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Lydia
Lydia (Ancient Greek: Λυδία, romanized: Ludía; Latin: Lȳdia) was an Iron Age 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 BCE, the Lydian people achieved some sort of political cohesion, and existed as an independent kingdom by the 600s BCE. At its greatest extent, during the 7th century BCE, it covered all of western Anatolia. In 546 BCE, it became a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, known as Sparda in Old Persian. In 133 BCE, it became part of the Roman province of Asia.
Lydian coins, made of electrum, are among the oldest in existence, dated to around the 7th century BCE.
Lydia is generally located east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland İzmir.
The boundaries of historical Lydia varied across the centuries. It was bounded first by Mysia, Caria, Phrygia and coastal Ionia. Later, the military power of Alyattes and Croesus expanded Lydia, which, with its capital at Sardis, controlled all Asia Minor west of the River Halys, except Lycia. After the Persian conquest the River Maeander was regarded as its southern boundary, and during imperial Roman times Lydia comprised the country between Mysia and Caria on the one side and Phrygia and the Aegean Sea on the other.
The Lydian language, which became extinct during the 1st century BCE, was an Indo-European language in the Anatolian language family, related to Luwian and Hittite. However, Lydian is usually not categorized as part of the Luwic subgroup, unlike the other nearby Anatolian languages Luwian, Carian, and Lycian.
Due to its fragmentary attestation, the meanings of many words are unknown but much of the grammar has been determined. Similar to other Anatolian languages, it featured extensive use of prefixes and grammatical particles to chain clauses together. Lydian had also undergone extensive syncope, leading to numerous consonant clusters atypical of most Indo-European languages.
Lydia's early history remains shrouded in obscurity. During the Late Bronze Age (1600 BCE-1200 BCE), the territory that later became Lydia overlapped with two kingdoms called Mira and Šeḫa, themselves part of a broader political entity called Arzawa. Like the other Arzawa Lands, these kingdoms had tumultuous relations with the Hittite Empire, acting both as allies, enemies, and vassals at various points in time.
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Lydia
Lydia (Ancient Greek: Λυδία, romanized: Ludía; Latin: Lȳdia) was an Iron Age 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 BCE, the Lydian people achieved some sort of political cohesion, and existed as an independent kingdom by the 600s BCE. At its greatest extent, during the 7th century BCE, it covered all of western Anatolia. In 546 BCE, it became a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, known as Sparda in Old Persian. In 133 BCE, it became part of the Roman province of Asia.
Lydian coins, made of electrum, are among the oldest in existence, dated to around the 7th century BCE.
Lydia is generally located east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland İzmir.
The boundaries of historical Lydia varied across the centuries. It was bounded first by Mysia, Caria, Phrygia and coastal Ionia. Later, the military power of Alyattes and Croesus expanded Lydia, which, with its capital at Sardis, controlled all Asia Minor west of the River Halys, except Lycia. After the Persian conquest the River Maeander was regarded as its southern boundary, and during imperial Roman times Lydia comprised the country between Mysia and Caria on the one side and Phrygia and the Aegean Sea on the other.
The Lydian language, which became extinct during the 1st century BCE, was an Indo-European language in the Anatolian language family, related to Luwian and Hittite. However, Lydian is usually not categorized as part of the Luwic subgroup, unlike the other nearby Anatolian languages Luwian, Carian, and Lycian.
Due to its fragmentary attestation, the meanings of many words are unknown but much of the grammar has been determined. Similar to other Anatolian languages, it featured extensive use of prefixes and grammatical particles to chain clauses together. Lydian had also undergone extensive syncope, leading to numerous consonant clusters atypical of most Indo-European languages.
Lydia's early history remains shrouded in obscurity. During the Late Bronze Age (1600 BCE-1200 BCE), the territory that later became Lydia overlapped with two kingdoms called Mira and Šeḫa, themselves part of a broader political entity called Arzawa. Like the other Arzawa Lands, these kingdoms had tumultuous relations with the Hittite Empire, acting both as allies, enemies, and vassals at various points in time.