. Questions raised regarding their origins, reaching well into the 2nd millennium BC, continue to be debated by language historians and archeologists. A distinct Lydian culture lasted, in all probability, until at least shortly before the Common Era, having been attested the last time among extant records by Strabo in Kibyra in south-west Anatolia around his time (1st century BC). The Lydian capital was at ''Sfard'' or Sardis. Their recorded history of statehood, which covers three dynasties traceable to the Late Bronze Age, reached the height of its power and achievements during the 7th and 6th centuries BC, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gyges Of Lydia
Gyges (reigned c. 680–644 BC) was the founder of the Mermnad dynasty of Lydian kings and the first known king of the Lydian kingdom to have attempted to transform it into a powerful empire. Gyges reigned 38 years according to Herodotus. Attestations and etymology The name is derived from the Ancient Greek form () recorded by Graeco-Roman authors. In addition, the annals of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal refer several times to , king of , to be identified with Gyges, king of the Lydians. and are respectively the Akkadian and Greek forms of the Lydian name (), which means "grandfather". is derived from a common Proto-Indo-European root from which evolved Hittite (), Luwian () and (), and Lycian () in the Anatolian languages family, as well as Latin , all meaning "grandfather". Another derivation for suggests that it might be a loanword from Carian (), which was represented in Greek as (), and was a cognate of the various Anatolian words for "grandfather": ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sardis
Sardis ( ) or Sardes ( ; Lydian language, Lydian: , romanized: ; ; ) was an ancient city best known as the capital of the Lydian Empire. After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Lydia (satrapy), satrapy of Lydia and later a major center of Hellenistic Greece, Hellenistic and Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine culture. Now an active archaeological site, it is located in modern day Turkey, in Manisa Province, near the town of ''Sart, Salihli, Sart''. History Sardis was occupied for at least 3500 years. In that time, it fluctuated between a wealthy city of international importance and a collection of modest hamlets. Early settlement Sardis was settled before 1500 BC. However, the size and nature of early settlement is not known since only small extramural portions of these layers have been excavated. Evidence of occupation consists largely of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age pottery which shows affinities with Mycenaean Greece and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lydian–Milesian War
The Lydian–Milesian War was a military conflict between the Kingdom of Lydia and the ancient Greek city state of Miletus. It took place during the 7th century BC in the Archaic period, traditionally set between 612 and 600 BC. The main source of the war is Herodotus, who wrote about it in the opening chapters of his '' Histories''. The war ended after 12 years when the tyrant of Miletus, Thrasybulus of Miletus, convinced the Lydian king Alyattes to sue for peace with a ruse, after which an alliance between the two states was forged.A.D Godley. ''The Persian Wars, Volume I: Books 1–2 (Loeb Classical Library)'' 1.22. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Herodotus/1a*.html. Accessed 6 Apr. 2023. Amongst other things, the length of the war has caused debate among modern historians. The date of the war According to Herodotus, the war broke out during the reign of king Sadyattes of the Mermnad dynasty () and went on for six years, until the king died and his son A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cimmerians
The Cimmerians were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into West Asia. Although the Cimmerians were Scythian cultures, culturally Scythian, they formed an ethnic unit separate from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related and who displaced and replaced the Cimmerians.: "As the Cimmerians cannot be differentiated archeologically from the Scythians, it is possible to speculate about their Iranian origins. In the Neo-Babylonian texts (according to D’yakonov, including at least some of the Assyrian texts in Babylonian dialect) and similar forms designate the Scythians and Central Asian Saka, reflecting the perception among inhabitants of Mesopotamia that Cimmerians and Scythians represented a single cultural and economic group" The Cimmerians themselves left no written records, and m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ardys Of Lydia
Ardys (, also ; , ; reigned 644–637 BC) was the son of Gyges of Lydia, whom he succeeded as the second king of the Mermnad dynasty. Name The name is the Latin form of (), which is itself the Hellenised form of a Lydian language name which was a cognate of either the Hittite bird-name or of the Hittite word for descendant, (). Life Background During the 7th century BC, the Cimmerians, a nomadic people from the Eurasian Steppe who had invaded Western Asia, attacked Lydia several times but had been repelled by Ardys's father, Gyges. In 644 BC, the Cimmerians attacked Lydia for the third time, led by their king Lygdamis. The Lydians were defeated, Sardis was sacked, and Ardys's father Gyges was killed, following which Ardys became the king of Lydia. Reign On assuming kingship, Ardys resumed the diplomatic activity with the Neo-Assyrian Empire which Gyges had ended. Ardys attacked the Ionian Greek city of Miletus and succeeded in capturing the city of Priene, after which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Thymbra
The Battle of Thymbra was the decisive battle in the war between Croesus of the Lydian Kingdom and Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus, after he had pursued Croesus into Lydia after the drawn Battle of Pteria, met the remains of Croesus' partially-disbanded army in battle on the plain north of Sardis in December 547 BC. Croesus' army was about twice as large and had been reinforced with many new men, but Cyrus still utterly defeated it. That proved to be decisive, and after the 14-day Siege of Sardis, the city and possibly its king fell, and Lydia was conquered by the Persians. Background Cyrus conquered the Kingdom of Media in 550 BC, which created conflict with the neighboring Lydian Kingdom. Cyrus planned to catch the Lydian king unprepared for battle, but at Thymbra, Croesus had more than twice as many men as Cyrus. The Lydians marched out to meet Cyrus and quickly armed all the reserves there before their allies could arrive, which they never did. According ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sadyattes
Sadyattes (; ; reigned 637–) was the third king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Ardys and the grandson of Gyges of Lydia. Sadyattes reigned 12 years according to Herodotus. Reign Background Sadyattes came to power during period of severe crisis that Lydia was facing because of several waves of invasions by the Cimmerians, a nomadic people from the Eurasian Steppe who had invaded the Western Asia. The Cimmerians attacked Lydia several times but had been repelled by Sadyattes's grandfather, Gyges, but in 644 BC, the Cimmerians attacked Lydia for the third time, led by their king Lygdamis. The Lydians were defeated, Sardis was sacked, and Gyges was killed, following which he was succeeded by his son, Ardys, who was the father of Sadyattes. In 637 BC, that is in Ardys's seventh regnal year, the Thracian Treres tribe who had migrated across the Thracian Bosporus and invaded Anatolia, under their king Kobos, and in alliance with the Cimmerians and the Lycians, attac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
