Lydian Kingdom

Lydia (Λυδία)
Ancient Region of Anatolia
Map of the Lydian Empire in its final period of sovereignty under Croesus, c. 547 BCE. (7th-century BCE boundary in red.
Location	Western Anatolia, Salihli, Manisa, Turkey
State existed	1200–546 BCE
Language	Lydian
Historical capitals	Sardis
Notable rulers	Gyges, Croesus
Persian satrapy	Lydia
Roman province	Asia, Lydia
Anatolia/Asia Minor in the Greco-Roman period. The classical regions, including Lydia, and their main settlements

Lydia (Assyrian: Luddu; Greek: Λυδία, Lydía; Turkish: Lidya) was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian. Its capital was Sardis.

The Kingdom of Lydia existed from about 1200 BCE to 546 BCE. At its greatest extent during the 7th century BCE, it covered all of western Anatolia. In 546 BCE, it became a province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, known as the satrapy of Lydia or Sparda in Old Persian. In 133 BCE, it became part of the Roman province of Asia.

Coins are said to have been invented in Lydia around the 7th century BCE.

The endonym Śfard (the name the Lydians called themselves) survives in bilingual and trilingual stone-carved notices of the Achaemenid Empire: the satrapy of Sparda (Old Persian), Aramaic Saparda, Babylonian Sapardu, Elamitic Išbarda, Hebrew סְפָרַד. These in the Greek tradition are associated with Sardis, the capital city of King Gyges, constructed during the 7th century BCE.