After the death of his father and his ascension to the Macedonian throne. Alexander’s first order of business was to pursue his father‘s dream — the conquest of the Persian Empire. When his campaign started off, it was revenge that was on his mind. Persians had enslaved several territories of Greece in the past. The Persian invasion led by Darrius and Xerxes had been a serious threat to every Greek city and kingdom. Several Greek cities in Asia Minor were under Persian occupation for over 80 years at the time Alexander had on his mind to take the war to Persia. thus driving as much further as possible the Persian Empire, projecting in force that if the Persian Empire was to attack the Greeks. then the Greeks would attack too.
And so, Alexander crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor. As he moved southward he defeated the Persian forces at Granicus and Halicarnassusi Shortly after crossing into Asia Minor in Alexander quickly won his first major battle at Granicus. This victory allowed him to take the western half of Asia Minor, Sardis included. Sardis was the capital of a major province of Asia Minor, and the mustering point for the invasions of Greece under the Great Kings Darius and Xerxes. Alexander the Great ended the Persian Empire in 334 BC. and Sardis became part of the Greek world. After the surrendering of the city, Alexander gave Sardis 12 years of independence and although he restored the citizens former customs, the Lydian and Persian royal capital was gradually converted to a Greek polis. with Greek institutions such as the council house. A number of changes took place in Sardis after the surrender. A new lower town was built to the north of the Acropolis and the old town was gradually abandoned.
With the sole exception of the Temple of Artemis and its surrounding area, where a few citizens continued to live. Whatever the case, Alexander took some swift steps to try to win over the Lydians to his cause. His first move was to announce that the Lydians would no longer be bound by the judicial system and laws of the Persians. Nor were they to be forced to accept those of Macedon. Instead, the old laws of the Lydian kings were reintroduced, presumably under native judges and systems of administration In Persian times and immediately after alexanders conquest. Sardis maintained a certain degree of autonomy which allowed it to have independent diplomatic relations with Miletus, but it had not yet acquired the status of a Greek polis. Sardis was significant as the seat of the satrap of Sparda. Sardis was also the unquestioned centre of Persian authority in the whole of Asian minor.
The garrison at the Sardis citadel was directly subordinate to the great king as was the keeper of the local royal treasury. For Alexander, the capture of this treasury was of prime importance, for despite the victory at the Granicus, his finances were in a critical condition. It is said that where the treasury must have been located, was virtually impossible to capture without a long drawn out siege. Vet this did not happen. Before Alexander reached the city, he was met by the commander of the Sardis garrison, accompanied by the city’s most influential citizens, who surrendered to the Macedonian king the acropolis and treasury. In Sardis Alexander resolved to build a temple to the Olympian Zeus. Interpreting as a sign from the said deity a thunderclap that struck a spot where the place of the lydian kings had once stood. alexander decided to have the temple built there. To the local population the thunderbolt had symbolic meaning suggesting that alexander was the continuator of the ancient Indian dynasty.
Continuing Achaemenid administrative solutions, alexander divided authority over Sardis Instead of appointing a satrap to have powers over the civil, judicial and military administration. The authority was appointed to three officials: Asander was given the task of governing the province, Nicias who was entrusted with the collection of taxes and alexanders companion Pausanias was given command of the garrison. This triple division of authority might indicate that Alexander did not believe that Lydia was fully content with accepting the Macedonian ruler Or perhaps he was want of giving any one of them too much power. The territories Alexander conquered retained their provincial administrations, continued to pay the same taxes as before, and formed the foundations of his Asian empire.
