SARDIS

also spelled Sardes, ruined capital of ancient Lydia, near present Izmir, Turkey. Strategically located on a spur at the foot of Mount Tmolus (Boz Dag), it commanded the central plain of the Hermus Valley and was the western terminus of the Persian royal road. Sardis was the capital of the flourishing Lydian kingdom of the 7th century BC and was the first city where gold and silver coins were minted. From about 560 to about 546 Sardis was ruled by Croesus, who was renowned for his great wealth and was the last king of Lydia. Taken by the Persians (c. 546 BC), Sardis fell in turn to the Athenians, the Seleucids, and the Attalids until bequeathed to the Romans in 133 BC. Under the Roman Empire, it was the metropolitan capital and centre of judicial administration of the Roman province of Lydia. Destroyed by an earthquake in AD 17, the city was rebuilt and remained one of the great cities of Anatolia until the later Byzantine period. It was obliterated in 1402 by the Mongol Timur (Tamerlane). Its ruins include the ancient Lydian citadel and about 1,000 Lydian graves. Excavations of Sardis have uncovered more remains of the Hellenistic and Byzantine city than of the Lydian town described by the Greek historian Herodotus.