Book 1
When they had prepared this plot, and night had fallen, Gyges followed the woman into the chamber (for Gyges was not released, nor was there any means of deliverance, but either he or Candaules must die). She gave him a dagger and hid him behind the same door;
and presently he stole out and killed Candaules as he slept. Thus he made himself master of the king's wife and sovereignty. He is mentioned in the iambic verses of Archilochus of Parus who lived about the same time.
So he took possession of the sovereign power and was confirmed in it by the Delphic oracle. For when the Lydians took exception to what was done to Candaules, and took up arms, the faction of Gyges came to an agreement with the rest of the people that if the oracle should ordain him king of the Lydians, then he would reign; but if not, then he would return the kingship to the Heraclidae.
The oracle did so ordain, and Gyges thus became king. However, the Pythian priestess declared that the Heraclidae would have vengeance on Gyges' posterity in the fifth generation; an utterance to which the Lydians and their kings paid no regard until it was fulfilled.
Thus the Mermnadae robbed the Heraclidae of the sovereignty and took it for themselves. Having gotten it, Gyges sent many offerings to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi : there are very many silver offerings of his there; and besides the silver, he dedicated a hoard of gold, among which six golden bowls are the offerings especially worthy of mention.
These weigh thirty talentsThe “Attic” talent had a weight of about 58 lbs. avoirdupois, the “Aeginetan” of about 82. and stand in the treasuryMany Greek states had special “treasuries” allotted to them in the temple precincts at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi , in which their offerings were deposited. of the Corinthians; although in truth it is not the treasury of the Corinthian people but of Cypselus son of Eetion. This Gyges then was the first foreigner whom we know who placed offerings at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi after the king of Phrygia (region (general)), Turkey, Asia Phrygia , Midas son of Gordias.
For Midas too made an offering: namely, the royal seat on which he sat to give judgment, and a marvellous seat it is. It is set in the same place as the bowls of Gyges. This gold and the silver offered by Gyges is called by the Delphians “Gygian” after its dedicator.
As soon as Gyges came to the throne, he too, like others, led an army into the lands of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus and Smyrna [27.1667,38.4167] (Perseus) Smyrna ; and he took the city of Colophon [27.1333,38.1167] (Perseus) Colophon . But as he did nothing else great in his reign of thirty-eight years, I shall say no more of him, and shall speak instead of Ardys son of Gyges, who succeeded him. He took Priene [27.2833,37.6333] (Perseus) Priene and invaded the country of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus ; and it was while he was monarch of Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis that the Cimmerians, driven from their homes by the nomad Scythians, came into Asia (continent) Asia , and took Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis , all but the acropolis.
Ardys reigned for forty-nine years and was succeeded by his son Sadyattes, who reigned for twelve years; and after Sadyattes came Alyattes,
who waged war against Deioces' descendant Cyaxares and the Medes, drove the Cimmerians out of Asia (continent) Asia , took Smyrna [27.1667,38.4167] (Perseus) Smyrna (which was a colony from Colophon [27.1333,38.1167] (Perseus) Colophon ), and invaded the lands of Klazomenai [26.7833,38.3167] (Perseus) Clazomenae . But he did not return from these as he wished, but with great disaster. Of other deeds done by him in his reign, these were the most notable:
He continued the war against the Milesians which his father had begun. This was how he attacked and besieged Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus : he sent his army, marching to the sound of pipes and harps and bass and treble flutes, to invade when the crops in the land were ripe;
and whenever he came to the Milesian territory, he neither demolished nor burnt nor tore the doors off the country dwellings, but let them stand unharmed; but he destroyed the trees and the crops of the land, and so returned to where he came from;
for as the Milesians had command of the sea, it was of no use for his army to besiege their city. The reason that the Lydian did not destroy the houses was this: that the Milesians might have homes from which to plant and cultivate their land, and that there might be the fruit of their toil for his invading army to lay waste.
He waged war in this way for eleven years, and in these years two great disasters overtook the Milesians, one at the battle of Limeneion in their own territory, and the other in the valley of the Buyukmenderes Nehri [27.183,37.466] (river), Turkey, Asia Maeander .
For six of these eleven years Sadyattes son of Ardys was still ruler of Lydia [27.516,38.683] (region (general)), Turkey, Asia Lydia , and it was he who invaded the lands of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus , for it was he who had begun the war; for the following five the war was waged by Sadyattes' son Alyattes, who, as I have indicated before, inherited the war from his father and carried it on vigorously.
None of the Ionians helped to lighten this war for the Milesians, except the Chians: these lent their aid in return for a similar service done for them; for the Milesians had previously helped the Chians in their war against the Erythraeans.
In the twelfth year, when the Lydian army was burning the crops, the fire set in the crops, blown by a strong wind, caught the temple of Athena called Athena of Assesos,A small town or village near Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus . and the temple burned to the ground.
For the present no notice was taken of this. But after the army had returned to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis , Alyattes fell ill; and, as his sickness lasted longer than it should, he sent to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi to inquire of the oracle, either at someone's urging or by his own wish to question the god about his sickness.
But when the messengers came to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi , the Pythian priestess would not answer them before they restored the temple of Athena at Assesos in the Milesian territory, which they had burnt.
I know this much to be so because the Delphians told me. The Milesians add that Periander son of Cypselus, a close friend of the Thrasybulus who then was sovereign of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus , learned what reply the oracle had given to Alyattes, and sent a messenger to tell Thrasybulus so that his friend, forewarned, could make his plans accordingly.
The Milesians say it happened so. Then, when the Delphic reply was brought to Alyattes, he promptly sent a herald to Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus , offering to make a truce with Thrasybulus and the Milesians during his rebuilding of the temple. So the envoy went to Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus . But Thrasybulus, forewarned of the whole matter, and knowing what Alyattes meant to do, devised the following plan:
he brought together into the marketplace all the food in the city, from private stores and his own, and told the men of Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus all to drink and celebrate together when he gave the word.
Thrasybulus did this so that when the herald from Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis saw a great heap of food piled up, and the citizens celebrating, he would bring word of it to Alyattes:
and so it happened. The herald saw all this, gave Thrasybulus the message he had been instructed by the Lydian to deliver, and returned to Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis ; and this, as I learn, was the sole reason for the reconciliation.
For Alyattes had supposed that there was great scarcity in Miletus [27.3,37.5] (Perseus) Miletus and that the people were reduced to the last extremity of misery; but now on his herald's return from the town he heard an account contrary to his expectations;
so presently the Lydians and Milesians ended the war and agreed to be friends and allies, and Alyattes built not one but two temples of Athena at Assesos, and recovered from his illness. That is the story of Alyattes' war against Thrasybulus and the Milesians.
Periander, who disclosed the oracle's answer to Thrasybulus, was the son of Cypselus, and sovereign of Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth . The Corinthians say (and the Lesbians agree) that the most marvellous thing that happened to him in his life was the landing on Taenarus of Arion of Methymna [26.2,39.3333] (Perseus) Methymna , brought there by a dolphin. This Arion was a lyre-player second to none in that age; he was the first man whom we know to compose and name the dithyrambThe dithyramb was a kind of dance-music particularly associated with the cult of Dionysus. which he afterwards taught at Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth .
They say that this Arion, who spent most of his time with Periander, wished to sail to Italy [12.833,42.833] (nation), Europe Italy and Sicily [14,37.5] (region), Italy, Europe Sicily , and that after he had made a lot of money there he wanted to come back to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth .
Trusting none more than the Corinthians, he hired a Corinthian vessel to carry him from Taranto [17.216,40.466] (inhabited place), Taranto, Apulia, Italy, Europe Tarentum . Terentum But when they were out at sea, the crew plotted to take Arion's money and cast him overboard. Discovering this, he earnestly entreated them, asking for his life and offering them his money.
But the crew would not listen to him, and told him either to kill himself and so receive burial on land or else to jump into the sea at once.
Abandoned to this extremity, Arion asked that, since they had made up their minds, they would let him stand on the half-deck in all his regalia and sing; and he promised that after he had sung he would do himself in.
The men, pleased at the thought of hearing the best singer in the world, drew away toward the waist of the vessel from the stern. Arion, putting on all his regalia and taking his lyre, stood up on the half-deck and sang the “Stirring Song,”The ὄρθιος νόμος was a high-pitched (and apparently very well-known) song or hymn in honor of Apollo. and when the song was finished he threw himself into the sea, as he was with all his regalia.
So the crew sailed away to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth ; but a dolphin (so the story goes) took Arion on his back and bore him to Taenarus. Landing there, he went to Corinth [22.9083,37.9083] (Perseus) Corinth in his regalia, and when he arrived, he related all that had happened.
Periander, skeptical, kept him in confinement, letting him go nowhere, and waited for the sailors. When they arrived, they were summoned and asked what news they brought of Arion. While they were saying that he was safe in Italy [12.833,42.833] (nation), Europe Italy and that they had left him flourishing at Taranto [17.216,40.466] (inhabited place), Taranto, Apulia, Italy, Europe Tarentum , Arion appeared before them, just as he was when he jumped from the ship; astonished, they could no longer deny what was proved against them.
This is what the Corinthians and Lesbians say, and there is a little bronze memorial of Arion on Taenarus, the figure of a man riding upon a dolphin.
Alyattes the Lydian, his war with the Milesians finished, died after a reign of fifty-seven years.
He was the second of his family to make an offering to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi (after recovering from his illness) of a great silver bowl on a stand of welded iron. Among all the offerings at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi , this is the most worth seeing, and is the work of Glaucus the Chian, the only one of all men who discovered how to weld iron.
After the death of Alyattes, his son Croesus, then thirty-five years of age, came to the throne Croesus' reign began in 560 B.C., probably.. The first Greeks whom he attacked were the Ephesians.
These, besieged by him, dedicated their city to Artemis; they did this by attaching a rope to the city wall from the temple of the goddess, which stood seven stades away from the ancient city which was then besieged.
These were the first whom Croesus attacked; afterwards he made war on the Ionian and Aeolian cities in turn, upon different pretexts: he found graver charges where he could, but sometimes alleged very petty grounds of offense.