(Pictured above are the ruins of the Temple of Artemis in Sardis)
Sardis was originally built on a plateau formed
by a little finger that jutted out from the mountains. It had three steep
sides, and the fourth side met the hills; so its natural defenses were strong.
The city had been very rich as well because of
the river that ran nearby. It brought with it large deposits of gold, making
its citizens very wealthy. In fact, Sardis was the capital of the ancient
kingdom of Lydia, and had a famous king by the name of Croesus whose very name
became a symbol of extravagant wealth. People used to say, “He is as rich as
Croesus,” and it was the king of Sardis that they were referring to.
The Sardians (let’s not insult them by calling
them Sardines!) as a group had a tendency to be smug and complacent. They
were wealthy and invulnerable, or so they thought. Croesus had been so
successful that he decided to expand his kingdom by conquering the Persians. He
inquired of the Oracle of Delphi, “I’m thinking of crossing the River Halys and
attacking the Persians. Should I do this?”
She thought for a bit and said, “When you cross
the River Halys and attack the Persians, it will mean the end of a great
empire.” So Croesus and the Sardians crossed the river in attack mode, only to
be soundly thrashed. They retreated to their fortified city. It never occurred
to Croesus that the oracle might mean that his empire would end.
During the campaign, the Persians finally
surrounded Sardis, but the Sardians weren’t worried. The approaches to the city
were almost vertical cliffs, and nobody could figure out how to scale them. But
the Greek historian Herodotus tells how late one afternoon one of the Persian
soldiers was watching the city from a distance. As he stood there, he saw a
Sardian soldier accidentally drop his helmet over the wall. It fell to the base
of the cliff. The soldier carefully stepped into some cracks, came out below, retrieved his helmet, and then climbed back to his post.
The Persian carefully watched how he re-ascended,
and that night he took a group of Persians up to the same place and retraced
his steps. When they got to the top, they discovered that the walls were
unguarded. The Sardians were so complacent that they didn’t even post a guard
at night. They made their way through the sleeping town, opened the city gates
for more Persian troops, and the city was taken without a struggle. The empire
of Lydia came to an end.
In John’s letter to
Sardis, he warned them to, “BE WATCHFUL…” (Revelation 3:2) I wonder if he had
this account in mind!
Comments
Post a Comment