The Carians and the Lydians 135 The Carians and the Lydians Christopher Ratté Key words: Aphrodisias, Aphrodite, Caria, double-axe, fortification, Hermus river, Lydia, Maeander river, Morsynus river, Plarasa, pottery, regional survey, Sardis, tumulus, Zeus Abstract: Textual evidence attests cultic and perhaps also political relations between Caria and Lydia as early as the seventh century B.C. In the late seventh and sixth centuries, Caria fell under the domination first of the independent kings of Lydia and then of the Persian governors installed at Sardis. Archaeologi- cal investigation at Sardis itself has revealed evidence for Carian presence in the form of graffiti inscribed on pottery in Carian letters as early as the mid-sixth century. The only Lydian inscription known from Caria was found at Aphrodisias, and probably belonged to a gravestone; it dates to the fifth or fourth cen- tury. Other evidence attesting Lydian cultural influence on Aphrodisias includes Lydian painted pottery and the adoption of Lydian burial customs. A regional survey project recently begun in the valley around Aphrodisias has revealed more Lydianizing tombs, but also rural settlements and fortifications that seem to have their closest parallels in central and western Caria. This and other regional survey projects now underway provide a promising way forward in the investigation of the interaction between the Carians and the Lydians in the Archaic and Classical periods. Lydia lies on the northern border of Caria, and, as pottery styles, as well as traditional forms of politi- like Caria, it also shares a border with Ionia. In the cal organization. But much also survived, including Iron Age, distinctive local cultures emerged in both local names and above all religious practices, and it re- regions, each characterized by its own written lan- mains unclear how long both Lydian and Carian re- guage, by quasi-feudal systems of social organiza- mained alive as spoken languages. Both areas were in- tion, by distinctive cults, and by interaction with each cluded in the early Roman province of Asia, but both other and with the Greek cities of the Aegean coast. reemerged as distinct provinces in the wake of Greek writers identify other more distinguishing Diocletian’s reforms. Caria survives as a toponym characteristics, such as Lydian wealth, and the mar- even today, in the name of Geyre, the modern village tial prowess of Carian mercenaries1. near the late Roman provincial capital of Aphrodisias. In the late seventh century, Caria was at least par- An interesting starting point for comparison be- tially incorporated into the emerging Lydian state, and tween the Carians and the Lydians would be the sur- so when Lydia was conquered by the Persians in the vival of local customs in the Roman period. Why, for mid-sixth century, Caria too fell under Persian con- example, does Carian identity as expressed in the ico- trol. In both places, Persian domination was accompa- nography of local deities, for example, seem to last so nied by ever-accelerating Hellenization. In the Hellen- much longer than Lydian? But this paper will adopt istic period, many of the most visible signs of each re- a more conventional focus, on pre-Roman times. I gion’s local culture disappeared – most notably the will begin with an overview of general issues – geog- written languages and aspects of material culture such raphy, historical development, textual and material 1 Lydian wealth: Archil. 15. – Carian mercenaries: A. M. Snodgrass, Carian Armourers – The Growth of a Tradition, JHS 84, 1964, 107–118 (with references and discussion). 136 Christopher Ratté evidence for cultural interaction between Caria and ers, than to Lydia. As we shall see, some of the clear- Lydia – and then I will turn to the specific case of est archaeological evidence for interaction between Lydian influence on the valley of the Morsynus river the Carians and the Lydians is found at the ends of in northeastern Caria in the Classical and Hellenistic the valley – to the west, where Lydia, Caria, and Ionia periods, and to the potential of regional survey come together, and to the east, where Lydia and projects recently started in both this area and the Caria meet Phrygia – presumably because that was Hermus river valley in Lydia for illuminating local where land communication was easiest, rather than in culture outside the urban centers. the center of the Maeander valley, at the base of the The conventional borders of ancient Caria are Messogis2. In any case, all the sources agree that the well known: on the west and south the Aegean and population of the Maeander region was mixed, in- Mediterranean seas; on the east the Indus river and cluding not only Carians and Lydians but also Ionian adjoining mountains; and on the north, the Maeander Greeks. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the river valley. Before discussing this northern bound- Maeander valley became one of the most prosperous ary in greater detail, it may be useful just to note some and intensively urbanized regions of Asia Minor, and of the obvious topographical contrasts between Caria it is an interesting general question – but one that I and Lydia. Lydia, opposite the Maeander from Caria, will leave open – why the earlier histories of the extends northward across the Messogis and Tmolus Maeander and Hermus river valleys took such differ- mountain ranges to the north side of the Hermus ent directions. river plain. From east to west, it stretches from the Let us now turn to a brief review of the historical edge of the Anatolian plateau to the Aegean coast, development of Lydia and Caria in the Iron Age. excepting, in the Iron Age, the coastline itself, whose Other papers in this volume treat in greater detail of Greek cities though eventually conquered by Lydia the prehistoric inhabitants of Caria, the distinction were originally independent. Unlike the Carians, the between the Carians and the Lelegians, and Carian Lydians were not a seafaring people. The inland ter- social and religious institutions. Let me just empha- ritories of Lydia were also very different from the size two points: first, the tradition that the Carians mountainous regions south of the Maeander. The were relative latecomers to the land named after heartlands of Lydia were the broad and fertile plains them, second, the relative weakness of their central of the Hermus and Caicus rivers – still to this day social institutions. Caria was famously a land of vil- very populous and productive regions. To generalize, lages and decentralized unions. Although it did have Lydia was an inland territory focused especially on some common institutions, such as the koinon of the the Hermus plain, as opposed to Caria, whose most Carians, and even the office of the king of the distinctive topographical features are its rocky Carians, it was not until the rise of the Hecatomnid coastland and mountainous interior, and this alone dynasty in the fourth century that anything like a goes a long way to explain why it was Lydia, not Carian principality begins to emerge. Another sub- Caria, that saw the emergence of a powerful state ject for another paper would be the degree to which centered on a large urban capital in the seventh and Mausolus took the kings of Lydia as models, not least sixth centuries B.C. In this respect Lydia is conven- in the recreation of Halicarnassus as a royal capital tionally seen as the successor to its eastern Anatolian centered on a monumental tomb which Simon Horn- neighbor, Phrygia. blower sees as a Greek heroon, but which must also An obvious focus of interest in a study of the be understood against the background of ancient Carians and Lydians is their common border, placed Anatolian traditions3. by most sources at the Maeander river and its valley, All the stories preserved by the ancient authors but by Ptolemy at the Messogis (Geography 5, 2) – about the early history of Lydia, in any case, are and it is worth observing that the Maeander valley is centered around the institution of kingship, and de- in fact more naturally tied to Caria, by the tributary spite the tradition that an early dynasty of kings of valleys of the Marsyas, Harpasus, and Morsynus riv- Lydia was descended from Heracles, there seems to 2 Carian-Ionian interaction at Ephesus in the west: Strab. 14, 21. – On the east, see discussion below of the environs of Aphrodisias. 3 S. Hornblower, Mausolus (Oxford 1982) 1–34 (early Carian history). 253–261 (Mausoleum as heroon). The Carians and the Lydians 137 have been substantial continuity between the Bronze The principal interaction between Lydia and and Early Iron Ages. In the Iliad (2, 864–866), the Caria in the Iron Age was of course the apparent ab- inhabitants of Lydia are referred to as the Maeonians; sorption of Caria into the Lydian empire in the reigns according to Herodotus, they were renamed the of Gyges’ successors, particularly Alyattes and Lydians after an early ruler called Lydus, the son of Croesus. Herodotus says that Alyattes had at least Atys (1, 7). The family of Lydus was succeeded by the two wives, one Ionian, one Carian, and that his sons, Heraclids, whose first representative, Agron, was the Pantaleon, by the Ionian wife, and Croesus, by the son of Ninos – to whom we shall return – and the great- Carian wife, quarreled over their father’s throne (1, great grandson of Heracles. Heracles, of course, had 92). Croesus was victorious, and after putting Pan- been enslaved to the Lydian queen Omphale, who, as taleon to death, he dedicated his possessions to notably described by Ovid, made him dress up as a Apollo at Delphi. Both marriages may be seen as dy- woman (Ov.