Changes

At its prime during the reign of Croesus, the Kingdom of Lydia was one of the most powerful states in the eastern Mediterranean region. But before it became one of the premier powers of its time, Lydia was one of several kingdoms in Anatolia, which was roughly congruent with the modern country of Turkey, to have emerged after the collapse of the Hittite Empire around the year 1200 BC.<ref> Kuhrt, Amélie. <i> [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E6TQPGY/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00E6TQPGY&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=79dd0784e66204ce6c9be62294524f3a The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC. Volume 2].</i> Volume 2. (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 547</ref> For quite some time, the Lydians shared Anatolia with the kingdoms of Uratu and Phrygia, but later used their economic dominance to field armies that would conquer most of the region. Linguistic and culturally speaking, the Lydians were Indo-European peoples, much like their Hittite predecessors.<ref>Sayce, A. H. “The Decipherment of the Lydian Language.” <i>American Journal of Philology</i> 46 (1925) p. 38</ref>

Although the Lydians were a literate people, modern reconstruction of their dynastic chronology has largely come from Herodotus. According to Herodotus, the first major Lydian dynasty was known as the Hercalid, after the mythological Greek hero Hercules from whom the later kings of the dynasty believed they were descended. <ref>Herodotus, pgs. 5-7</ref> The Hercalid Dynasty established many of the cultural hallmarks of ancient Lydia, but was eventually overthrown around the year 680 BC. In that year one of King Candaules’ bodyguards, Gyges (ruled ca. 680-652 BC), killed the king, took the throne, and established the Mermanadae Dynasty <ref>Herodotus, p. 8</ref> The Mermanadae Dynasty transformed Lydia into the wealthiest kingdom in the ancient world, which reached its peak with its fifth and final king, Croesus.