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121-571: The name of Croesus was not attested in contemporary inscriptions in the Lydian language . In 2019, D. Sasseville and K. Euler published a research of Lydian coins apparently minted during his rule, where the name of the ruler was rendered as Qλdãns . The name Croesus comes from the Latin transliteration of the Greek Κροισος Kroisos , which was thought to be the ancient Hellenic adaptation of

242-400: A , 𐤤 e , 𐤦 i , 𐤬 o , 𐤰 u , 𐤵 ã , and 𐤶 ẽ , the last two being nasal vowels, typically before a ( synchronic or diachronic ) nasal consonant (like n , ñ or m ). The vowels e , o , ã , and ẽ occur only when accented. A vowel or glide 𐤧 y appears rarely, only in the oldest inscriptions, and probably indicates an allophone of i or e that

363-632: A Celtic people who first came to Anatolia as mercenaries hired by Nicomedes I of Bithynia . The Galatians ultimately settled in Phrygia, including at Gordion. The settlement at Gordion during the Hellenistic period shows a distinctly residential character, with large houses built over the public buildings on the Citadel Mound and no evidence of habitation in the Lower or Outer Towns. In 189 BCE,

484-630: A Cimmerian incursion and was probably accidental in nature, with no indications of a military attack. A date of c. 800 BCE for the Early Phrygian Destruction Level has been widely accepted by scholars working throughout Central Anatolia, with objections voiced only by Muscarella and Keenan. The c. 800 BCE destruction level marks the change from the Early Phrygian period to the Middle Phrygian. After

605-587: A Phrygian ruler there: Pteria's strategic location would have been useful in protecting the Lydian Empire from attacks from the east, and its proximity to the Royal Road would have made of the city an important centre from which caravans could be protected. Phrygia under Lydian rule would continue to be administered by its local elites, such as the ruler of Midas City who held Phrygian royal titles such as lawagetai (king) and wanaktei (commander of

726-604: A bare straw amount. According to Herodotus , Croesus encountered the Greek sage Solon and showed him his enormous wealth. Croesus, secure in his own wealth and happiness, asked Solon who the happiest man in the world was, and was disappointed by Solon's response that three had been happier than Croesus: Tellus , who died fighting for his country, and the brothers Kleobis and Biton who died peacefully in their sleep after their mother prayed for their perfect happiness because they had demonstrated filial piety by drawing her to

847-495: A campaign by Cyrus against Lydia around 547 BC during which he "marched against the country, killed its king, took his possessions, and put there a garrison of his own". However, the verb used in the Nabonidus Chronicle could be used both in the sense "to kill" and "to destroy as a military power", making any precise deduction of the fate of Croesus from it impossible. More recent studies have moreover concluded that

968-533: A centre of operations for military actions against the Cimmerians , a nomadic people from the Pontic steppe who had invaded Western Asia , and attacked Lydia over the course of several invasions during which they killed Alyattes's great-grandfather Gyges , and possibly his grandfather Ardys and his father Sadyattes . As governor of Adramyttium, Croesus had to provide his father with Ionian Greek mercenaries for

1089-476: A circuit wall around the Citadel Mound with an extensive gate complex. The East Citadel Gate provided both increased defense and a projection of power; it is still preserved to a height of ten meters, making it the best preserved example in Anatolia. Around the same time, c. 850 BCE, Tumulus W was constructed, the first known example of a tumulus burial in Anatolia and a marker of elite prominence at Gordion. Beyond

1210-615: A collection of 51 inscriptions then known. The 109 inscriptions known by 1986 have been treated comprehensively by Roberto Gusmani ; new texts keep being found from time to time. All but a few of the extant Lydian texts have been found in or near Sardis , the Lydian capital, but fewer than 30 of the inscriptions consist of more than a few words or are reasonably complete. Most of the inscriptions are on marble or stone and are sepulchral in content, but several are decrees of one sort or another, and some half-dozen texts seem to be in verse, with

1331-534: A daughter of Cyaxares might have been married to Croesus. Croesus continued these good relations with the Medes after he succeeded Alyattes and Astyages succeeded Cyaxares. Under Croesus's rule, Lydia continued its good relations started by Gyges with the Saite Egyptian kingdom, then ruled by the pharaoh Amasis II . Both Croesus and Amasis had common interests in fostering trade relations at Naucratis with

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1452-427: A festival in an oxcart themselves. Solon goes on to explain that Croesus cannot be the happiest man because the fickleness of fortune means that the happiness of a man's life cannot be judged until after his death. Sure enough, Croesus' hubristic happiness was reversed by the tragic deaths of his accidentally killed son and, according to Ctesias , his wife's suicide at the fall of Sardis, not to mention his defeat at

1573-466: A great empire" should he attack Cyrus. This answer of the Delphian oracle remains one of the famous oracular statements from Delphi . Likely legendary were also the responses of the oracles of Delphi and Amphiaraus telling Croesus to ally with the strongest of all Greeks, whom Croesus found out to be the state to which he had previously offered the gold which they had used for the gilding of a statue of

1694-411: A honorific name meaning "The noble Karoś". Croesus was born in 620 BC to the king Alyattes of Lydia and one of his queens, a Carian noblewoman whose name is still unknown. Croesus had at least one full sister, Aryenis , as well as a half-brother named Pantaleon, born from a Ionian wife of Alyattes. Under his father's reign, Croesus had been a governor of Adramyttium, which Alyattes had rebuilt as

1815-581: A military campaign against the Ionian city of Ephesus . The ruling dynasty of Ephesus had engaged in friendly relations with Lydia consolidated by diplomatic marriages from the reign of Gyges until that of Alyattes: the Ephesian tyrant Pindar, who had previously supported Pantaleon in the Lydian succession struggle, was the son of a daughter of Alyattes, and was thus a nephew of Croesus. After Pindar rejected an envoy by Croesus demanding Ephesus to submit to Lydia,

1936-469: A military campaign in Caria. During Croesus's tenure as governor of Adramyttium itself, a rivalry had developed between him and his step-brother Pantaleon, who might have been intended by Alyattes to be his successor. Following Alyattes's death in 585 BC, this rivalry became an open succession struggle out of which Croesus emerged victorious. Once Croesus's position as king was secure, he immediately launched

2057-670: A sculpted stone lion was discovered at the entrance to the South Gate. Since 2009, the project has undertaken a renewed program of architectural conservation on the Terrace Building Complex on the Citadel Mound, the large industrial quarter that burned in the Destruction Level c. 800 BCE. From 2014 to 2019, the architectural conservation team focused its efforts on restoring the South Bastion of

2178-445: A similar paradigm: Examples of substantives: Examples of adjectives: Examples of pronomina: Just as in other Anatolian languages verbs in Lydian were conjugated in the present-future and preterite tenses with three persons singular and plural. Imperative or gerundive forms have not been found yet. Singular forms are often hard to distinguish from plural forms in the third person present active (both ending in -t/-d ):

2299-572: A stress-based meter and vowel assonance at the end of the line. Tomb inscriptions include many epitaphs , which typically begin with the words 𐤤𐤮 𐤥𐤠𐤫𐤠𐤮 es wãnas ("this grave"). The short texts are mostly graffiti, coin legends, seals, potter's marks, and the like. The language of the Ionian Greek poet Hipponax (sixth century BCE, born at Ephesus ) is interspersed with Lydian words, many of them from popular slang . Lydian can be officially studied at Marburg University, Germany, within

2420-497: Is subject-object-verb , but constituents may be extraposed to the right of the verb. Like other Anatolian languages, Lydian features clause-initial particles with enclitic pronouns attached in a chain. It also has a number of preverbs and at least one postposition. Modifiers of a noun normally precede it. In May 1912 American excavators at the Sardis necropolis discovered a bilingual inscription in Lydian and Aramaic . Being among

2541-407: Is " Croesus and Fate ", a short story by Leo Tolstoy that is a retelling of the account of Croesus as told by Herodotus and Plutarch. Crœsus, King of Lydia , is a tragedy in five parts by Alfred Bate Richards , first published in 1845. To be " riche comme Crésus " is a popular French saying to describe the wealthiest of the wealthy, and gave its name to a TF1 game show Crésus , where the king

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2662-512: Is a chronological linchpin in the region. The long tradition of tumuli at the site is an important record of elite monumentality and burial practice during the Iron Age. In 2023, Gordion was listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site . The English placename Gordion comes from Ancient Greek Górdion ( Γόρδιον ), itself from the Phrygian name Gordum , meaning "city". In antiquity,

2783-611: Is a cultural change at Gordion in the Early Iron Age , with distinct differences from the Late Bronze Age in regard to architecture and ceramics. Ceramic and linguistic links with southeastern Europe point to an influx of Balkan migrants at this time, possibly the Brygians . There were several monumental construction projects on the citadel during the 10th and 9th centuries, the Early Phrygian period, resulting in

2904-454: Is clearly of Indo-European stock. Gusmani provides lists of words that have been linked to Hittite , various other Indo-European languages, and Etruscan . Labrys (Greek: λάβρυς, lábrys) is the term for a symmetrical double-bitted axe originally from Crete in Greece, one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization. The priests at Delphi in classical Greece were called Labryades (the men of

3025-510: Is often difficult to determine. Examples of verbal conjugation: To emphasize where an important next part of a sentence begins, Lydian uses a series of enclitic particles that can be affixed to a pivotal word. Examples of such "emphatic" enclitics are -in-, -it-/-iτ-, -t-/-τ-, -at-, and -m-/-um-. When stacked and combined with other suffixes (such as pronomina, or the suffix -k = 'and') veritable clusters are formed. The word ak = 'so..., so if...' provides many examples: The basic word order

3146-546: Is perhaps unstressed. Lydian is notable for its extensive consonant clusters, which resulted from the loss of word-final short vowels, together with massive syncope ; there may have been an unwritten [ə] in such sequences. (Note: until recently the Buckler (1924) transliteration scheme was often used, which may lead to confusion. This older system wrote v , ν , s , and ś , instead of today's w (𐤥), ñ (𐤸), š (𐤳), and s (𐤮). The modern system renders

3267-467: Is possibly derived from the native town of King Gyges of Lydia , founder of the Mermnad dynasty , which was Tyrrha in classical antiquity and is now Tire, Turkey . Yet another is the element molybdenum , borrowed from Ancient Greek mólybdos , "lead", from Mycenaean Greek mo-ri-wo-do , which in Lydian was mariwda- "dark". All of those loanwords confirm a strong cultural interaction between

3388-754: Is reimagined as a CGI skeleton, who has returned from the dead to give some of his money away to lucky contestants. On The Simpsons , the wealthy Montgomery Burns lives at the corner of Croesus and Mammon Streets. In The Sopranos season 4 episode 6, Ralph Cifaretto tells Artie Bucco “With what you take out of that bar, you must be sitting on money like King Croesus.” In Squidbillies season 6 episode 8, Dan Halen remarks that he paid Early Cuyler, who he said "left with cash in hand, rich as Croesus". In Ghosts (2019 TV series) season 1 episode 5, Julian Fawcett (played by Simon Farnaby ) compares Barclays Beg-Chetwynde (played by Geoffrey McGivern ) to Croesus, "Oh I remember this berk... rich as Croesus, loves

3509-489: Is similar to the Luwic languages : a suffix -li is added to the root of a substantive, and thus an adjective is formed that is declined in turn. However, recently it has been defended that a form ending in -l, formerly thought to be an "endingless" variant of the possessive, was indeed a genitive singular. Of an ablative case there are only a few uncertain examples. Nouns, adjectives, and pronomina are all declined according to

3630-462: The Gordion tumuli ; and the study of well-known 8th century Greek ceramics in post-Destruction Level contexts. Taken altogether, this research indicated that the date of the conflagration was approximately one hundred years earlier than previously thought, c. 800 BCE. Initial criticism of the radiocarbon analysis focused on the preliminary publication of five samples but was subsequently refuted by

3751-655: The Lydian colonists, who had founded the city. In 1916 the Sardis bilingual inscription , a bilingual inscription in Aramaic and Lydian allowed Enno Littmann to decipher the Lydian language. From an analysis of the two parallel texts, he identified the alphabetic signs, most of them correctly, established a basic vocabulary, attempted translation of a dozen unilingual texts, gave an outline of Lydian grammar, and even recognized peculiar poetical characteristics in several texts. Eight years later William Hepburn Buckler presented

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3872-611: The Midas myth because Lydian precious metals came from the river Pactolus , in which King Midas supposedly washed away his ability to turn all he touched into gold. In reality, Alyattes' tax revenues may have been the real 'Midas touch' financing his and Croesus' conquests. Croesus' wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity: in English, expressions such as "rich as Croesus" or "richer than Croesus" are used to indicate great wealth to this day. The earliest known such usage in English

3993-710: The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, the Istanbul Archaeological Museums , and the Gordion Museum , located in Yassıhöyük itself. The Gordion Project renewed excavations in 2013, focusing on the southern fortifications and revealing a new approach and gateway to the Citadel Mound. This new South Gate was originally constructed during the 9th century BC, broadly contemporaneous with

4114-554: The Persian daric . These late croesid coins bearing "bull and lion" images used under Cyrus differed from previous Mermnad croesids in that they were lighter and their weight was closer to those of the early golden darics and silver sigloi. According to the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi (c. 410–490s AD), who wrote a monumental History of Armenia , the Armenian king Artaxias I accomplished many military deeds, which include

4235-581: The Sangarius river. Occupation at the site is attested from the Early Bronze Age (c. 2300 BCE) continuously until the 4th century CE and again in the 13th and 14th centuries CE. The Citadel Mound at Gordion is approximately 13.5 hectares in size, and at its height habitation extended beyond this in an area approximately 100 hectares in size. Gordion is the type site of Phrygian civilization , and its well-preserved destruction level of c. 800 BCE

4356-758: The Troad and as far east as Cilicia . During the Middle Bronze Age , Gordion came under the influence of the Hittites , with administrative seals evident at the site. There is an extensive necropolis attested on the Northeast Ridge, with burials of the MH III-IV periods. Late Bronze Age Gordion was part of the Hittite Empire and located at the western edge of its heartland. There

4477-402: The acropolis of the city. The wagon was associated with Midas or Gordias (or both) and was connected with the dynasty's rise to power. A local prophecy had decreed that whoever could loosen the knot was destined to become the ruler of Asia. The Roman period at Gordion stretches from the 1st century CE through the 4th century, with a series of occupations and abandonments on the western part of

4598-518: The 5th century and the 4th century BCE, during the period of Persian domination. Thus, Lydian texts are effectively contemporaneous with those in Lycian . Strabo mentions that around his time (1st century BCE), the Lydian language was no longer spoken in Lydia proper but was still being spoken among the multicultural population of Kibyra (now Gölhisar ) in southwestern Anatolia, by the descendants of

4719-601: The 6th century. Around 500 BCE, a semi-subterranean structure, the Painted House, was added to the east side of the Citadel Mound. It featured a program of wall frescoes showing the procession of women. It is perhaps associated with cultic activity, although the nature of this is uncertain. The 4th century BCE at Gordion began with the combination of an earthquake and the attack of the Spartan king Agesilaos . The subsequent century saw an absence of monumental buildings on

4840-524: The Cimmerians overran the city. There are over one hundred tumuli in the vicinity of Gordion, dating from the 9th to the 6th centuries BCE. The largest of these burial mounds have traditionally been associated with kings, especially Tumulus MM. There are two main necropoleis, the Northeast Ridge and the South Ridge. Tumulus W at Gordion, dating to c. 850 BCE, is the earliest known at the site and

4961-463: The Citadel Mound through remote sensing. The use of magnetometry , electrical resistivity tomography , and ground-penetrating radar have allowed for a more complete reconstruction of the defense network and urban districts of the city during the Iron Age, providing evidence for a ditch and wall system surrounding the Outer Town to the west and confirming the existence of a second fort protecting

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5082-466: The Citadel Mound, and, in fact, stone from many of the earlier structures was used for smaller buildings elsewhere around the site. The advent of Alexander in 333 BCE precipitated a major change at the site, with worship of Greek deities, inscriptions in Greek, and Greek pottery all replacing their Phrygian predecessors at the site. The middle of the 3rd century BCE saw the arrival of the Galatians ,

5203-502: The Citadel Mound. The Roman road between Ancyra and Pessinus passed through Gordion, which may have been known as Vindia or Vinda at this time. The Roman buildings at Gordion were oriented to cardinal directions and built as part of a deliberate refoundation that included leveling the surface of the western part of the mound. The area of the Common Cemetery includes Roman burials from the 2nd to 4th centuries CE. Evidence for

5324-473: The Early Phrygian phase of the East Citadel Gate. The South Gate approach saw further modification with bastions added in the 8th and 6th centuries, and the walled causeway leading to the gate ultimately reached over 65 m long, the longest known for a citadel gate in Anatolia. As elsewhere on the Citadel Mound, the Middle Phrygian phase of the South Gate made use of large polychromatic blocks. In 2017

5445-415: The East Citadel Gate, a series of elite buildings occupied the eastern side of the mound. These included several megaron -plan buildings and the large interconnected Terrace Building Complex. The Megarons at Gordion likely served an administrative function, with the largest, Megaron 3, perhaps serving as an audience hall. The Megarons include several pebble mosaic floors with elaborate geometric designs, among

5566-500: The East Citadel Gate, affected by an earthquake in 1999. This project consolidated cracked stones, reinstalled them in the wall faces with stainless-steel supports, and addressed the drainage of the South Bastion through the repair of damaged masonry and the installation of a new capping support system. Since 2007, another primary focus of the Gordion Project has been the exploration of the city's defensive fortifications beyond

5687-718: The Graeco-Roman historians' traditional account of the Halys River as having been set as the border between the Lydian and the Median kingdom, which appears to have been a retroactive narrative construction based on symbolic role assigned by Greeks to the Halys as the separation between Lower Asia and Upper Asia as well as on the Halys being a later provincial border within the Achaemenid Empire . The eastern border of

5808-585: The Great and the Achaemenid Empire into Anatolia, beginning in 546 BCE, spelled the end of any Lydian control and of Phrygian autonomy at Gordion. The most famous king of Phrygia was Midas , who reigned during the Middle Phrygian period at Gordion. He was likely on the throne at Gordion by c. 740 BCE, based on the completion of Tumulus MM around that time. Contemporary Assyrian sources dating between c. 718 and 709 BCE call him Mit-ta-a . According to

5929-519: The Greek city-states on the islands and he instead concluded treaties of friendship with them, which might have helped him participate in the lucrative trade the Aegean Greeks carried out with Egypt at Naucratis . The Lydians had already conquered Phrygia under the rule of Alyattes, who took advantage of the weakening of the various polities all across Anatolia by the Cimmerian raids and used

6050-501: The Greek historian Herodotus , King Midas was the first foreigner to make an offering at the sanctuary of Delphi's Temple of Apollo , dedicating the throne from which he gave judgment. During his reign, according to Strabo , the nomadic Cimmerians invaded Asia Minor, and in 710/709 BCE, Midas was forced to ask for help from the Assyrian king Sargon II . In Strabo's account, King Midas committed suicide by drinking bull's blood when

6171-659: The Greeks, including with the Milesians who were under Lydian authority. These trade relations also functioned as an access point for Greek mercenaries serving the Saite pharaohs. Croesus also established trade and diplomatic relations with the Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nabonidus , which ensured the transition of Lydian products towards Babylonian markets. Croesus also continued the good relations between Lydia and

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6292-564: The Hittitology minor program. Within the Anatolian group, Lydian occupies a unique and problematic position. One reason is the still very limited evidence and understanding of the language. Another reason is a number of features that are not shared with any other Anatolian language. It is still not known whether those differences represent developments peculiar to pre-Lydian or the retention in Lydian of archaic features that were lost in

6413-608: The Lower Town at Kuş Tepe to the north. The results of the excavations at Gordion are the subject of study for an international team of scholars, with ongoing research into all periods of the site's history. Gordion is mentioned in the following ancient sources: Xenophon Hellenica 1.4.1; Hellenica Oxyrhynchia 21.6; Plutarch Life of Alexander 18; Justin, History of the World 11.7; Polybius Histories 21.37.1; Livy History of Rome 38.18; Strabo Geography 12.5.3, 12.8.9; Pliny

6534-681: The Lydian armies, and the Cilicians , who had already been conquered by Neo-Babylonian Empire . Modern estimates nevertheless suggest that it is not impossible that the Lydians might have subjected Lycia, given that the Lycian coast would have been important for the Lydians because it was close to a trade route connecting the Aegean region, the Levant , and Cyprus . Modern studies also consider doubtful

6655-564: The Lydian army again at Thymbra before besieging and capturing the Lydian capital of Sardis , thus bringing an end to the rule of the Mermnad dynasty and to the Lydian Empire. Lydia would never regain its independence and would remain a part of various successive empires. Although the dates for the battles of Pteria and Thymbra and of end of the Lydian empire have been traditionally fixed to 547 BC, more recent estimates suggest that Herodotus's account being unreliable chronologically concerning

6776-568: The Lydian king started to pressure the city and demanded that Pindar leave it and go into exile. After Pindar accepted these terms, Croesus annexed Ephesus into the Lydian Empire. Once Ephesus was under Lydian rule, Croesus provided patronage for the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis , to which he offered a large number of marble columns as dedication to the goddess. Meanwhile the Ionian city of Miletus had been willingly sending tribute to Mena in exchange for being spared from Lydian attacks because

6897-414: The Lydian metres seem to be compatible with reconstructed common Proto-Indo-European metres. The Lydians probably borrowed these metres from the Greeks; however, the assonance was a unique innovation of their own. Only one text shows mixed character: a poetical middle part is sandwiched in between a prose introduction and a prose conclusion. Analogous to the bilingual text the introduction tells who built

7018-547: The Lydians and the Greeks since the Creto- Mycenaean era (2nd millennium BCE). In his seminal decipherment of Lydian texts Littmann noted that at least five of them show two poetical aspects: Also, partly in order to achieve assonance and metre (" metri causa "), in poetic texts word order is more free than in prose. Martin West , after comparing historical metres in various Indo-European languages, concluded that

7139-501: The Lydians which might have attempted to rebel against Lydian suzerainty and instead declare its allegiance to the new Persian Empire of Cyrus. Cyrus retaliated by intervening in Cappadocia and attacking the Lydians at Pteria in a battle in which Croesus was defeated. After this first battle, Croesus burnt down Pteria to prevent Cyrus from using its strategic location and returned to Sardis. However, Cyrus followed Croesus and defeated

7260-634: The Medieval Period at Gordion is sparse but suggests habitation during the 13th and 14th centuries CE with at least some fortification. Recent excavations have revealed lime-coated pits and ovens on the western side of the Citadel Mound, signalling food preparation and storage. Gordion lay along the front lines of the 1921 Battle of the Sakarya , the turning point of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 . The Citadel Mound and several of

7381-454: The Phrygian vassals had the duty to provide military support and sometimes offer rich tribute to the Lydian kingdom. This situation continued under the rule of Croesus, with one inscription attesting of the presence of Croesus's son Atys at the court of one local ruler of Midas City himself named Midas. At Midas City, Atys held the position of priest of the sacred fire of the mother goddess Aryastin, and through him Croesus provided patronage to

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7502-423: The Roman consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso campaigned through Galatia, forcing the inhabitants of Gordion to temporarily abandon the site. Gordion was briefly reinhabited but abandoned again sometime during the 1st century BCE. According to ancient tradition, in 333 BCE Alexander the Great cut (or otherwise unfastened) the Gordian Knot : this intricate knot joined the yoke to the pole of a Phrygian wagon that stood on

7623-451: The Sakarya river flowed on the east side of the Citadel Mound, just beyond the Küçük Höyük fort. Its course changed several times, ultimately moving to the west side of the mound, where it is now. This was a relatively recent change, most likely occurring during the 19th century. Gordion was inhabited from at least the Early Bronze Age , c. 2300 BCE. By the end of this period it displayed ceramic commonalities with communities as far west as

7744-447: The Seven Sages , in the Suda (entry "Μᾶλλον ὁ Φρύξ," which adds Aesop and the Seven Sages of Greece ), and by Tolstoy in his short story " Croesus and Fate ". In 550 BC, Croesus's brother-in-law, the Median king Astyages, was overthrown by his own grandson, the Persian king Cyrus the Great . In a likely legendary event recounted by Herodotus, Croesus responded by consulting the oracle of Delphi, who told him that he would "destroy

7865-433: The aforementioned locations as well as in Hacıtuğrul , Afyonkarahisar , and Konya , which would have provided to the Lydian kingdom access to the produce and roads of Phrygia. The presence of a Lydian ivory plaque at Kerkenes Daǧ suggests that Alyattes's control of Phrygia might have extended to the east of the Halys River to include the city of Pteria , with the possibility that he may have rebuilt this city and placed

7986-422: The armies), but were under the authority of the Lydian kings of Sardis and had a Lydian diplomatic presence at their court, following the framework of the traditional vassalage treaties used since the period of the Hittite and Assyrian empires, and according to which the Lydian king imposed on the vassal rulers a "treaty of vassalage" which allowed the local Phrygian rulers to remain in power, in exchange of which

8107-763: The basis of (1) the verbal root ending ( a -stems, consonant stems, - ši -stems, etc.), and (2) the endings of the third person singular being either unlenited ( -t; -tλ, -taλ ) or lenited ( -d; -dλ, -daλ ). For example, šarpta- (to inscribe, to carve) is an unlenited a -stem ( šarptat , he inscribes), qaλmλa- (to be king) is a lenited a -stem ( qaλmλad , he rules). Differences between the various conjugations are minor. Many Lydian verbs are composite, using prefixes such as ẽn- (= 'in-'?), ẽt- (= 'into-' ), fa-/f- ('then, subsequently, again'? ), šaw-, and kat-/kaτ- (= 'down-'?), and suffixes like -ãn-/-ẽn- ( durative ? ), -no-/-ño- ( causative ? ), -ši- ( iterative ? ), and -ki- or -ti- ( denominative ? ); their meaning

8228-403: The building of the religious monument in the city now known as the Midas Monument. The presence of Atys at the court of this Midas might have inspired the legend recounted by Herodotus, according to which Croesus had a dream in which Atys was killed by an iron spear, after which he prevented his son from leading military activities, but Atys nevertheless found death while hunting a wild boar which

8349-433: The capture of Croesus and the conquest of the Lydian kingdom (2.12–13). References to Croesus' legendary power and wealth, often as a symbol of human vanity, are numerous in literature. The following, by Isaac Watts , is from the poem "False Greatness": Thus mingled still with wealth and state, Croesus himself can never know; His true dimensions and his weight Are far inferior to their show. Another literary example

8470-408: The city-state of Sparta , to whom he provided the gold they needed to gild a statue of the god Apollo after the oracle of Delphi told them they would obtain this gold from Croesus. Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation, the Croeseid (following on from his father Alyattes who invented minting with electrum coins). Indeed,

8591-433: The double axe). The term labrys "double-axe" is not found in any surviving Lydian inscription, but on the subject, Plutarch states that "the Lydians call the axe labrys " (Λυδοὶ γὰρ ‘λάβρυν’ τὸν πέλεκυν ὀνομάζουσι). Another possibly Lydian loanword may be tyrant "absolute ruler", which was first used in Ancient Greek sources, without negative connotations, for the late 8th century or early 7th century BCE. It

8712-399: The earliest known examples of their type. The Terrace Building, a complex of eight interconnected buildings stretching over one hundred meters in length, was a locus of grinding, cooking, and weaving, as well as storage. The remains of the Early Phrygian period were preserved due to a conflagration on the eastern side of the Citadel Mound, likely dating to c. 800 BCE. This destruction level and

8833-464: The ears of ancient Greeks, and transcription of Lydian names into Greek would therefore present some difficulties. Recently a case has been made that the Lydian word Qλdãns, pronounced /kʷɾʲ'ðãns/, both meaning 'king' and the name of a god, could correspond to the Greek Κροῖσος, or Croesus , the last Lydian king, whose kingdom was conquered by the Persians. If the identification is correct it would have

8954-466: The fall of Lydia means that there are currently no ways of dating the fall of Sardis ; theoretically, it may even have taken place after the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. Croesus's fate after the Persian conquest of Lydia is uncertain: Herodotus , the poet Bacchylides and Nicolaus of Damascus claimed that Croesus either tried to commit suicide on a pyre or was condemned by the Persians to be burnt at

9075-401: The fire, the inhabitants of Gordion completed a massive construction program on the Citadel Mound that included the laying of up to five meters of clay to raise the height of the mound. The citadel was rebuilt on a largely similar plan, a process of monumentality that required an immense amount of labor and planning. The fortifications at Gordion at this time expanded to include a pair of forts to

9196-465: The first known anywhere in Anatolia. Tumuli are associated with inhumation burials at Gordion until the late 7th century, when cremation began at the site. The two traditions then coexisted through the 6th century BCE. Tumulus MM (for "Midas Mound"), the Great Tumulus, is the largest burial mound at Gordion, standing over fifty meters high today, with a diameter of about three hundred meters. It

9317-536: The first rank, and were granted the permission to become Delphian priests. These exchanges of gifts for privileges in turn meant that strong relations of hospitality existed between Lydia and Delphi due to which the Delphians had the duty to welcome, protect, and ensure the well-being of Lydian ambassadors. Croesus further increased his contacts with the Greeks on the European continent by establishing relations with

9438-464: The first texts found, it provided a limited equivalent of the Rosetta Stone and permitted a first understanding of the Lydian language. The first line of the Lydian text has been destroyed, but can be reconstructed from its Aramaic counterpart. Examples of words in the bilingual: Other words with Indo-European roots and with modern cognates: Only a small fraction of the Lydian vocabulary

9559-546: The fort at Küçük Höyük. The Persian attackers built a large siege ramp to assault the fortress, still visible today. After its conquest, Gordion became part of the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia , which had Daskyleion on the Sea of Marmara , not Gordion, as its capital. Despite its relegation in status, Gordion initially continued to prosper under the Achaemenids, with tumulus burials and monumental buildings maintained through

9680-422: The god Apollo, Sparta, shortly after its victory over its fellow Greek city-state of Argos in 547 BC. The claim of Herodotus that Croesus, Amasis, and Nabonidus formed a defensive alliance against Cyrus of Persia appears to have been a retroactive exaggeration of the existing diplomatic and trade relations between Lydia, Egypt, and Babylon. Croesus first attacked Pteria , the capital of a Phrygian state vassal to

9801-544: The governor of the city of Barene in Media. A passage from the Nabonidus Chronicle was long held to have referred to a military campaign of Cyrus against a country whose name has been largely erased except for the first cuneiform character which had been interpreted as Lu , extrapolated to be the first syllable of an Akkadian name for Lydia. This passage in the Nabonidus Chronicle would thus have referred to

9922-536: The guests at the banquet ate lamb or goat stew and drank a mixed fermented beverage . Now generally assumed to be the tomb of Midas' father Gordias , it was probably the first monumental project of Midas after his accession. Following the campaigns of Cyrus the Great in Anatolia in the 540s BCE, Gordion became part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire . There is extensive evidence for the Persian siege of 546 BCE at Gordion, mainly associated with

10043-486: The hands of the Persians. The interview is in the nature of a philosophical disquisition on the subject "Which man is happy?" It is legendary rather than historical. Thus, the "happiness" of Croesus is presented as a moralistic exemplum of the fickleness of Tyche , a theme that gathered strength from the fourth century, revealing its late date. The story was later retold and elaborated by Ausonius in The Masque of

10164-514: The historical Croesus did in fact die on the pyre, and that the stories of him as a wise advisor to the courts of Cyrus and Cambyses are purely legendary, showing similarities to the sayings of Ahiqar . A similar conclusion is drawn in a recent article that makes a case for the proposal that the Lydian word Qλdãnś, both meaning 'king' and the name of a god, and pronounced /kʷɾʲ'ðãns/ with four consecutive Lydian sounds unfamiliar to ancient Greeks, could correspond to Greek Κροισος , or Croesus . If

10285-463: The identification is correct it might have the interesting historical consequence that king Croesus chose suicide at the stake and was subsequently deified. After defeating Croesus, Cyrus adopted the use of gold coinage as the main currency of his kingdom. The use of croesid coins under the Persian Empire would continue under Cyrus, and would end only after Darius the Great replaced them by

10406-458: The interesting historical consequence that king Croesus was not saved from being burnt at the stake, as Herodotus tells us, but chose suicide and was subsequently deified. Heiner Eichner developed rules to determine which syllable in a word has the stress accent. In short, the rules are: A useful application of those rules is the investigation of metres in Lydian poetry. Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms. Words in

10527-464: The invention of coinage had passed into Greek society through Hermodike II . Hermodike II, the daughter of an Agamemnon of Cyme , claimed descent from the original Agamemnon who conquered Troy . She was likely one of Alyettes’ wives, so may have been Croesus’ mother, because the bull imagery on the croeseid symbolises the Hellenic Zeus —see Europa (consort of Zeus) . Zeus, through Hercules,

10648-597: The kingdom of Croesus would thus have instead been further to the east of the Halys, at an undetermined point in eastern Anatolia. Croesus continued the friendly relations with the Medes concluded by his father Alyattes and the Median king Cyaxares after five years of war in 585 BC, shortly before both their respective deaths that same year. As part of the peace treaty ending the war between Media and Lydia, Croesus's sister Aryenis had married Cyaxares's son and successor Astyages , who thus became Croesus's brother-in-law, while

10769-652: The lack of a centralised Phrygian state and the traditionally friendly relations between the Lydian and Phrygian elites to extend Lydian rule eastwards to Phrygia. Lydian presence in Phrygia is archaeologically attested by the existence of a Lydian citadel in the Phrygian capital of Gordion , as well as Lydian architectural remains in northwest Phrygia, such as in Dascylium , and in the Phrygian Highlands at Midas City . Lydian troops might have been stationed in

10890-464: The monument (a certain Karos), and for whom (both his son and his ancestors), while the final sentence of the original inscription may be the usual curse for those who would dare to damage it. The poetic middle part seems to claim that the monument was built after consulting a divine oracle, cited between Lydian "quotation marks" ▷...▷, and continues with an appeal to pay as much respect to the builder as to

11011-567: The non-erased cuneiform sign was not Lu , but rather Ú , making untenable the interpretation of the text as talking of a campaign against Lydia, and instead suggesting that the campaign was against Urartu . The scholar Max Mallowan argued that there is no evidence that Cyrus the Great killed Croesus, in particular rejected the account of burning on a pyre, and interpreted Bacchylides' narration as Croesus attempting suicide and then being saved by Cyrus. The historian Kevin Leloux instead maintained

11132-528: The north and south of the Citadel Mound connected by a circuit wall that enclosed an area over twenty-five hectares, the Lower Town. Beyond the Lower Town, settlement continued in the Outer Town, protected by a further wall and ditch. Settlement stretched onto the Northeast Ridge, where a series of houses were destroyed in an attack by an unknown enemy around 700 BCE. During the Middle Phrygian period, Gordion grew to its largest size, encompassing an area of settlement of approximately one hundred hectares. At this time

11253-431: The older texts is either from left to right or right to left. Later texts show exclusively the latter. Use of word-dividers is variable. The texts were found chiefly at the ancient capital of Sardis and include decrees and epitaphs, some of which were composed in verse; most were written during the 5th century and the 4th century BCE, but a few may have been created as early as the 7th century. Lydian has seven vowels: 𐤠

11374-402: The other Anatolian languages. Until more satisfactory knowledge becomes available, the status of Lydian within Anatolian remains a "special" one. The Lydian script , which is strictly alphabetic, consists of 26 signs: The script is related to or derived from that of Greek as well as its western Anatolian neighbours, the exact relationship still remaining unclear. The direction of writing in

11495-460: The other mentioned peoples and the Lydian kings; moreover, given this was the situation detailed by Herodotus under the reign of Croesus, it is very likely that a number of these populations had already been conquered under Alyattes. The only populations Herodotus claimed were independent of the Lydian Empire were the Lycians , who lived in a mountainous country which would not have been accessible to

11616-443: The overthrow of the city's last tyrants, Thoas and Damasenor, and the replacement of the tyranny by a system of magistrates had annulated the relations of friendship initiated by Alyattes and the former Milesian tyrant Thrasybulus . Croesus continued his attacks against the other Greek cities of the western coast of Asia Minor until he had subjugated all of mainland Ionia , Aeolis , and Doris , but he abandoned his plans of annexing

11737-596: The peoples to the west of the Halys River - the Lydians , Phrygians , Mysians , Mariandyni , Chalybes , Paphlagonians , Thyni and Bithyni Thracians , Carians , Ionians , Dorians , Aeolians , and Pamphylians . However information only about the relations between the Lydians and the Phrygians is attested in both literary and archaeological sources, and there is no available data concerning relations between

11858-446: The plural form seems to be in principle nasalized, but this could not always be expressed in the writing. Lydian distinguished a mediopassive voice with the third-person singular ending -t(a)λ or -daλ (derived from Proto-Anatolian *-tori; -t(a)λ after consonant stems and part of the stems ending in a vowel, -daλ when lenited after other stems ending in a vowel or glide). About a dozen conjugations can be distinguished, on

11979-427: The political influence of Phrygia in Anatolia increased substantially. During the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, the city grew into the capital of a kingdom that controlled much of Asia Minor west of the river Halys . In the course of the 6th century BCE, the kingdom of Lydia , Phrygia's neighbor to the southwest, began to exert influence within Anatolia, likely at the expense of Phrygian control. The incursion of Cyrus

12100-404: The publication of fifteen more short-lived samples, each the average of dozens of barley, lentil, and flax seeds from the Destruction Level. These all indicated a range c. 840–795 BCE, most likely between 830/815 and 810/800 BCE, and were in no way compatible with a c. 700 BCE date, even with extreme adjustments to the outliers within the data. Consequently, the fire can no longer be associated with

12221-407: The reading of the Nabonidus Chronicle as referring to a campaign of Cyrus against Lydia to argue that Croesus was indeed executed by Cyrus. According to him, the story of Croesus and the pyre would have been imagined by the Greeks based on the fires started during the Persian capture of Sardis throughout the lower city, where the buildings were made largely of wood. In 2003, Stephanie West argued that

12342-414: The reconstructed Lydian name 𐤨𐤭𐤬𐤥𐤦𐤮𐤠𐤮 Krowisas . Krowisas was also analyzed as a compound term consisting of the proper name 𐤨𐤠𐤭𐤬𐤮 Karoś , of a glide 𐤥 ( -w- ) and of the Lydian term 𐤦𐤮𐤠𐤮 iśaś , perhaps meaning "master, lord, noble". According to J. M. Kearns, Croesus's real personal name would have been Karoś , while Krowisas would have been

12463-467: The region and constitutes a key fixed point in Central Anatolian chronology. Archaeologists at first interpreted the Destruction Level as the remains of a Cimmerian attack , c. 700 BCE, an event referred to much later by Strabo and Eusebius as resulting in the death of King Midas . Initial radiocarbon data analyzed by Young cast some doubt on this interpretation, but the date of 700 BCE

12584-530: The sanctuary of the god Apollo in Delphi on continental Greece first established by his great-great-grandfather Gyges and maintained by his father Alyattes, and just like his ancestors, Croesus offered the sanctuary rich presents in dedication, including a lion made of gold and weighing ten talents. In exchange for the offerings of Croesus to the sanctuary of Apollo, the Lydians obtained precedence in consulting its oracle, were exempt from taxes, were allowed to sit at

12705-508: The sibilants more naturally and prevents confusion between v (= w 𐤥) and the Greek nu symbol ν (= ñ 𐤸).) Voicing was likely not distinctive in Lydian. However /p t k/ are voiced before nasals and apparently before /r/. The palatal affricate ( τ ) and sibilant ( š ) may have been palato-alveolar . It has now been argued that the laterals l and λ are actually flaps. The sign 𐤣 has traditionally been transliterated d and interpreted as an interdental /ð/ resulting from

12826-518: The sound change *i̯ > ð or the lenition of Proto-Anatolian *t. However, it has recently been argued that in all contexts d in fact represents the palatal glide /j/, previously considered absent from Lydian. An interdental /ð/ would stand as the only interdental sound in Lydian phonology, whereas a palatal interpretation of d is complemented by a full series of other palatal consonants: λ , š , ñ , and τ . Lydian, with its many palatal and nasal sounds, must have sounded quite strange to

12947-457: The sound of his own voice." Lydian language Lydian is an extinct Indo-European Anatolian language spoken in the region of Lydia , in western Anatolia (now in Turkey ). The language is attested in graffiti and in coin legends from the late 8th century or the early 7th century to the 3rd century BCE, but well-preserved inscriptions of significant length are so far limited to

13068-455: The stake until a thunderstorm's rain water extinguished the fire after either his or his son's prayers to the god Apollo (or after Cyrus heard Croesus calling the name of Solon). In most versions of the story, Cyrus kept Croesus as his advisor, although Bacchylides claimed that the god Zeus carried Croesus away to Hyperborea . Xenophon similarly claimed that Cyrus kept Croesus as his advisor, while Ctesias claimed that Cyrus appointed Croesus as

13189-407: The subsequent deposition of up to five meters of clay above the burnt level, sealed and preserved many buildings and hundreds of objects from the Early Phrygian phase, providing an astonishing insight into the character of the elite district of an Iron Age citadel, unique in Anatolian archaeology. As such, the Early Phrygian Destruction Level provides well-dated comparative material for other sites in

13310-431: The subsequent rebuilding of the site above it preserved the architecture and many of the finds from the Early Phrygian period. The Early Phrygian period at the site is thus better understood than the Middle Phrygian. There is ample evidence of widespread burning of the eastern portion of the Citadel Mound of Gordion, in a level referred to by the initial excavator, Rodney S. Young , as the Destruction Level. This event, and

13431-403: The texts are predominantly singular. Plural forms are scarce, and a dual has not been found in Lydian. There are two genders : animate (or 'common') and inanimate (or 'neuter'). Only three cases are securely attested: nominative , accusative , and dative - locative . A genitive case seems to be present in the plural, but in the singular usually a so-called possessive is used instead, which

13552-539: The tumuli were used as defensive positions during the three weeks of fighting. The village of Bebi, located to the west of the Citadel Mound, was the main site of habitation in the area during the 19th and 20th centuries but was destroyed during the course of the battle. The modern village of Yassıhöyük was established in the aftermath of the Turkish War of Independence . It is part of the Polatlı district. The site

13673-508: The venerable forefathers. It is remarkable that clear examples of rhyme (like the stock expression aaraλ piraλ-k , 'house and yard', cf. German 'Haus und Hof') and alliteration ( k λidaλ k ofuλ-k q iraλ q elλ-k , 'land and water, property and estate') are absent in the poetical texts, but do occur in the prose bilingual. Gordion Gordion ( Phrygian : Gordum ; Greek : Γόρδιον , romanized :  Górdion ; Turkish : Gordion or Gordiyon ; Latin : Gordium )

13794-564: Was John Gower 's in Confessio amantis (1390): Original text: That if the tresor of Cresus And al the gold Octovien, Forth with the richesse Yndien Of Perles and of riche stones, Were al togedre myn at ones, I sette it at nomore acompte Than wolde a bare straw amonte. Modern spelling: That if the treasure of Croesus And all the gold Octavian, Forth with the riches Indian Of pearls and of rich stones, Were altogether mine at once, I set it at no more account Than would

13915-778: Was built c. 740 BCE, and at that time was the largest tumulus in Anatolia, only surpassed c. 200 years later by the Tumulus of Alyattes in Lydia. Tumulus MM was excavated in 1957 by Young's team, revealing the remains of the royal occupant, resting on purple and golden textiles in an open log coffin, surrounded by a vast array of magnificent objects. The burial goods included pottery and bronze vessels containing organic residues, bronze fibulae (ancient safety pins), leather belts with bronze attachments, and an extraordinary collection of carved and inlaid wooden furniture , exceptional for its state of preservation. The Tumulus MM funeral ceremony has been reconstructed, and scientists have determined that

14036-660: Was excavated by Gustav Körte and Alfred Körte in 1900 and then by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology , under the direction of Rodney S. Young , between 1950 and 1973. Excavations have continued at the site under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum with an international team, directed by Keith DeVries (1977–1987), G. Kenneth Sams and Mary M. Voigt (1988–2006), G. Kenneth Sams and C. Brian Rose (2006–2012), and C. Brian Rose (2012–present). Finds from Gordion are on display at

14157-458: Was ravaging Lydia, during which he was accidentally hit by the spear thrown by the Phrygian prince Adrastus , who had previously exiled himself to Lydia after accidentally killing his own brother. Croesus also brought Caria , whose various city-states had since Gyges been allied to the Mermnad dynasty, and from where Croesus's own mother originated, under the direct control of the Lydian Empire. Thus, according to Herodotus, Croesus ruled over all

14278-577: Was similar to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the Pactolus river (made famous by Midas ), which ran through the Lydian capital, Sardis . Later coins, including some in the British Museum , were made from gold purified by heating with common salt to remove the silver. In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. He inherited great wealth from his father Alyattes, who had become associated with

14399-498: Was the capital city of ancient Phrygia . It was located at the site of modern Yassıhüyük , about 70–80 km (43–50 mi) southwest of Ankara (capital of Turkey), in the immediate vicinity of Polatlı district. Gordion's location at the confluence of the Sakarya and Porsuk rivers gave it a strategic location with control over fertile land. Gordion lies where the ancient road between Lydia and Assyria / Babylonia crossed

14520-457: Was the divine forefather of his family line. While the pyre was burning, it is said that a cloud passed under Hercules and with a peal of thunder wafted him up to heaven. Thereafter, he obtained immortality... by Omphale he had Agelaus, from whom the family of Croesus was descended... Moreover, the first coins were quite crude and made of electrum , a naturally occurring pale yellow alloy of gold and silver . The composition of these first coins

14641-487: Was widely used. Beginning in 2000, a renewed program of radiocarbon dating , dendrochronological analysis , and a closer examination of the objects in the Destruction Level began. Three factors were of particular importance: the establishment of the date of Tumulus MM at c. 740 BCE based on dendrochronology; the comparison of Destruction Level objects with those in Tumulus MM and other independently dated assemblages in

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