LYDIA, Asia Minor, the name of an ancient large and fertile country, inhabited along the coast of the Ionian Sea by the Ionians. Toward the south it was separated from Caria by the Maunder (now Meinder) ; toward the east it was bounded by Phrygia and on the north by Mysia. It was in early times a kingdom, divided from Persia by the river Halys (now Kizil Irmak). Its original inhabit ants were a people called Mmonians, either of Semitic or of Indo-Pelasgic origin. This race was subdued by the Lydians, a Carian tribe. It attained its highest prosperity under the Merm nadm dynasty, beginning with the semi-mytho logical Gyges (716 ac.), and ending with Crctsus (546 a.c), who was conquered by the Persians under Cyrus. The people were the richest and perhaps the most effeminate in all Asia. They delighted in luxurious garments, costly carpets, precious ointments and exquisite viands, and a kind of Grecian music called the Lydian. They also laid out beautiful gardens. Their example corrupted the Ionians. The wealth of the Lydians, however, was probably, in a great measure, confined to the kings and chief men. These could fill their coffers with
the gold washed down by the Hermus (now Sarabat) and the Pactolus, and that obtained from the mines; and they procured all the necessaries of life by the labor of their slaves. The Lydians are said to have been the first to coin money and to establish inns; they are cred ited with the invention of certain musical in struments, the art of dyeing wool (which was afterward carried to such perfection in Miletus), also the art of melting and working ore. At Sardis, the capital of the country, thn Grecians, Phrygians and even the nomadic tribes bartered their goods. There was here a great market for the slave-trade, which fur nished the harems of Persia with eunuchs. The great tumuli graves of the ancient Lydian kings are still to be seen near the Gygxan Lake. Interesting Lydian inscriptions have been un earthed by American and other excavators. Consult Ramsay, Sir W. M., 'Historical Geog raphy of Asia' (London 1890).