Lydia

/lid"ee euh/, n.

1. an ancient kingdom in W Asia Minor: under Croesus, a wealthy empire including most of Asia Minor.

2. a female given name.

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I

Ancient land, western Anatolia.

Located in present-day Turkey, it was bounded on the west by the Aegean Sea and profoundly influenced the Ionian Greeks in the 7th–6th centuries BC through such economic developments as the use of metallic coinage. It was conquered by the Persians under Cyrus II in 546 BC. It later passed to Syria and Pergamum, and under the Romans it became part of the province of Asia.

II

(as used in expressions)

Lydia Kamakaeha

Child Lydia Maria

Lydia Maria Francis

Pinkham Lydia Estes

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▪ ancient region, Anatolia

      ancient land of western Anatolia, extending east from the Aegean Sea and occupying the valleys of the Hermus and Cayster rivers. The Lydians were said to be the originators of gold and silver coins (coin). During their brief hegemony over Asia Minor from the middle of the 7th to the middle of the 6th century BC, the Lydians profoundly influenced the Ionian Greeks to their west.

      In the 7th century BC Lydia filled the vacuum left by the Cimmerian destruction of Phrygia and established a dynasty at Sardis under the legendary king Gyges. The kingdom reached its zenith under Alyattes (c. 619–560), who parried a Median threat, pushed back the Cimmerians (Cimmerian), and extended his rule in Ionia. The kingdom seemed destined to reach even greater heights under Alyattes' son, the wealthy Croesus, when the Persians under Cyrus brought the Lydian monarchy to a final and dramatic end (c. 546–540).

      The Lydians were a commercial people, who, according to Herodotus, had customs like the Greeks and were the first people to establish permanent retail shops. Their invention of metallic coinage, which the Greeks quickly adopted, played an important part as a catalyst in the commercial revolution that transformed Greek civilization in the 6th century BC.

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