The Lydians established a powerful state in western Anatolia that was centered in the basin of the Gediz (ancient Hermus) river and they had already become active in the valley of the Menderes by the 7th century B.C. It is known for example that King Gyges of Lydia ruled Magnesia on the Maeander (near present-day Ortaklar) and that in the 6th century B.C., King Alyattes rescued Orthasia (near present-day Yenipazar) from the marauding Cimmerians.
The most outstanding Lydian king however was Croesus and it was during his reign (560-546 B.C.) that Lydia experienced its brightest period. Under the protection and careful watch of Lydia, the city-states of Ionia and Caria grew and prospered, though in return for this they had to pay a hefty price to King Croesus.
The city of Tralles (modern Aydin) was a distribution and transit center where goods coming from Caria, Cilicia, Syria, Persia, and farther east were collected and from which they were sent to Aegean seaports. At the same time, olives, figs, raisins, acorns, and other produce from the valley of the Maeander were shipped from Miletos harbor to Greece, Italy, Phoenicia, and Egypt. Lydia became extraordinarily enriched due not only to its own resources but also to the taxes it collected and it can hardly be a coincidence that it was the first country in the world to mint a standardized and widely-recognized coinage.

Among the tribes migrating from the Aegean were the lonians. Reaching as far north as the middle coast of western Anadolia, they settled down around the Kusadasi gulf where the Maeander rivers discharged into the Mediterranean, and the ancient Latmian gulf, now the entrance to the Soke plain. The lonians appear to have fused with the local inhabitants and then proceeded to establish twelve seaside settlements, among them Miletos and Priene.
Through expanded maritime trade and colonization, they eventually established a strong trading network that encompassed the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Black Sea and they rapidly grew wealthy. The original small settlements grew, each one becoming an independent city-state.
Under the protective wing of the powerful Lydian kingdom, these city-states flourished in freedom, achieving high levels of activity in the fields of trade, art, scholarship, philosophy, architecture, and the political and social sciences. Rich and prosperous cities of gleaming white marble like Miletos and Priene apeared.
Yet these city-states failed to establish any political unity among themselves and thus in the 6th century B.C., at a time when they were at the peak of their development, they were forced to submit to the might of the Persian armies from the Iranian plateau and the bright and legendary sunlight of Ionian civilization was dimmed. Nevertheless it had a deep-rooted influence that persisted for ages. The uniquely Anatolian structures of the Graeco-Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods appeared as a continuation of Ionian culture and art on a much larger scale.
The western reaches of the province of Aydin today encompass an important part of what was known in ancient times as Ionia and we will be providing more detailed information on this in the pages that follow.