Lydia
Ancient Anatolian kingdom / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Lydia (Ancient Greek: Λυδία, romanized: Lȳdiā; Latin: Lȳdia) was an Iron Age kingdom situated in the west of Asia Minor, in modern-day Turkey. The ethnic group inhabiting this kingdom are known as the Lydians, and their language as Lydian and their capital was Sardis.[1]
Kingdom of Lydia | |||||||||||||||||
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1200–546 BC | |||||||||||||||||
Capital | Sardis | ||||||||||||||||
Common languages | Lydian | ||||||||||||||||
Religion | Lydian religion | ||||||||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||||||
Kings[lower-alpha 1] | |||||||||||||||||
• 680–644 BC | Gyges | ||||||||||||||||
• 644–637 BC | Ardys | ||||||||||||||||
• 637–635 BC | Sadyattes | ||||||||||||||||
• 635–585 BC | Alyattes | ||||||||||||||||
• 585–546 BC | Croesus | ||||||||||||||||
Historical era | Iron Age | ||||||||||||||||
1200 BC | |||||||||||||||||
670–630s BC | |||||||||||||||||
612–600 BC | |||||||||||||||||
590–585 BC | |||||||||||||||||
546 BC | |||||||||||||||||
Currency | Croeseid | ||||||||||||||||
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The Kingdom of Lydia existed from about 1200 BC to 546 BC. At its greatest extent, during the 7th century BC, it covered all of western Anatolia. In 546 BC, it became a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, known as Sparda in Old Persian. In 133 BC, it became part of the Roman province of Asia.
The region of the Lydian kingdom was during the 15th–14th centuries BC part of the Arzawa kingdom. However, the Lydian language is usually not categorized as part of the Luwic subgroup, unlike the other nearby Anatolian languages Luwian, Carian, and Lycian.[2]
Lydian coins, made of silver, are among the oldest in existence, dated to around the 7th century BC.[3][4]