Sardis

Lydia

Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia in western Asia Minor (near modern Sart, Turkey), ruled by kings such as Croesus until the Persian conquest around 547 BCE. It then served as a Persian provincial capital at the end of the Royal Road, and in Xenophon's Anabasis it is the gathering point for Cyrus the Younger's expedition. Under Hellenistic and Roman rule it remained a major city, with a Jewish community settled by Antiochus III whose large synagogue has been excavated. It was also one of the seven churches of Asia in the Book of Revelation, and Melito was its second-century bishop. The sophist and historian Eunapius was born there.