Extensive trade between mainland Greece and the Hellenistic portions of Anatolia was underway by the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, with fish, grain, timber, metal, and often slaves being exported from the land. It is believed that this kind of contact with the spread of Hellenistic culture, religion, and ideas in Anatolia was a peaceful process.

Worship of the Greek pantheon of gods was practiced in Lydia. Lydian king Croesus often invited the wisest Greek philosophers, orators and statesmen to attend his