546 BC

Siege of Sardis (547 BC)

Cyrus captures Sardis and ends the independent Lydian kingdom

Herodotus says Sardis fell because a Persian soldier watched one defender climb down a cliff everyone else thought unscalable.

A pursuit Croesus did not expect

In the campaign conventionally dated to 546 BCE, an inconclusive battle at Pteria sent Croesus back toward Sardis, where he began dispersing his forces and expecting time to summon his allies. Cyrus followed him home before those allies could arrive.

Cyrus defeated the remaining Lydian army near Sardis and besieged the strongly fortified capital. Herodotus reports that the soldier Hyroeades noticed an apparently unguarded route up the citadel, and that the city fell on the fourteenth day.

The capture ended Croesus's independent kingdom and transferred Lydia's central territory and resources to Persia. Herodotus has Croesus survive to advise Cyrus; other traditions differ, so his fate should not be stated as certain.

The year rests on a damaged tablet

Herodotus gives the sequence but no year. The traditional 547/546 date depends on restoring a broken place-name in the Nabonidus Chronicle as "Lydia," a reading repeatedly disputed. The Metropolitan Museum uses 546 BCE; Encyclopaedia Iranica uses 547 conditionally.

The secure conclusion is narrower: Sardis fell between Cyrus's conquest of Media and his capture of Babylon in 539 BCE.

Herodotus's camel tactic and the story of Croesus on the pyre are literary traditions, not contemporary Persian reports.

Two events glued together

The listing also says Cyrus made Pasargadae his capital at the same moment. There was no such datable ceremony: archaeological analysis places most major construction there between 546 and 530 BCE, and some inscribed or completed features belong to Darius's reign.

Lydia's fall did not hand Cyrus all of Anatolia either. Resistant Ionian, Carian and other coastal communities were subdued afterwards by commanders including Mazares and Harpagus, once Cyrus had left.

The stonework at Pasargadae used Ionian techniques that became available only after the Anatolian conquest — the architecture preserves the order of events the listing collapses.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

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Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~-0546.

What the sources leave uncertain

Herodotus supplies the sequence but no year. The traditional 547/546 dating depends on restoring a damaged place-name in the Nabonidus Chronicle as 'Lydia'; that reading has been repeatedly disputed.
The Metropolitan Museum uses 546 BCE, while Encyclopaedia Iranica conditionally uses 547 BCE. The secure conclusion is that Sardis fell between Cyrus's conquest of Media and his capture of Babylon in 539 BCE.
Herodotus depicts Croesus surviving and advising Cyrus, whereas other traditions differ; his fate should not be stated as certain.
Pasargadae was not made a capital in a datable ceremony tied securely to Sardis. Its construction unfolded over years, and some inscribed or completed features belong to Darius's reign.