Sardis

Sardis, the ancient capital of the Lydian monarchy, a few miles N. of Mt. Tmolus (Kisika Mousa Dagh), on the river Pactolus, an affluent of the Hermus. Aftel the capture by Cyrus it was the seat of a Persian satrapy. The Greeks burnt it in 500 B.C. Then an earthquake destroyed it in the time of Tiberius, but he restored it. Only ruins and small villages now mark its site, as it suffered from Goths in 400 A.D. and successive invaders.