Sardis

Photo: floor mosaic in the Sardis synagogue, by Dick Osseman

In the wide fertile Fraser Valley near Chilliwack lies the town of Sardis. For many years, the Tim Horton's there has been our stop of choice on road trips that pass that way.

But only when I saw the same name displayed on a sign in Turkey did I make the connection to the ancient Mediterranean city.

Sardis, part of the ancient Kingdom of Lydia, lies quite close to but inland from archeological sites of Troy, Ephesus, and Miletus along the Aegean coast. Wealthy as Croesus, we still hear the expression today. But who was he? An ancient Lydian king, the first to mint coins of pure gold.

Sardis changed hands many times. Between 550 BCE and 300 CE, Sardis was conquered in turn by the Persian King Cyrus, Alexander the Great, the Greeks and the Romans. In 17 and 123 CE, it was rocked by major earthquakes. The Roman Emperor Hadrian visited it, and Diocletian named it capital of the Roman province of Lydia. The Arabs conquered Sardis in 716 CE and the Ottoman Turks arrived in 1306.

At different times, the city was home to various religions. The synagogue was the largest outside Palestine, and the Romans celebrated their imperial cult. Christianity arrived in the first century CE and made Sardis one of the Seven Churches of Revelation.