v49_0249 - LYDIA - SARDES Unité, (PB, Æ 16)

LYDIA - SARDIS

(188-133 BC)

Sardis was the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Lydia. Placed on the Hermos, it had been conquered in 546 BC by the Persians who dethroned its last king, Croesus. Alexander the Great captured it in 334 BC when it had become the main satrapy capital of Asia Minor. It then passed into the hands of the Diadochi, then the Epigones before finally falling between those of the Attalids after 189 BC and the defeat of Magnesia. The Peace of Apamea, the following year, made Eumenes II of Pergamon the great victor in the war against the Seleucids. Sardis had a scanty cistophoric silver coinage and a diversified bronze coinage until the Roman conquest in 133 BC..