Sardis

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Sardis
S??de?? (in Greek)
The Bath-Gymnasium complex at Sardis, late 2nd - early 3rd century AD, Sardis,
Turkey (17098680002).jpg
The Greek gymnasium of Sardis
Sardis is located in Turkey Sardis
Shown within Turkey
Alternate name Sardes
Location Sart, Manisa Province, Turkey
Region Lydia
Coordinates 3829'18?N 2802'25?ECoordinates 3829'18?N 2802'25?E
Type Settlement
History
Abandoned Around 1402 AD
Cultures Greek, Lydian, Persian, Roman
Site notes
Excavation dates 19101914, 1922, 1958present
Archaeologists Howard Crosby Butler, G.M.A. Hanfmann, Crawford H. Greenewalt,
jr., Nicholas Cahill
Condition Ruined
Ownership Public
Public access Yes
Website Archaeological Exploration of Sardis

Sardis in the middle of Lydia (ca. 50 AD)

Sardis ('s??rd?s) or Sardes ('s??rdi?z; Lydian Sfard; Ancient Greek S??de??
Sardeis; Old Persian Sparda) was an ancient city at the location of modern Sart
(Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005) in Turkey's Manisa Province. Sardis was the
capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia,[1] one of the important cities of the
Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis
of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine times. As one of the Seven
churches of Asia, it was addressed by John, the author of the Book of Revelation in
the Holy Bible, in terms which seem to imply that its population was notoriously
soft and fainthearted. Its importance was due first to its military strength,
secondly to its situation on an important highway leading from the interior to the
Aegean coast, and thirdly to its commanding the wide and fertile plain of the
Hermus.

Contents [hide]
1 Geography
2 History
3 Archaeological expeditions
4 Sardis synagogue
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Geography[edit]
Sardis was situated in the middle of Hermus valley, at the foot of Mount Tmolus, a
steep and lofty spur which formed the citadel. It was about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi)
south of the Hermus. Today, the site is located by the present day village of Sart,
near Salihli in the Manisa province of Turkey, close to the Ankara - Izmir highway
(approximately 72 kilometres (45 mi) from Izmir). The part of remains including the
bath-gymnasium complex, synagogue and Byzantine shops is open to visitors year-
round.

History[edit]
See also Lydia (satrapy)
The Greek historian and father of history, Herodotus, notes that the city was
founded by the sons of Hercules, the Heraclides.The earliest reference to Sardis is
in The Persians of Aeschylus (472 BC); in the Iliad, the name Hyde seems to be
given to the city of the Maeonian (i.e. Lydian) chiefs and in later times Hyde was
said to be the older name of Sardis, or the name of its citadel. It is, however,
more probable that Sardis was not the original capital of the Maeonians, but that
it became so amid the changes which produced the powerful Lydian empire of the 8th
century BC.

Map of Sardis and Other Cities within the Lydian Empire

The city was captured by the Cimmerians in the 7th century BC, by the Persians in
the 6th, by the Athenians in the 5th, and by Antiochus III the Great at the end of
the 3rd century BC. In the Persian era, Sardis was conquered by Cyrus the Great and
formed the end station for the Persian Royal Road which began in Persepolis,
capital of Persia. During the Ionian Revolt, the Athenians burnt down the city.
Sardis remained under Persian domination until it surrendered to Alexander the
Great in 334 BC.

The early Lydian kingdom was very advanced in the industrial arts and Sardis was
the chief seat of its manufactures. The most important of these trades was the
manufacture and dyeing of delicate woolen stuffs and carpets. The stream Pactolus
which flowed through the market-place carried golden sands in early antiquity,
which was in reality gold dust out of Mount Tmolus. It was during the reign of King
Croesus that the metallurgists of Sardis discovered the secret of separating gold
from silver, thereby producing both metals of a purity never known before.[2] This
was an economic revolution, for while gold nuggets panned or mined were used as
currency, their purity was always suspect and a hindrance to trade. Such nuggets or
coinage were naturally occurring alloys of gold and silver known as electrum and
one could never know how much of it was gold and how much was silver. Sardis now
could mint nearly pure silver and gold coins, the value of which could be and was
trusted throughout the known world. This revolution made Sardis rich and Croesus'
name synonymous with wealth itself. For this reason, Sardis is famed in history as
the place where modern currency was invented.

Disaster came to the great city under the reign of the emperor Tiberius, when in AD
17, Sardis was destroyed by an earthquake, but it was rebuilt with the help of ten
million sesterces from the Emperor and exempted from paying taxes for five years.
[3] It was one of the great cities of western Asia Minor until the later Byzantine
period.

Remains of the Greek Byzantine shops in Sardis

Later, trade and the organization of commerce continued to be sources of great
wealth. After Constantinople became the capital of the East, a new road system grew
up connecting the provinces with the capital. Sardis then lay rather apart from the
great lines of communication and lost some of its importance. It still, however,
retained its titular supremacy and continued to be the seat of the metropolitan
bishop of the province of Lydia, formed in AD 295. It was enumerated as third,
after Ephesus and Smyrna, in the list of cities of the Thracesion thema given by
Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century. However, over the next four
centuries it was in the shadow of the provinces of Magnesia-upon-Sipylum and
Philadelphia, which retained their importance in the region.

After 1071 the Hermus valley began to suffer from the inroads of the Seljuk Turks
but the Byzantine general John Doukas reconquered the city in 1097, the successes
of the general Philokales in 1118 relieved the district from later Turkish pressure
and the ability of the Comneni dynasty together with the gradual decay of the
Seljuk Sultanate of Rum meant that it remained under Byzantine dominion. When
Constantinople was taken by the Venetians and Franks in 1204 Sardis came under the
rule of the Byzantine Empire of Nicea. However once the Byzantines retook
Constantinople in 1261, Sardis with the entire Asia Minor was neglected and the
region eventually fell under the control of Ghazi (Ghazw) emirs, the Cayster
valleys and a fort on the citadel of Sardis was handed over to them by treaty in
1306. The city continued its decline until its capture (and probable destruction)
by the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur in 1402.

Archaeological expeditions[edit]
Further information Byzantine churches at Sardis

The Greek Temple of Artemis at Sardis

By the 19th century, Sardis was in ruins, showing construction chiefly of the Roman
period. Early excavators included the British explorer George Dennis, who uncovered
an enormous marble head of Faustina the Elder, wife of the Roman Emperor Antoninus
Pius. Found in the precinct of the Temple of Artemis, it probably formed part of a
pair of colossal statues devoted to the