The Lydians’ ancestors were contemporaries to the Hittites with sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile relationship. The Lydians continued to thrive in the central west Asia Minor during the Iron Age after the demise of the Hittites. When the Urartian kingdom was destroyed the Lydians extended their borders in the east to the Halys River. They reached their highest point in prosperity and became the major power in Asia Minor during the Mermnadae dynasty after the Phrygian kingdom was destroyed by the Cimmerians. With the fall of the Phrygian kingdom the Cimmerians turned their attention to the Lydians in 660 BC. The Lydians with assistance from the Assyrians were able to withstand against the Cimmerian attacks. However the Cimmerian threat was replaced later by another one, the Medes, the people from the Caspian sea. Now even the Assyrians were no help since the Medes defeated the Assyrians in 612 BC. The Medes armies, with fast cavalry, pushed west towards Halys river. The Lydian and Medes armies were engaged at the Halys river and fought five years until 595 BC. With no clear victor, eventually they agreed to have the Halys river as their new border. This new order was upset when one of the vassals of the Medes, the Persians, defeated the Medes in 553 BC and extended the Persian borders to the Halys River. Cyrus, the king of the Persians, in a military campaign, fought with Croesus, the king of the Lydians. However there was no clear winner. A year later, thinking that he might defeat the Persians, Croesus crossed the Halys river and attacked the Persians at Hattusas, the old Hittite capital. Again it was a draw. Croesus retreated to Sardis but the Cyrus came after him. Cyrus besieged Sardis in 547 BC. With the fall of the city and lost of a vast territory to the Persians in 546 BC Croesus committed suicide.

The Lydian Kings (in chronological order)

• Gyges (680-652 BC)
• Ardys (652-625 BC)
• Sadyattes (625-610 BC)
• Alyattes (610-575 BC)
• Croesus (575-546 BC)

Lydia lived its best period during the reign of king Croesus. He was a smart and humanistic king. However, when he was defeated by the Persian king, Cyrus in 546 BC the Lydian kingdom was destroyed and its civilization disappeared. Since Lydia was a buffer state between the Persian Empire and the small Ion city states all these small city states came under the control of the Persian Empire after Lydia’s demise.

The Lydians created a rich kingdom. There were a few sources of their wealth. One of them was the tributes received from the kingdoms they subjugated. The other was the gold mines in the Lydian lands. The Lydians were an Indo-European people, so they were using an Indo-European dialect. Their alphabet was very similar to the Hellene’s. Records about the deities of the Lydians are scarce. Some references mention about a deity named Attes related to Syrian Ate. The legend says that Attes was killed by a boar. Attes was both son and lover of mother-goddess Cybele that brings to the mind the Greek myth of Oedipus. The Croesus happened have a son named Atys who died at the very early age, which might be the origin to the legend. Also there is suggestion that Dionysus was a Thracian or Lydian deity.

The ceramic art, metal work, and ivory carving in Lydia were very advanced. Their ceramic art comprised of both authentic and Hellene influenced pieces. In sculpture and embossing they were influenced by the Hellenes, whereas in music the opposite was true. The Lydians sent their artists and craftsmen to Persia and their metal work to Greece, which seem to be cultural exchanges of the ancient times.

According to the Hellenes they invented the metal coin. However archaeologists were not able to confirm this claim. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the coins might be used for the first time by the Hellenes in Asia Minor.

The Lydians built their temples in flat areas and constructed grandiose Tumuli for their kings. These tumuli were even bigger than the ones built by the Phrygians. As far as architecture is concerned, other than Tumuli, not much else is left from the Lydians.

Excavations unearthed variety of terracotta, silver, marble, and gold artifacts, such as oil bottles, lidded boxes, perfume bottles, jugs, and bowls. Among found also were jars, vases, and silver oinochoe, in addition to sphinxes, seals, jewelry, figurines, and wall drawings. Some of these artifacts, which are called “The Treasure of Karun” or “The Lydian Treasure,” were illegally excavated and taken out of country.

One other noteworthy area the Lydians made improvement was the arrowheads. As opposed to the ones like a pencil tip used by the Hellenes, the Lydians developed arrowheads that had two sharp blades pointing backwards in addition to the sharp tip for penetration. The purpose of these sharp backward pointing blades was to cause maximum damage to the body when the arrow was pulled back.

Sources

1. “The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations,” Prepared by members of staff at the museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey.
2. Akurgal, Ekrem, “Anadolu Kültür Tarihi,” TÜBİTAK Popüler Bilim Kitaplari, April 2008, ISBN 978-975-403-107-2.
3. Hunter, Erica, “Anatolia before the Greeks,” University of Cambridge.
4. How, W. W., Wells, J., Project Gutenberg’s “A Commentary on Herodotus,” January 3, 2008 [EBook #24146].
5. Kuznetsova, Anna s., “Shamanism and the Orphic Tradition,” Centre for Ancient philosophy and the Classical Tradition, Novosibirsk State University, Russia

Further Reading

1. Rawlinson, George, Translated by, “The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus,” Omphaloskepsis, Ames, Iowa.