Lydia

Lydia, anciently a country of Asia Minor, bounded on the W. by Ionia, on the S. by Caria, on the E. by Phrygia, and on the N. by Mysia. It is said to have been originally inhabited by a people called Mæonians, though the Lydians, an allied tribe, probably occupied the plain of Sardis. The country was celebrated for its fruitful soil—except the barren Katakekaumene (burned up) volcanic region in the east—and its mineral wealth, particularly for the gold of the river Pactolus and of the neighbouring mines of Tmolus, but was in later ages infamous for the corruption of morals which prevailed amongst its inhabitants, and especially in Sardis (q.v.), its capital. The Lydians, shut out from the Ægean Sea by the Ionian Greeks, developed great commercial activity inland. They likewise distinguished themselves in the textile arts. They were believed to have been the inventors of coined money, and of dice and other games. Many elements of their civilisation seem to have been derived from the Hittites; Hittite governors ruled for some time at Sardis. The sun-god Attys and Cybele, the mother of the gods, the Hittite-Babylonian Tammuz and Istar, were the deities principally worshipped. Three dynasties are recorded to have ruled over ancient Lydia: the first, wholly mythical, was founded by Attys; the second, usually called the Heraclid, from its founder being a reputed son of Hercules by Omphale, has been identified with the Hittites; the third was founded by Gyges about 690 B.C. This king created a powerful Lydian empire, which attained its greatest period of splendour under his descendant Cræsus (q.v.) the rich, who was slain by Cyrus the Persian in 546. Sardis thereafter became the western capital of the Persian empire. Lydia was subsequently subject to Athens, Macedonia, and Rome one after the other. The merest fragments remain of the language, which was apparently Indo-European. For the Lydian mode, see HARMONY; and for Lydian stone, TOUCH-STONE.