Phrygia and Lydia: Crossroads of Greek-Persian Empires in Ancient Anatolia

Outside of the Greek world in Asia Minor lay regions that constantly interacted with the Greeks. In the east, on the large central plateau, was Phrygia, known for its good pastures and horse-rearing aristocracy. The Greek colonies of Ionia had contact with it, and either the Phrygians adopted their alphabet or both shared a common script. The Phrygians supposedly had emigrated from Thrace during the late Bronze Age upheavels and were known as the Bryges, and according to Greek legend, they included the kings Midas and Gordius.

The Mycenaeans may have forced their departure from Thrace. Once arriving in Phrygia, the Phrygians helped with the destruction of the Hittites. Gordius established his capital at Gordium, which was mentioned by the epic poet Homer. In the Dark Ages, King Midas (738-698) ruled the region and fought with others from the region against Sargon II of Assyria. He successfully took over Cilicia in southeastern Asia Minor, but the Assyrians defeated him and forced him to become a vassal. In his later reign, the Cimmerians from the Caucasus Mountains defeated him and raided many of the western cities of Asia Minor. Midas sent gifts to Delphi and married a Greek princess from Cyme in Aeolis.

Contemporary with Midas was the Lydian kingdom under the Heraclid line, whose last king, Candaules, was assassinated in about 685 by Gyges, who established the Mermnad dynasty. Gyges (685-657) married Candaules’s widow and received the first known title of tyrannos from the Greek poet Archilochus. (However, the word may in fact be a Lydian term.) Gyges seized power through violence and established himself as absolute ruler, components of the Greek meaning of tyrant where one ruled outside hereditary power, usually seen with a coup. He attempted to ingratiate himself into the Greek world by presenting gifts to Delphi.

The new Lydian monarch attacked several Ionian cities and with his developed cavalry army defeated the city of Colophon, the strongest of the Ionian cities in the early seventh century. Although he defeated the city of Miletus in several battles, he could never take over the city. His inability to take the coastal city forced Gyges to seek a peaceful accommodation, so he made an alliance with Miletus. He was allied with the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, perhaps as a vassal, but he supported the Egyptian Psammetichus against Assyria. When the Cimmerians raided Lydia, Assyria refused to help, and Gyges was killed.

Gyges’s son Ardys (652-625) continued the war against the Cimmerians, as did Ardys’s son Sayattes (625-615). It was probably Sayattes who invented coinage, where a standard weight of metal was issued and marked by some kind of authority in order to replace the former system of bullion or bars of metal. Although his coins were not meant for everyday transactions (they were each valued at a half or full year’s salary), they were probably used as an accounting method and to pay mercenaries. Sayattes’s son Alyattes (617-560), who was also credited with inventing coinage, successfully drove out the Cimmerians.

Under Alyattes, the Lydian kingdom expanded east to the Halys River and came into conflict with Cyaxeres of Media. It was during his reign that the Medes, Scythians, and Cimmerians attacked Assyria and, aided by Babylon, defeated it. It is possible that Alyattes helped in this war since the Assyrians did not aid his great-grandfather, Gyges. Alyattes wanted to create a Lydian empire and to that end moved west to the coast of Asia Minor, where he captured the allies of Ephesus and Smyrna, and had his daughter married to its tyrant, Melas. His attempt to take Clazomenae and Miletus failed, but he made an alliance with Miletus by helping to reconstruct their sanctuary at Didyma. The Greek cities during his reign feared that Lydia would take over the entire coastal region and subject the Greeks to foreign domination.

Alyattes’s son was Croesus, who ruled from 560-546 and became known for his great wealth. He consistently sent gifts to Delphi and helped Ephesus restore its Artemisium. During this time, Ephesus became a dependent of Croesus, which allowed him to continue his advance into the Ionian cities. Lydia under Croesus accomplished what Alyattes could not—control of the Greek cities. He did not rule these cities but rather dominated them. His capital, Sardis, became a center for international commerce and trade.

Croesus would receive visitors, including the famous Solon of Athens, making Sardis a cosmopolitan city. In 546, Croesus marched east to fight Cyrus of Persia at the River Halys. Although the battle was indecisive, Croesus retired to Sardis for the winter and attempted to get aid from the Greek cities and Egypt to fight Cyrus again. The Persians, however, did not retire after the battle; rather, they pursued Croesus to Sardis. With his army disbanded for the winter, Croesus could not withstand the Persian attack and fell.

Sardis was then the capital of the Persian satrapy of Lydia. Cyrus of Persia appointed Tabalus, but the Lydians under Pactyes, whom Cyrus had charged to deal with Croesus’s treasury, rebelled and besieged Tabalus in the acropolis. Cyrus sent his generals, Mazares and Harpagus, to deal with the insurrection. Cyrus was contemplating destroying Sardis, but Croesus, now the prisoner of and counsellor to Cyrus, recommended that Sardis be spared and that Lydia would soon comply. Cyrus agreed, and his general moved against the rebels. Pacytes fled and Mazares followed, taking over the Ionian cities of Priene and Magnesia, and then Mazares captured Pacytes and sent him back to Cyrus, who executed him. Mazares continued his war in Asia Minor but soon died. Cyrus sent Harpagus to replace him, who completed the conquest of Asia Minor, including Ionia, Phoenicia, Caria, and Lycia; he was known for using earthworks and mounds for besieging cities.

Cyrus then put Oroetes in place as satrap of Lydia in Sardis who also ruled during Cambyses’s reign and the chaotic period afterward. He took over Samos and had Polycrates executed. When Darius was made king, Oroetes defied his power and was executed by Bagaeus. Under the next satrap, Otanes, he later successfully took Byzantium and other cities in the Troad in the war. He was succeeded by Artaphernes, the brother of Darius, who was made satrap in about 510 and took an active role in defeating the Greeks during the Ionian rebellion. It was under his rule that the Athenians in 507 asked for help and in return submitted to giving Earth and Water, which was a sign of submission to the Persians; he also informed Athens that they should take back the tyrant Hippias or face Persian attack.

They refused, and in 499, the Athenians returned and burned Sardis after Artaphernes had sent troops to Miletus. Artaphernes retreated to the acropolis and citadel and held them. Afterward, he led his army against the Greek Ionian cities and defeated them. After putting down the rebellion, Artaphernes assessed the lands, and on the advice of Hecataeus, the Milesian historian and geographer, he was lenient with the assessments of the recently rebelled. In 492, Artaphernes was replaced by Mardonius as satrap, and then by Artaphernes II, the son of the earlier leader, who helped with the invasion of Persia at Marathon and Xerxes’s invasion in 480. Sardis became the meeting point of the troops marching to Greece under Xerxes.