A report on Achaemenid Empire, Miletus, Lydia and Ionians

Map of the Lydian Kingdom in its final period of sovereignty under Croesus, c. 547 BC.

Ionian soldier (Old Persian cuneiform 𐎹𐎢𐎴, Yaunā) of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BCE. Xerxes I tomb relief.

The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest territorial extent under the rule of Darius I (522 BC–486 BC)

Map of Miletus and other cities within the Lydian Empire

The Seleucid king Antiochos ("Aṃtiyako Yona Rājā" ("The Yona king Antiochos")) is named as a recipient of Ashoka's medical treatments, together with his Hellenistic neighbours, in the Edicts of Ashoka (circa 250 BCE).

The Ionic Stoa on the Sacred Way in Miletus

"Aṃtiyako Yona Rājā" ("The Greek king Antiochos"), mentioned in Major Rock Edict No.2, here at Girnar. Brahmi script.

Apollo statue found in Miletus. Currently in Istanbul Archeology Museum

Portrait of Croesus, last King of Lydia, Attic red-figure amphora, painted ca. 500–490 BC.

Map of the expansion process of Achaemenid territories

Tripolis on the Meander is an ancient Lydian city in Turkey.

Cyrus the Great is said, in the Bible, to have liberated the Hebrew captives in Babylon to resettle and rebuild Jerusalem, earning him an honored place in Judaism.

Coinage of Miletus at the time of Aristagoras. Late 6th-early 5th century BC.

The tomb of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire. At Pasargadae, Iran.

Electrum coinage of Miletus, circa 600–550 BC.

Büyük Menderes River also known as Maeander is river in Lydia.

The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest extent, c. 500 BC

The plan of Milet in the Classical period

The Pactolus river, from which Lydia obtained electrum, a combination of silver and gold.

The Persian queen Atossa, daughter of Cyrus the Great, sister-wife of Cambyses II, Darius the Great's wife, and mother of Xerxes the Great

Early 6th century BC Lydian electrum coin (one-third stater denomination).

Map showing events of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars

Greek hoplite and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient kylix, 5th century BC

An Ottoman mosque from the Turkish period in Miletus site

Lydian delegation at Apadana, circa 500 BC

Achaemenid king fighting hoplites, seal and seal holder, Cimmerian Bosporus.

The Market Gate of Miletus at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin

Lydia's borders under the reign of Alyattes's son Croesus

Achaemenid gold ornaments, Brooklyn Museum

Location of Miletus at the Maeander River's mouth

Bin Tepe royal funeral tumulus (tomb of Alyattes, father of Croesus), Lydia, 6th century BC.

Persian Empire timeline including important events and territorial evolution – 550–323 BC

Map of the Black Sea, featuring the chronological phasing of major Milesian colonial foundations.

Relief showing Darius I offering lettuces to the Egyptian deity Amun-Ra Kamutef, Temple of Hibis

Thales of Miletus was a Greek mathematician, astronomer and pre-Socratic philosopher from the city. He is otherwise historically recognized as the first individual known to have entertained and engaged in scientific philosophy

Croesus at the stake. Side A from an Attic red-figure amphora, ca. 500–490 BC

The 24 countries subject to the Achaemenid Empire at the time of Darius, on the Egyptian statue of Darius I.

The name Fikellura derives from a site on the island of Rhodes to which this fabric has been attributed. It is now established that the center of production was Miletus.

Lydia, including Ionia, during the Achaemenid Empire.

The Battle of Issus, between Alexander the Great on horseback to the left, and Darius III in the chariot to the right, represented in a Pompeii mosaic dated 1st century BC – Naples National Archaeological Museum

Xerxes I tomb, Lydian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BC

Alexander's first victory over Darius, the Persian king depicted in medieval European style in the 15th century romance The History of Alexander's Battles

Frataraka dynasty ruler Vadfradad I (Autophradates I). 3rd century BC. Istakhr (Persepolis) mint.

Photo of a 15th-century map showing Lydia

Dārēv I (Darios I) used for the first time the title of mlk (King). 2nd century BC.

Church of St John, Philadelphia (Alaşehir)

Winged sphinx from the Palace of Darius in Susa, Louvre

Volume of annual tribute per district, in the Achaemenid Empire, according to Herodotus.

Achaemenid tax collector, calculating on an Abax or Abacus, according to the Darius Vase (340–320 BC).

The Sacred Way from Miletus with the remains of the stoa

Letter from the Satrap of Bactria to the governor of Khulmi, concerning camel keepers, 353 BC

Relief of throne-bearing soldiers in their native clothing at the tomb of Xerxes I, demonstrating the satrapies under his rule.

Remains of the stoa connecting the main Bath of Faustina to the Palaestra

Achaemenid king killing a Greek hoplite. c. 500 BC–475 BC, at the time of Xerxes I. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Persian soldiers (left) fighting against Scythians. Cylinder seal impression.

Right entrance of the ancient Greek theatre

Color reconstruction of Achaemenid infantry on the Alexander Sarcophagus (end of 4th century BC).

Seal of Darius the Great hunting in a chariot, reading "I am Darius, the Great King" in Old Persian (𐎠𐎭𐎶𐏐𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁𐎴 𐏋, "adam Dārayavaʰuš xšāyaθiya"), as well as in Elamite and Babylonian. The word "great" only appears in Babylonian. British Museum.

Achaemenid calvalryman in the satrapy of Hellespontine Phrygia, Altıkulaç Sarcophagus, early 4th century BC.

Armoured cavalry: Achaemenid Dynast of Hellespontine Phrygia attacking a Greek psiloi, Altıkulaç Sarcophagus, early 4th century BC.

Reconstitution of Persian landing ships at the Battle of Marathon.

Greek ships against Achaemenid ships at the Battle of Salamis.

Iconic relief of lion and bull fighting, Apadana of Persepolis

Achaemenid golden bowl with lioness imagery of Mazandaran

A section of the Old Persian part of the trilingual Behistun inscription. Other versions are in Babylonian and Elamite.

A copy of the Behistun inscription in Aramaic on a papyrus. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the empire.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven wonders of the ancient world, was built by Greek architects for the local Persian satrap of Caria, Mausolus (Scale model)

Reconstruction of the Palace of Darius at Susa. The palace served as a model for Persepolis.

Lion on a decorative panel from Darius I the Great's palace, Louvre

Apadana Hall, Persian and Median soldiers at Persepolis

Lateral view of tomb of Cambyses II, Pasargadae, Iran

Plaque with horned lion-griffins. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Before the Persian rule that started in the 6th century BC, Miletus was considered among the greatest and wealthiest of Greek cities.

- Miletus

From this region, Cyrus rose and defeated the Median Empire—of which he had previously been king—as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following which he formally established the Achaemenid Empire.

- Achaemenid Empire

In 546 BC, it became a province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, known as the satrapy of Lydia or Sparda in Old Persian.

- Lydia

After the fall of that empire the city was destroyed in the 12th century BC and starting about 1000 BC was resettled extensively by the Ionian Greeks.

- Miletus

Ionians appear in a number of Old Persian inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire as Yaunā (𐎹𐎢𐎴𐎠), a nominative plural masculine, singular Yauna; for example, an inscription of Darius on the south wall of the palace at Persepolis includes in the provinces of the empire "Ionians who are of the mainland and (those) who are by the sea, and countries which are across the sea; ...."

- Ionians

In the late 7th century BC, the tyrant Thrasybulus preserved the independence of Miletus during a 12-year war fought against the Lydian Empire.

- Miletus

Under the Codridae they set forth for Anatolia and founded 12 cities in Caria and Lydia following the model of the 12 cities of Achaea, formerly Ionian.

- Ionians

During the 6th century BC, Ionian coastal towns, such as Miletus and Ephesus, became the focus of a revolution in traditional thinking about Nature.

- Ionians

All in all, the Macedonians were "willing and useful Persian allies. Macedonian soldiers fought against Athens and Sparta in Xerxes the Great's army. The Persians referred to both Greeks and Macedonians as Yauna ("Ionians", their term for "Greeks"), and to Macedonians specifically as Yaunã Takabara or "Greeks with hats that look like shields", possibly referring to the Macedonian kausia hat.

- Achaemenid Empire

The first coins to be used for retailing on a large-scale basis were likely small silver fractions, Hemiobol, Ancient Greek coinage minted in Cyme (Aeolis) under Hermodike II then by the Ionian Greeks in the late sixth century BC.

- Lydia

In 499 BC, the then-tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap Artaphernes to conquer Naxos, in an attempt to bolster his position in Miletus (both financially and in terms of prestige).

- Achaemenid Empire

Gyges took advantage of the power vacuum created by the Cimmerian invasions to consolidate his kingdom and make it a military power, he contacted the Neo-Assyrian court by sending diplomats to Nineveh to seek help against the Cimmerian invasions, and he attacked the Ionian Greek cities of Miletus, Smyrna, and Colophon.

- Lydia

2 related topics with Alpha

Ionia

1 links

Ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir.

The ruins of the ancient city of Pergamon

Art relics from the Ionian cities of Asia

One of the earliest electrum coins struck in Ephesus, 620–600 BC. Obverse: Forepart of stag. Reverse: Square incuse punch.

The site of Miletus, once coastal, now inland. The plain was a bay in Classical Greece.

Gorgone with serpent, Ionia, 575-550 BC.

Possible coin of Ionia. Circa 600-550 BC

Ionia, Achaemenid Period. Uncertain satrap. Circa 350–333 BC

The Library of Celsus in Ephesus was built by the Romans in 114–117. The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, built by king Croesus of Lydia in the 6th century BC, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian tribe who, in the Archaic Period (600–480 BC), settled mainly the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea.

Ionia proper comprised a narrow coastal strip from Phocaea in the north near the mouth of the river Hermus (now the Gediz), to Miletus in the south near the mouth of the river Maeander, and included the islands of Chios and Samos.

It was bounded by Aeolia to the north, Lydia to the east and Caria to the south.

The cities within the region figured large in the strife between the Persian Empire and the Greeks.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven wonders of the ancient world, was built by Greek architects for the local Achaemenid satrap of Caria, Mausolus (Scale model)

Caria

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Region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia.

Carian cities in white. This map depicts the current rivers and coastline and certain features have changed over the years, notably Miletus, Heracleia, and Myus were on the south side of a gulf and Priene on the north side; the river Maeander has since filled in the gulf. Also politically Telmessos, Miletus, and Kalynda were sometimes considered Carian and sometimes not

Relief of an Amazonomachy from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

Theatre at Halicarnassus in Bodrum, with the Bodrum Castle seen in the background.

A kylix found in Milas on display at Milas Museum

Coin of Maussolos as Achaemenid Satrap of Caria. Circa 377/6-353/2 BC

Artemisia, Queen of Halicarnassus, and commander of the Carian contingent, at the Battle of Salamis, 480 BC. Wilhelm von Kaulbach

Coin of Caria, Achaemenid Period. Circa 350-334 BC.

Carian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 480 BC. Relief on the tomb of Xerxes I.

Marble head of a goddess, found in the Hadrianic Baths of Aphrodisias, 2nd century AD.

The Temple of Zeus Lepsinos at Euromus was built on the site of an earlier Carian temple in the 2nd century AD during the reign of the emperor Hadrian.

The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there.

Coastal Caria begins with Didyma south of Miletus, but Miletus had been placed in the pre-Greek Caria.

The expansionism of Lydia under Croesus (560-546 BC) incorporated Caria briefly into Lydia before it fell before the Achaemenid advance.

Caria was then incorporated into the Persian Achaemenid Empire as a satrapy (province) in 545 BC. The most important town was Halicarnassus, from where its sovereigns, the tyrants of the Lygdamid dynasty (c.520-450 BC), reigned.