Sardis
Sardis, once the terminus of the Persian royal road from Susa (in modern Iran), was an ancient city in today's Turkey, famed as the capital of the kingdom of Lydia. The city is situated on the Sart River (the ancient Pactolus), 90 kilometers inland along the road from Izmir. Hittite records show that King Tudhaliyas IV campaigned against the Assuwa in this area in the late second millennium BCE; pottery remains indicate that the Greeks captured Sardis at the time of the siege of Troy (c. 1200 BCE); the first ruling dynasty of the region claimed descent from Herakles.
Gyges (c. 680–652 BCE), of a Lydian tribe called the Mermnadae, murdered his predecessor and married the queen of the region of Sardis; the oracle at Delphi supported the usurper but predicted that the descendants of Herakles would be revenged. Gyges and his successor kings of Lydia minted the world's first coins, of gold stamped with a lion's head, exploiting the gold washed down by the Pactolus River. Commanding the road system and thus trade, Lydia expanded by capturing Ionian cities on the coast.
King Croesus (reigned 560–546 BCE) made peace with the Ionians and defeated the Cimmerians, nomads from the north, to reach a common frontier with Persia on the Halys River. Lydia blossomed under Croesus, and when the oracle at Delphi ambiguously advised the king that if he attacked the Persians he would destroy a great empire, Croesus invaded Persia. His invasion was quickly routed, and Cyrus, the Persian ruler, besieged and captured Sardis; Croesus's own empire, not that of the Persians, had been destroyed.
The Persian satrap of Lydia was unable to prevent Sardis from being burned during the Ionian revolt (499–494 BCE), but the kingdom was peacefully ceded to Alexander of Macedon after the battle of Granicus (334 BCE). After Alexander's death Sardis fell to the Seleucids.
In 189 BCE the battle of Magnesia was fought nearby, and the Pergamene kings ended Seleucid rule in Asia Minor. From 133 BCE Sardis fell under Roman rule; trade prospered; the population grew to 100,000, with a high Jewish and Christian element guaranteed by Imperial decree; and the city became the seat of one of the seven churches of Asia Minor, persisting in importance during the Byzantine era. Timur (Tamerlane) finally destroyed Sardis in 1402 CE.
The most striking feature of the extensive site is the steep acropolis with the ruins of the palace of Croesus, but most ruins are on low ground near the river. In 1910–1914, a Princeton University archaeological expedition excavated the huge temple of Artemis; work continued in the 1950s, and parts of the temple have been reerected. Other excavations have revealed the riverside site of the gold refinery with a shrine to Cybele. A huge Roman civic center, currently under reconstruction, was erected after an earthquake in 17 CE and includes a gymnasium with baths surrounding a marble court. Rows of shops and a synagogue line a main street due north of a residential area.
Tumuli, or burial mounds, heaped above the tombs of the Lydian kings have been identified three kilometers east of the site in an area known as Bin Tepe (1,000 hills); the largest is the tomb of King Alyattes. The grave goods in the huge tumuli were raided long ago.
Further Reading
Akurgal, Ekrem. (1969) Ancient Civilizations and Ruins of Turkey. Ankara, Turkey: Haslet Kitabevi.
Darke, Diana. (1989) Discovery Guide to Aegean and Mediterranean Turkey. London: Michael Haag.
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