Lydia

Lydia, ancient country, Asia

Lydia, ancient country, W Asia Minor, N of Caria and S of Mysia (now NW Turkey). The tyrant Gyges was the founder of the Mermnadae dynasty, which lasted from c.700 B.C. to 550 B.C. The little kingdom grew to an empire in the chaos that had been left after the fall of the Neo-Hittite kingdom. Lydia was proverbially golden with wealth, and the capital, Sardis, was magnificent. To Lydian rulers is ascribed the first use of coined money in the 7th cent. B.C. Lydia had close ties with the Greek cities of Asia, which were for a time within the Lydian empire. Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated (c.546 B.C.) Croesus, Lydia's last ruler, and Lydia was absorbed into the Persian Empire.

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Lydia, in the Bible

Lydia (lĭd`ēə), in the New Testament, Christian convert at whose house in Philippi Paul stayed. She was from Thyatira.

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Lydia

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.