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SARDIS

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 218 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SARDIS , more correctly SARDES (al lapbecs), the See also:

capital of the See also:ancient See also:kingdom of See also:Lydia, the seat of a conventus under the See also:Roman See also:Empire, and the See also:metropolis of the See also:province Lydia in later Roman and See also:Byzantine times, was situated in the See also:middle Hermus valley, at the See also:foot of Mt. Tmolus, a steep and lofty See also:spur of which formed the citadel. It was about zz m. S. of the Hermus. The earliest reference to Sardis is in the Persae of See also:Aeschylus (472 B.C.); in the Iliad the name See also:Hyde seems to be given to the See also: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 See also:original capital of the Maeonians, but that it became so amid the changes which produced the powerful Lydian empire of the 8th See also:century B.C. The city was captured by the Cimmerians in the 7th century, by the Persians and by the Athenians in the 6th, and by See also:Antiochus the See also:Great at the end of the 3rd century. Once at least, under the See also:emperor Tiberius, in A.D. 17, it was destroyed by an See also:earthquake; but it was always rebuilt, and was one of the great cities of western See also:Asia See also:Minor till the later Byzantine See also:time. As one of the Seven Churches of Asia, it was addressed by the author of the See also:Apocalypse in terms which seem to imply that its See also:population was notoriously soft and faint-hearted. Its importance was due, first to its military strength, secondly to its situation on an important See also:highway leading from the interior to the See also:Aegean See also:coast, and thirdly to its commanding the wide and fertile See also:plain of the Hermus.

The See also:

early Lydian kingdom was far advanced in the See also:industrial arts (see LYDIA), and Sardis was the See also:chief seat of its manufactures. The most important of these trades was the manufacture and See also:dyeing of delicate woollen stuffs and carpets. The statement that the little stream Pactolus which flowed through the See also:market-See also:place rolled over See also:golden sands is probably little more than a See also:metaphor, due to the See also:wealth of the city to which the Greeks of the 6th century B.C. resorted for supplies of See also:gold; but See also:trade and the organization of See also:commerce were the real See also:sources of this wealth. After See also:Constantinople became the capital of the See also:East a new road See also:system See also:grew up connecting the provinces with the capital. Sardis then See also:lay rather apart from the great lines of communication and lost some of its importance. It still, how-ever, retained its titular supremacy and continued to be the seat of the See also:metropolitan See also:bishop of the province of Lydia, formed in A.D. 295. It is enumerated as third, after See also:Ephesus and See also:Smyrna, in the See also:list of cities of the Thracesian thema given by See also:Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the loth century; but in the actual See also:history of the next four centuries it plays a See also:part very inferior to See also:Magnesia ad Sipylum and See also:Philadelphia (see See also:ALA-SHEHR), which have retained their pre-See also:eminence in the See also:district. The Hermus valley began to suffer from the inroads of the Seljuk See also:Turks about the end of the 11th century; but the successes of the See also:Greek See also:general Philocales in 1118 relieved the district for the time, and the ability of the Comneni, together with the See also:gradual decay of the Seljuk See also:power, retained it in the Byzantine dominions. The See also:country See also:round Sardis was frequently ravaged both by Christians and by Turks during the 13th century. Soon after 1301 the Seljuk amirs overran the whole of the Hermus and Cayster valleys, and a fort on the citadel of Sardis was handed over to them by treaty in 1306. Finally in 1390 Philadelphia, which had for some time been an See also:independent See also:Christian city, surrendered to See also:Sultan Bayezid's mixed See also:army of See also:Ottoman Turks and Byzantine Christians, and the Seljuk power in the Hermus valley was merged in the Ottoman empire.

The latest reference to the city of Sardis relates its See also:

capture (and probable destruction) by Timur in 1402. Its site is no* absolutely deserted, except that a tiny See also:village, Sart, merely a few huts inhabited by semi-nomadic Yuruks, exists beside the Pactolus, and that there is a station of the Smyrna & See also:Cassaba railway r m. See also:north of the See also:principal ruins. The ruins of Sardis, so far as they are now visible, are. chiefly of the Roman time; but though few ancient sites offered better See also:hope of results, the See also:necessity for heavy initial See also:expenditure was a deterrent (e.g. to H. See also:Schliemann). On the See also:banks of the Pactolus two columns of a See also:temple of the Greek See also:period, probably the great temple of See also:Cybele, are still See also:standing. More than one See also:attempt to excavate this temple, the last by G. See also:Dennis in 1882, has been made and prematurely brought to an end by lack of funds. In 1904 a few trial pits were sunk by M. Mendel for the Constantinople Museum, and the site was ultimately conceded to an See also:American See also:syndicate, for whom H. C. See also:Butler of See also:Princeton University undertook the task of excavation. The See also:necropolis of the old Lydian city, a vast See also:series of mounds, some of enormous See also:size, lies on the north See also:side of the Hermus, 4 or 5 m. from Sardis, a little See also:south of the sacred Gygaean See also:Lake, Coloe; here the Maeonian chiefs, sons, according to See also:Homer, of the lake, were brought to See also:sleep beside their See also:mother.

The series of mounds is now called See also:

Bin Tepe (Thousand Mounds). Several of them have been opened by See also:modern excavators, but in every See also:case it was found that treasure-seekers of an earlier time had removed any articles of value which had been deposited in the sepulchral See also:chambers. See K. Buresch, Aus Lydien (1898); G. Radet, La Lydie (1893) Kybebe (1908); W. M. See also:Ramsay, The Letters to the Several Churches (19o4), and See also:article in See also:Hastings' See also:Diet. of the See also:Bible (1902). (D. G.

End of Article: SARDIS

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