The History of Herodotus, volume 1 | Page 8

lived about that time, made mention in a trimeter
iambic verse.[11] 13. He obtained the kingdom however and was strengthened in it by
means of the Oracle at Delphi; for when the Lydians were angry because of the fate of
Candaules, and had risen in arms, a treaty was made between the followers of Gyges and
the other Lydians to this effect, that if the Oracle should give answer that he was to be
king of the Lydians, he should be king, and if not, he should give back the power to the
sons of Heracles. So the Oracle gave answer, and Gyges accordingly became king: yet
the Pythian prophetess said this also, that vengeance for the Heracleidai should come
upon the descendants of Gyges in the fifth generation. Of this oracle the Lydians and
their kings made no account until it was in fact fulfilled.
14. Thus the Mermnadai obtained the government having driven out from it the
Heracleidai: and Gyges when he became ruler sent votive offerings to Delphi not a few,
for of all the silver offerings at Delphi his are more in number than those of any other
man; and besides the silver he offered a vast quantity of gold, and especially one offering
which is more worthy of mention than the rest, namely six golden mixing-bowls, which
are dedicated there as his gift: of these the weight is thirty talents, and they stand in the
treasury of the Corinthians, (though in truth this treasury does not belong to the State of
the Corinthians, but is that of Kypselos the son of Aëtion).[12] This Gyges was the first
of the Barbarians within our knowledge who dedicated votive offerings at Delphi, except

only Midas the son of Gordias king of Phrygia, who dedicated for an offering the royal
throne on which he sat before all to decide causes; and this throne, a sight worth seeing,
stands in the same place with the bowls of Gyges. This gold and silver which Gyges
dedicated is called Gygian by the people of Delphi, after the name of him who offered it.
Now Gyges also,[13] as soon as he became king, led an army against Miletos and
Smyrna, and he took the lower town of Colophon:[14] but no other great deed did he do
in his reign, which lasted eight-and-thirty years, therefore we will pass him by with no
more mention than has already been made, 15, and I will speak now of Ardys the son of
Gyges, who became king after Gyges. He took Priene and made an invasion against
Miletos; and while he was ruling over Sardis, the Kimmerians driven from their abodes
by the nomad Scythians came to Asia and took Sardis except the citadel.
16. Now when Ardys had been king for nine-and-forty years, Sadyattes his son succeeded
to his kingdom, and reigned twelve years; and after him Alyattes. This last made war
against Kyaxares the descendant of Deïokes and against the Medes,[15] and he drove the
Kimmerians forth out of Asia, and he took Smyrna which had been founded from
Colophon, and made an invasion against Clazomenai. From this he returned not as he
desired, but with great loss: during his reign however he performed other deeds very
worthy of mention as follows:--17. He made war with those of Miletos, having received
this war as an inheritance from his father: for he used to invade their land and besiege
Miletos in the following manner:--whenever there were ripe crops upon the land, then he
led an army into their confines, making his march to the sound of pipes and harps and
flutes both of male and female tone: and when he came to the Milesian land, he neither
pulled down the houses that were in the fields, nor set fire to them nor tore off their doors,
but let them stand as they were; the trees however and the crops that were upon the land
he destroyed, and then departed by the way he came: for the men of Miletos had
command of the sea, so that it was of no use for his army to blockade them: and he
abstained from pulling down the houses to the end that the Milesians might have places
to dwell in while they sowed and tilled the land, and by the means of their labour he
might have somewhat to destroy when he made his invasion. 18. Thus he continued to
war with them for eleven years; and in the course of these years the Milesians suffered
two great defeats, once when they fought a battle in the district of Limenion in their own
land, and again in the plain of Maiander. Now for six of the eleven years Sadyattes the
son of Ardys was still ruler of the Lydians, the