Siege of Sardis (547 BC)

Coordinates: 38°29′00″N 28°02′00″E / 38.48333°N 28.03333°E / 38.48333; 28.03333
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Siege of Sardis (547 BC)
Part of the Campaigns of Cyrus the Great

Remains of the acropolis of Sardis, where Croesus was finally captured[1]
DateDecember, 547 BC
Location
Sardis, Lydia
(modern-day Sart, Manisa, Turkey)
38°29′00″N 28°02′00″E / 38.48333°N 28.03333°E / 38.48333; 28.03333
Result Persian victory
Territorial
changes		 Lydia annexed by Persia
Belligerents
Lydian Empire
Achaemenid Empire
Commanders and leaders
Croesus,
unknown others		 Cyrus the Great,
Harpagus,
unknown others
Strength
100,000 (Herodotus) 200,000 (Herodotus)
Casualties and losses
Unknown Light
Siege of Sardis (547 BC) is located in The Aegean Sea area
Siege of Sardis (547 BC)
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Approximate location of the siege of Sardis

The siege of Sardis (547/546 BC) was the last decisive conflict after the Battle of Thymbra, which was fought between the forces of Croesus of Lydia and Cyrus the Great, when Cyrus followed Croesus to his city, laid siege to it for 14 days and captured it.[2]

Background

The previous year

Achaemenid Persia, expand his own dominions and revenge the deposition of his brother-in-law Astyages.[3] Also, Croesus thought himself certain of success since he was deluded by the ambiguous assurances of the apparently-reliable oracle of Apollo at Delphi.[4]

Defeat of Croesus at the Battle of Thymbra, 546 BC

Croesus crossed the

Halys and met Cyrus at Pteria in Cappadocia, but after a drawn-out battle against superior forces in which neither side obtained the victory, Croesus resolved to fall back for the winter, summon new allies and renew the war with reinforcements the next spring.[5] In the interim, he disbanded his army and returned to Sardis. He expected Cyrus to hang back after the sanguinary battle in Cappadocia, but the energetic Cyrus, as soon as he heard that Croesus's forces were dispersed, crossed the Halys and advanced with such speed that he had arrived at the Lydian capital, Sardis, before Croesus had any word of his approach.[6]

Undaunted, Croesus mustered his available troops and met Cyrus at the

camels. The remnants of the Lydian army were driven within the city and promptly besieged.[7]

Siege

Inside the citadel of Sardis

Croesus was still confident in his chances because

Argos, and neither they nor any other of Croesus's allies would assemble in time.[8]

Cyrus had meanwhile stimulated his troops by the offer of large rewards to the first soldiers who should ascend the battlements, but repeated Persian attacks were repulsed with loss. According to Herodotus, the city ultimately fell by the agency of a Persian soldier, who climbed up a section of the walls that was neither adequately garrisoned nor protected by the ancient rites, which had dedicated the rest of the cities' defenses to impregnability. The steepness of the adjoining ground outside the walls was responsible for that piece of Lydian hubris. Hyroeades, the Persian soldier, saw a Lydian soldier climbing down the walls to retrieve a dropped helmet and tried to follow the example. The success of his ascent set the example to the rest of Cyrus's soldiers, and they swarmed over the exposed wall and promptly took the city.[9]

Aftermath

The siege of Sardis, 19th-century engraving
The Sardis citadel, seen from the west

Cyrus had issued orders for Croesus to be spared, and the latter was hauled a captive before his exulting foe. Cyrus' first intentions to burn Croesus alive on a pyre were soon diverted by the impulse of mercy for a fallen foe and, according to ancient versions, by divine intervention of Apollo, who caused a well-timed rainfall.[10] Tradition represents the two kings as reconciled thereafter; Croesus succeeded in preventing the worst rigors of a sack by representing to his captor that it was Cyrus's, not Croesus's, property being plundered by the Persian soldiery.[11]

The kingdom of

Persian Wars
in the succeeding century.

There was a second siege of Sardis, in 498 BC, during the Ionian Revolt.

References

  1. ^ CROESUS – Encyclopaedia Iranica.
  2. ISBN 9781575061207
    .
  3. ^ Herodotus, The Histories, (Penguin Books, 1983), I. pp. 57, 69
  4. ^ Herodotus, I. pp. 58–60
  5. ^ Herodotus, I., p. 71
  6. ^ Herodotus, I., p. 72
  7. ^ Herodotus, I., p. 73
  8. ^ Herodotus, I. p. 73, 74
  9. ^ Herodotus, I., p. 75
  10. ^ Herodotus, I., p. 76
  11. ^ Herodotus, I., p. 77
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