Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "LYDIA Ancient country TURKEY" .
DALDI (Ancient city) LYDIA
Daldis (he Daldis: Eth. Daldianos), a town which Ptolemy places on
the borders of Phrygia and Lydia (v. 2); and Suidas (s. v. Artemidoros), in Lydia.
It was the birthplace of Artemidorus, the author of the Oneirocritica. There are
coins of the imperial period with the epigraph Daldianon. The site is unknown.
LYDIA (Ancient country) TURKEY
Lydia (Ludia Eth. Ludos, Lydus), a country in the western part of Asia Minor.
Its boundaries varied at different times. Originally it was a small kingdom in
the east of the Ionian colonies; but during the period of the Persian dominion
it extended to the south as far as the river Maeander, and, perhaps, even to Mount
Messogis, whence some writers speak of the Carian towns of Aromata, Tralles, Nysa,
and Magnesia on the Maeander, as Lydian towns, and Strabo (xii. p. 577) mentions
the Maeander as the frontier between Lydia and Caria. To the east it extended
as far as the river Lycus, so as to embrace a portion of Phrygia. In the time
of Croesus, the kingdom of Lydia embraced the whole of Asia Minor between the
Aegean and the river Halys, with the exception of Cilicia and Lycia. The limits
of Lydia during the Roman period are more definitely fixed; for it bordered in
the north on Mysia, from which it was separated near the coast by the river Hermus,
and in the inland parts by the range of Mount Temnus; to the east it bordered
on Phrygia, and to the south on Caria, from which it was separated by Mount Messogis.
To the west it was washed by the Aegean (Plin. v. 30; Strab. i. p. 58, ii. p.
130, xii. pp. 572, 577, &c.), whence it is evident that it embraced the modern
province of Sarukhan and the northern part of Sighla. This extent of country,
however, includes also Ionia, or the coast country between the mouth of the Hermus
and that of the Maeander, which was, properly speaking, no part of Lydia.
1. Physical Features of Lydia.
In the southern and western parts Lydia was a mountainous country, being bounded
on the south by the Messogis, and traversed by the range of Tmolus which runs
parallel to it, and includes the valley of the Caystrus. In the western parts
we have, as continuations of Tmolus, Mounts Dracon and Olympus in the north of
which rises Mount Sipylus. The extensive plains and valleys between these heights
are traversed in a western direction by the rivers Caystrus and Hermus and their
numerous tributaries. The whole country was one of the most fertile in the world,
even the sides of the mountains admitting of cultivation; its climate was mild
and healthy, though the country has at all times been visited by severe earthquakes.
(Xenoph. Cyrop. vi. 2. § 21; Strab. i. p. 58.) Its most important productions
were an excellent kind of wine, saffron, and gold. The accounts of the ancients
about the quantity of gold found in Lydia, from which Croesus was believed to
have derived his wealth, are no doubt exaggerated, for in later times the sand
of the river Pactolus contained no gold at all, and the proceeds of the gold mines
of Mount Tmolus were so small as scarcely to pay for the labour of working them.
(Strab. xiii. p. 591.) The plains about the Hermus and Caystrus were the most
fertile parts of the country, if we except the coast districts of Ionia. The most
celebrated of these plains and valleys bore distinct names, as the Cilbianian,
the Ccaystrian, the Hyrcanian; and the Catacecaumene in the north east. Some of
these plains also contained lakes of considerable extent, the most important of
which are the Gyagaea Lacus, on the north of the Hermus, and some smaller ones
in the neighbourhood of Ephesus, which were particularly rich in fish. The capital
of the country at all times was Sardes.
2. Names and Inhabitants of the Country.
In the Homeric poems the names Lycia and Lycians do not occur; but the people
dwelling about Mount Tmolus and Lake Gygaea, that is the country afterwards called
Lydia, bear the name Meones or Maeones (Meones, Il. ii. 865, v. 43, x. 431), and
are allied with the Trojans. The earliest author who mentions the name Lydians
is the lyric poet Mimnermus (Fragm. 14, ed. Bergk), whose native city of Colophon
was conquered by the Lydians. Herodotus (i. 7) states that the people originally
called Meones afterwards adopted the name of Lydians, from Lydus the son of Atys;
and he accordingly regards Lydians and Meonians as the same people. But some of
the ancients, as we learn from Strabo (xii. p. 572, xiv. p. 679), considered them
as two distinct races,--a view which is unquestionably the correct one, and has
been adopted in modern times by Niebuhr and other inquirers. A change of name
like that of Maeonians into Lydians alone suggests the idea of the former people
being either subdued or expelled by the latter. When once the name Lydians had
been established, it was applied indiscriminately to the nation that had been
conquered by them as well as to the conquerors, and hence it happens that later
writers use the name Lydians even when speaking of a time when there were no Lydians
in the country, but only Maeonians. We shall first endeavour to show who the Maeonians
were, and then proceed to the more difficult question about the Lydians and the
time when they conquered the Maeonians. The Maeonians unquestionably belonged
to the Indo-European stock of nations, or that branch of them which is generally
called Tyrrhenian or Pelasgian, for these latter inhabited Lesbos before the Greeks
took possession of those islands (Strab. v. p. 221, [p. 229] xiii. p. 621), and,
according to Menecrates the Elaean, the whole coast of Ionia, beginning from Mycale,
and of Aeolis. (Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 32.) They no doubt extended
beyond the coast into the interior of the country. The existence of a Pelasgian
population is probably also implied in the statement, that the most ancient royal
dynasty of Lydia were Heracleidae, and that Lydus was a brother of Tyrrhenus.
The Lydians, on the other hand, are expressly stated to have had nothing in common
with the Pelasgians (Dionys. i. 30), and all we know of them points to more eastern
countries as their original home. It is true that Herodotus connects the Heracleid
dynasty with that of Assyria, but if any value can be attached to this statement
at all, it refers only to the rulers; but it may be as unfounded as his belief
that most of the Greek institutions had been derived from Egypt. The lydians are
described as a kindred people of the Carians and Mysians, and all three are said
to have had one common ancestor as well as one common language and religion. (Herod.
i. 171.) The Carians are the only one of these three nations that are mentioned
by Homer. It is impossible to ascertain what country was originally inhabited
by the Lydians, though it is reasonable to assume that they occupied some district
near the Maeonians; and it is possible that the Phrygians, who are said to have
migrated into Asia from Thrace, may have pressed upon the Lydians, and thus forced
them to make conquests in the country of the Maeonians. The time when these conquests
took place, and when the Maeonians were overpowered or expelled, is conjectured
by Niebuhr (Lect. on Anc. Hist. vol. i. p. 87) to have been the time when the
Heracleid dynasty was supplanted by that of the Mermnadae, who were real Lydians.
This would place the conquest of Maeonia by the Lydians about the year B.C. 720.
The Maeonians, however, after this, still maintained themselves in the country
of the Upper Hermus, which continued to be called Maeonia; whence Ptolemy (v.
2. § 21) speaks of Maeonia as a part of Lydia. Pliny (v. 30) also speaks of the
Maeonii as the inhabitants of a district between Philadelphia and Tralles, and
Hierocles (p. 670) and other ecclesiastical writers mention there a small town
called Maeonia, which Mr. Hamilton (Researches, vol. ii. p. 139, &c.) is inclined
to identify with the ruins of Megne, about five miles west of Sandal. To what
branch of the human family the Lydians belonged is a question which cannot be
answered, any more than that about their original seats; all the Lydian words
which have been transmitted to us are quite foreign to the Greek, and their kinsmen,
the Carians, are described as a people speaking a barbarous language.
3. Institutions and Customs.
Although the Lydians must be regarded as barbarians, and although they were different
from the Greeks both in their language and in their religion, yet they were capable,
like some other Asiatic nations, of adopting or developing institutions resembling
those of the Greeks, though in a lesser degree than the Carians and Lycians, for
the Lydians always lived under a monarchy, and never rose to free political institutions.
They and the Carians were both gifted nations; they cultivated the arts, and were
in many respects little inferior to the Greeks. Previous to their conquest by
the Persians, they were an industrious, brave, and warlike people, and their cavalry
was regarded as the best at that time. (Herod. i. 79; Mimnerm. l. c.) Cyrus purposely
crushed their warlike spirit, forbade them the use of arms, and caused them to
practice dancing and singing, instead of cultivating the arts of war. (Herod.
i. 154; Justin, i. 8.) Their subsequent partiality to music was probably the reason
why the Greeks ascribed to them the invention of gymnastic games. (Herod. i. 94.)
The mode of life thus forced upon them by their conquerors gradually led them
to that degree of effeminacy for which they were afterwards so notorious. Their
commercial industry, however, continued under the Persian rule, and was a source
of great prosperity. (Herod. i. 14, 25, 51, &c.) In their manners the Lydians
differed but little from the Greeks, though their civilisation was inferior, as
is manifest from the fact of their daughters generally gaining their dowries by
public prostitution, without thereby injuring their reputation. (Herod. i. 93.)
The moral character of the Lydian women necessarily suffered from such a custom,
and it cannot be matter of surprise that ancient Greek authors speak of them with
contempt. (Strab. xi. p. 533, xiii. p. 627.) As to the religion of the Lydians
we know very little: their chief divinity appears to have been Cybele, but they
also worshipped Artemis and Bacchus (Athen. xiv. p. 636; Dionys. Perieg. 842),
and the phallus worship seems to have been universal, whence we still find enormous
phalli on nearly all the Lydian tombs. (Hamilton's Researches, vol. 1. p. 145.)
The Lydians are said to have been the first to establish inns for travellers,
and to coin money. (Herod. i. 94.) The Lydian coins display Greek art in its highest
perfection; they have no inscriptions, but are only adorned with the figure of
a lion, which was the talisman of Sardes. We do not know that the Lydians had
any alphabet or literature of their own: the want of these things can scarcely
have been felt, for the people must at an early period have become familiar with
the language and literature of their Greek neighbours.
4. History.
The Greeks possessed several works on the history of Lydia, and one of them was
the production of Xanthus, a native of Sardes, the capital of Lydia; but all have
perished with the exception of a few insignificant fragments. If we had the work
of Xanthus, we should no doubt he well informed on various points on which we
can now only form conjectures. As it is, we owe nearly all our knowledge of Lydian
history to Herodotus. According to him (i. 7) Lydia was successively governed
by three dynasties. The first began with Lydus, the son of Atys, but the number
of its kings is not mentioned. The second dynasty was that of the Heracleidae,
beginning with Agron, and ending with Candaules, whom the Greeks called Myrsilus.
The commencement of the Heracleid dynasty may be dated about B.C. 1200; they are
connected in the legend in Herodotus with the founder of Nineveh, which, according
to Niebuhr, means either that they were actually descended from as Assyrian family,
or that the Heracleid dynasty submitted to the supremacy of the king of Nineveh,
and thus connected itself with the race of Ninus and Belus. The Heracleids maintained
themselves on the throne of Lydia, in unbroken succession, for a period of 505
years. The third dynasty, or that of the Mermnadae, probably the first really
Lydian rulers, commenced their reign, according to some, in B.C. 713 or 716, and
according to Eusebius, twenty-two years later. Gyges, the first king of the Mermnad
dynasty, who is said to have murdered Candaules, is an entirely mythical personage,
at least the story which Herodotus relates about him is nothing but a popular
tradition. He reigned until B.C. 678, and conquered several of the adjacent countries,
such as a great part of Mysia and the shores of the Hellespont, and annexed to
his dominions the cities of Colophon and Magnesia, which had until then been quite
independent of both the Maeonians and the Lydians. Gyges was succeeded by Ardys,
who reigned from B.C. 678 to 629, and, continuing the conquests of his predecessor,
made himself master of Priene. His reign, however, was disturbed by the invasion
of his kingdom by the Cimmerians and Treres. He was succeeded by Sadyattes, of
whom nothing is recorded except that he occupied the throne for a period of twelve
years, from B.C. 629 to 617. His successor Alyattes, from B.C. 617 to 560, expelled
the Cimmerians from Asia Minor, and conquered most of the Ionian cities. In the
east he extended his dominion as far as the river Halys, where he came in contact
with Cyaxares the Mede. His successor Croesus, from B.C. 560 to 546, extended
his conquests so far as to embrace. the whole peninsula of Asia Minor, in which
the Lycians and Cilicians alone successfully resisted him. He governed his vast
dominions with justice and moderation, and his yoke was scarcely felt by the conquered
nations. But as both Lydia, and the Persian monarchy were conquering states, and
separated from each other only by the river Halys, a conflict was unavoidable,
and the kingdom of Lydia was conquered by Cyrus. The detail of these occurrences
is so well known that it does not require to be repeated here. Lydia became annexed
to the Persian empire. We have already noticed the measures adopted by Cyrus to
deprive the Lydians of their warlike character; but as their country was always
considered the most valuable portion of Asia Minor, Darius, in the division of
his empire, made Lydia and some small tribes, apparently of Maeonian origin, together
with the Mysians, the second satrapy, and demanded from it an annual tribute for
the royal treasury of 500 talents. (Herod. iii. 90.) Sardes now became the residence
of a Persian satrap, who seems to have ranked higher than the other governors
of provinces. Afterwards Lydia shared the fate of all the other Asiatic countries,
and more and more lost its nationality, so that in the time of Strabo (xiii. p.
631) even the language of the Lydians had entirely disappeared, the Greek having
taken its place. After the death of Alexander, Lydia was subject for a time to
Antigonus; then to Achaeus, who set himself up as king at Sardes, but was afterwards
conquered and put to death by Antiochus (Polyb. v. 57.) After the defeat of Antiochus
by the Romans, Lydia was annexed by them to the kingdom of Eumenes. (Liv. xxxviii.
39.) At a still later period it formed part of the proconsular province of Asia
(Plin. v. 30) and continued to retain its name through all the vicissitudes of
the Byzantine empire, until finally it fell under the dominion of the Turks.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SIPYLOS (Ancient city) LYDIA
Sipylus (Sipulos), a mountain of Lydia between the river Hermus and
the town of Smyrna; it is a branch of Mount Tmolus, running in a northwestern
direction along the Hermus. It is a rugged, much torn mountain, which seems to
owe its present form to violent convulsions of the earth. The mountain is mentioned
even in the Iliad, and was rich in metal. (Hom. Il. xxiv. 615; Strab. i. p. 58,
xii. p. 579, xiv. p. 680.) On the eastern slope of the mountain, there once existed,
according to tradition, an ancient city, called Tantalis, afterwards Sipylus,
the capital of the Maeonians, which was believed to have been swallowed up by
an earthquake, and plunged into a crater, afterwards filled by a lake, which bore
the name of Sale or Saloe (Strab. i. p. 58, xii. p. 579; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin.
v. 31; Paus. vii. 24. § 7). Pliny relates that the spot once occupied by Sipylus
was successively occupied by other towns, which he calls Archaeopolis, Colpe and
Lebade. Pausanias (v. 13. § 4) calls the lake the marsh of Tantalus, and adds
that his tomb was conspicuous near it, and that the throne of Pelops was shown
on the summit of the mountain above the temple of (Cybele) Plastene. The tops
of the houses of Sipylus were believed to have been seen under the water for some
time after (Paus. vii. 24. § 7); and some modern travellers, mistaking the ruins
of old Smyrna for those of Sipylus, imagine that they have discovered both the
remains of Sipylus and the tomb of Tantalus. Chandler (Travels in Asia Minor,
p. 331) thought that a small lake of limpid water at the north-eastern foot of
Mount Sipylus, not far from a sepulchre cut in the rock, might be the lake Sale;
but Hamilton (Researches, i. p. 49, foll.) has shown that the lake must be sought
for in the marshy district of Manissa.
In speaking of Mount Sipylus, we cannot pass over the story of Niobe,
alluded to by the poets, who is said to have been metamorphosed into stone on
that mountain in her grief at the loss of her children. (Hom. Il. xxiv. 614; Soph.
Antig. 822; Ov. Met. vi. 310; Apollod. iii. 5; Paus. viii. 2. § 3.) Pausanias
(i. 21. § 5) relates that he himself went to Mount Sipylus and saw the figure
of Niobe formed out of the natural rock; when viewed close he saw only the rock
and precipices, but nothing resembling a woman either weeping or in any other
posture; but standing at a distance you fancied you saw a woman in tears and in
an attitude of grief. This phantom of Niobe, says Chandler (p. 331), whose observation
has been confirmed by subsequent travellers, may be defined as an effect of a
certain portion of light and shade on a part of Sipylus, perceivable at a particular
point of view. Mount Sipylus now bears the name of Saboundji Dagh or Sipuli Dagh.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LYDIA (Ancient country) TURKEY
A district of Asia Minor, in the middle of the western side
of the peninsula, between Mysia on the north and Caria on the south, and between
Phrygia on the east and the Aegean Sea on the west. Its boundaries varied so
much at different times that they cannot be described with any approach to exactness
till we come to the time of the Roman rule over western Asia. At that time the
northern boundary, towards Mysia, was the range of mountains which form the
northern margin of the valley of the Hermus, called Sardene, a southwestern
branch of the Phrygian Olympus; the eastern boundary, towards Phrygia, was an
imaginary line; and the southern boundary, towards Caria, was the river Maeander,
or, according to some authorities, the range of mountains which, under the name
of Messogis (Kastane Dagh), forms the northern margin of the valley of the Maeander,
and is a northwestern prolongation of the Taurus. From the eastern part of this
range, in the southeast corner of Lydia, another branches off to the northwest,
and runs to the west far out into the Aegean Sea, where it forms the peninsula
opposite to the island of Chios. This chain, which is called Tmolus (Kisilja
Musa Dagh), divides Lydia into two unequal valleys, of which the southern and
smaller is watered by the river Cayster, and the northern forms the great plain
of the Hermus; these valleys are very beautiful and fertile, and that of the
Hermus especially is one of the most delicious regions of the earth. The eastern
part of Lydia and the adjacent portion of Phrygia, about the upper course of
the Hermus and its tributaries, is an elevated plain, showing traces of volcanic
action, and hence called Catacecaumene (katakekaumene). In early times the country
had another name, Maeonia (Meionie, Maionia), by which alone it is known to
Homer, who is himself sometimes spoken of as Maeonides; and this name was afterwards
applied specifically to the eastern and southern part of Lydia; and then, in
contradistinction to it, the name Lydia was used for the northwestern part.
In the mythical legends the common name of the people and
country, Lydi and Lydia, is derived from Lydus, the son of Atys, the first king.
The Lydians appear to have been a race closely connected with the Carians and
the Mysians, with whom they observed a common worship in the temple of Zeus
Carius at Mylasa; they also practised the worship of Cybele, and other Phrygian
customs. Amid the uncertainties of the early legends, it is clear that Lydia
was a very early seat of Asiatic civilization, and that it exerted a very important
influence on the Greeks. The Lydian monarchy, which was founded at Sardis before
the time of authentic history, grew up into an Empire, under which the many
different tribes of Asia Minor west of the river Halys were for the first time
united. Tradition mentioned three dynasties of kings: the Atyadae, which ended
(according to the backward computations of chronologers) about B.C. 1221; the
Heraclidae, which reigned 505 years, down to 716; and the Mermnadae, 160 years,
down to 556. Only the last dynasty can be safely regarded as historical, and
the fabulous element has a large place in the details of their history; their
names and computed dates were: (1) Gyges, B.C. 716-678; (2) Ardys, 678-629;
(3) Sadyattes, 629-617; (4) Alyattes, 617-560; (5) Croesus, 560 (or earlier)-546,
under whose names an account is given of the rise of the Lydian Empire in Asia
Minor and of its overthrow by the Persians under Cyrus. Under these kings the
Lydians appear to have been a highly civilized, industrious, and wealthy people,
practising agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, and acquainted with various
arts; and exercising, through their intercourse with the Greeks of Ionia, an
important influence on the progress of Greek civilization. Among the inventions
or improvements which the Greeks are said to have derived from them were the
weaving and dyeing of fine fabrics; various processes of metallurgy; the use
of gold and silver money, which the Lydians are said first to have coined, the
former from the gold found on Tmolus and from the golden sands of the Pactolus
(now Sarabat); and various metrical and musical improvements, especially the
scale or mode of music called the Lydian, and the form of the lyre called the
magadis. (See Lyra; Musica.) The Lydians had, also, public games similar to
those of the Greeks. Their high civilization, however, was combined with a lax
morality; and after the Persian conquest, when they were forbidden by Cyrus
to carry arms, they sank gradually into a by-word for effeminate luxuriousness,
and their very name and language had almost entirely disappeared by the commencement
of our era. Under the Persians, Lydia and Mysia formed the second satrapy. After
the Macedonian conquest Lydia belonged first to the kings of Syria, and next
(after the defeat of Antiochus the Great by the Romans) to those of Pergamus,
and so passed, by the bequest of Attalus III., to the Romans, under whom it
formed part of the province of Asia.
The chief cities of Lydia were Sardes (Sart), Magnesia (Manissa),
Thyatira (Ak Hissar), Philadelphia (Ala Shehir), and Hypaipa (Birghe).
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
(Maionia). The ancient name of Lydia. Hence Vergil gives the name of Maeonia to Etruria, because the Etruscans were said to be descended from Lydians. Hence also Homer, as a native of Maeonia, is called Maeonides and Maeonius senex, and his poems the Maeoniae chartae, or Maeonium carmen. Maeonis likewise occurs as a surname of Omphale and of Arachne, because both were Lydians.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
