Sardis was founded in the twelfth century before Christ, and was one of the oldest and most important cities of Asia. It was located about thirty-five miles southeast of Thyatira. Until captured by Cyrus in 549 BC., Sardis was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, and became so again after the fall the Roman power in Asia in AD. 395. Lydia was one of the richest kingdoms of the ancient world. The Lydians are reputed to have been the inventors o coined money. Speaking of their wealth, the historian Ridpath says: "A great cause of the prosperity and wealth of the Lydian Kingdom was the natural fertility of the country. No other of all Asia Minor had so rich a soil.
The ancient city of Sardis was built on a plateau of crumbling rock rising 1,500 feet above the plain. The plateau was a part of Mount Tomolus, whose height was 6,700 feet. The walls of the elevation on which the city was built were almost perpendicular, and the city was inaccessible except by one narrow passage which was steep and easily fortified and guarded. Sardis was considered an impregnable fortress.
The natural defenses of Sardis made the guards and citizens proud and overconfident. The wall were carelessly guarded, with sometimes fatal results. Because of the failure of the guards to watch, Cyrus captured the city by stratagem in 549 BC. Solon had warned Croesus not to be too confident of safety from attack, but even after the army of Cyrus appeared on the plain below, he saw no reason for concern. But the unexpected happened. One dark night a Persian soldier resolved :to approach the citadel: and attempt to climb the precipice :at a place where no guards were ever set.: There the rock was so :precipitous and impracticable "that it would seem impossible to scale it. Herodotus says that the soldier "climbed the rock himself an other Persians followed in his track, until a large number had mounted to the top. Thus Sardis was taken, and given up entirely to pillage." But the lesson was soon forgotten, for 330 years later the city was again captured through stratagem by Antiochus the Great.
Sardis means "those escaping" or "that which remains." The name, the message, and the subsequent history of the city and church, indicate a good start but a bad finish, a change for the worse. Sir William Ramsay calls Sardis "the city of death." Its history is just the opposite of that of Smyrna, which "was dead and is alive;" or is "the city of life." Sardis had "a name that thou livest, and art dead." Like Ephesus, the city and church of Sardis began with a glorious history and ended in a heap of ruins.
Sardis is now heaps of ruins, with no signs of life. It is indeed "the city of death."
Sardis never fully recovered from the earthquake of AD 17, and was only partially rebuilt. When this epistle was written, the city was rapidly waning in prestige and glory, but its inhabitants were still boastful of the reputation and history of the past. Decay and death were inevitable, but the Sardians refused to recognize the fate of the city and continued to live on its ancient glory. The city had a name only, whereas in reality it was dead, or rapidly dying.