16 Facts About Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Usak, Manisa and inland Izmir.

Lydia is called Kisitan by Hayton of Corycus, a name which was corrupted to Quesiton in The Travels of Sir John Mandeville.

Lydia developed after the decline of the Hittite Empire in the 12th century BC.

In Greek myth, Lydia had adopted the double-axe symbol, that appears in the Mycenaean civilization, the labrys.

Lydia was succeeded by 19 Heraclid kings, names unknown, all succeeding father to son.

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In 644 BCE, Lydia faced a third attack by the Cimmerians, led by their king Lygdamis.

Alyattes died shortly after the Battle of the Eclipse, in 585 BCE itself, following which Lydia faced a power struggle between his son Pantaleon, born from a Greek woman, and his other son Croesus, born from a Carian noblewoman, out of which the latter emerged successful.

And, under Croesus's rule, Lydia continued its good relations started by Gyges with the Saite Egyptian kingdom, then ruled by the pharaoh Amasis II.

Lydia remained a satrapy after Persia's conquest by the Macedonian king Alexander III of Macedon.

Under the tetrarchy reform of Emperor Diocletian in 296 AD, Lydia was revived as the name of a separate Roman province, much smaller than the former satrapy, with its capital at Sardis.

Under the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, Lydia became part of Anatolikon, one of the original themata, and later of Thrakesion.

Lydia was captured finally by Turkish beyliks, which were all absorbed by the Ottoman state in 1390.

Lydia had numerous Christian communities and, after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, Lydia became one of the provinces of the diocese of Asia in the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Ecclesiastical province of Lydia had a metropolitan diocese at Sardis and suffragan dioceses for Philadelphia, Thyatira, Tripolis, Settae, Gordus, Tralles, Silandus, Maeonia, Apollonos Hierum, Mostene, Apollonias, Attalia, Hyrcania, Bage, Balandus, Hermocapella, Hierocaesarea, Acrassus, Dalda, Stratonicia, Cerasa, Gabala, Satala, Aureliopolis and Hellenopolis.

Bishops from the various dioceses of Lydia were well represented at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and at the later ecumenical councils.

Ancient episcopal sees of the late Roman province of Lydia are listed in the Annuario Pontificio as titular sees:.