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Croesus, son of Alyattes, by birth a Lydian, was lord of all the nations
to the west of the river Halys. This stream, which separates Syria
from Paphlagonia, runs with a course from south to north, and finally
falls into the Euxine. So far as our knowledge goes, he was the first
of the barbarians who had dealings with the Greeks, forcing some of
them to become his tributaries, and entering into alliance with others.
He conquered the Aeolians, Ionians, and Dorians of Asia, and made
a treaty with the Lacedaemonians. Up to that time all Greeks had been
free. For the Cimmerian attack upon Ionia, which was earlier than
Croesus, was not a conquest of the cities, but only an inroad for
plundering. 

The sovereignty of Lydia, which had belonged to the Heraclides, passed
into the family of Croesus, who were called the Mermnadae, in the
manner which I will now relate. There was a certain king of Sardis,
Candaules by name, whom the Greeks called Myrsilus. He was a descendant
of Alcaeus, son of Hercules. The first king of this dynasty was Agron,
son of Ninus, grandson of Belus, and great-grandson of Alcaeus; Candaules,
son of Myrsus, was the last. The kings who reigned before Agron sprang
from Lydus, son of Atys, from whom the people of the land, called
previously Meonians, received the name of Lydians. The Heraclides,
descended from Hercules and the slave-girl of Jardanus, having been
entrusted by these princes with the management of affairs, obtained
the kingdom by an oracle. Their rule endured for two and twenty generations
of men, a space of five hundred and five years; during the whole of
which period, from Agron to Candaules, the crown descended in the
direct line from father to son. 

Now it happened that this Candaules was in love with his own wife;
and not only so, but thought her the fairest woman in the whole world.
This fancy had strange consequences. There was in his bodyguard a
man whom he specially favoured, Gyges, the son of Dascylus. All affairs
of greatest moment were entrusted by Candaules to this person, and
to him he was wont to extol the surpassing beauty of his wife. So
matters went on for a while. At length, one day, Candaules, who was
fated to end ill, thus addressed his follower: "I see thou dost not
credit what I tell thee of my lady's loveliness; but come now, since
men's ears are less credulous than their eyes, contrive some means
whereby thou mayst behold her naked." At this the other loudly exclaimed,
saying, "What most unwise speech is this, master, which thou hast
uttered? Wouldst thou have me behold my mistress when she is naked?
Bethink thee that a woman, with her clothes, puts off her bashfulness.
Our fathers, in time past, distinguished right and wrong plainly enough,
and it is our wisdom to submit to be taught by them. There is an old
saying, 'Let each look on his own.' I hold thy wife for the fairest
of all womankind. Only, I beseech thee, ask me not to do wickedly."

Gyges thus endeavoured to decline the king's proposal, trembling lest
some dreadful evil should befall him through it. But the king replied
to him, "Courage, friend; suspect me not of the design to prove thee
by this discourse; nor dread thy mistress, lest mischief be. thee
at her hands. Be sure I will so manage that she shall not even know
that thou hast looked upon her. I will place thee behind the open
door of the chamber in which we sleep. When I enter to go to rest
she will follow me. There stands a chair close to the entrance, on
which she will lay her clothes one by one as she takes them off. Thou
wilt be able thus at thy leisure to peruse her person. Then, when
she is moving from the chair toward the bed, and her back is turned
on thee, be it thy care that she see thee not as thou passest through
the doorway." 

Gyges, unable to escape, could but declare his readiness. Then Candaules,
when bedtime came, led Gyges into his sleeping-chamber, and a moment
after the queen followed. She entered, and laid her garments on the
chair, and Gyges gazed on her. After a while she moved toward the
bed, and her back being then turned, he glided stealthily from the
apartment. As he was passing out, however, she saw him, and instantly
divining what had happened, she neither screamed as her shame impelled
her, nor even appeared to have noticed aught, purposing to take vengeance
upon the husband who had so affronted her. For among the Lydians,
and indeed among the barbarians generally, it is reckoned a deep disgrace,
even to a man, to be seen naked. 

No sound or sign of intelligence escaped her at the time. But in the
morning, as soon as day broke, she hastened to choose from among her
retinue such as she knew to be most faithful to her, and preparing
them for what was to ensue, summoned Gyges into her presence. Now
it had often happened before that the queen had desired to confer
with him, and he was accustomed to come to her at her call. He therefore
obeyed the summons, not suspecting that she knew aught of what had
occurred. Then she addressed these words to him: "Take thy choice,
Gyges, of two courses which are open to thee. Slay Candaules, and
thereby become my lord, and obtain the Lydian throne, or die this
moment in his room. So wilt thou not again, obeying all behests of
thy master, behold what is not lawful for thee. It must needs be that
either he perish by whose counsel this thing was done, or thou, who
sawest me naked, and so didst break our usages." At these words Gyges
stood awhile in mute astonishment; recovering after a time, he earnestly
besought the queen that she would not compel him to so hard a choice.
But finding he implored in vain, and that necessity was indeed laid
on him to kill or to be killed, he made choice of life for himself,
and replied by this inquiry: "If it must be so, and thou compellest
me against my will to put my lord to death, come, let me hear how
thou wilt have me set on him." "Let him be attacked," she answered,
"on the spot where I was by him shown naked to you, and let the assault
be made when he is asleep." 

All was then prepared for the attack, and when night fell, Gyges,
seeing that he had no retreat or escape, but must absolutely either
slay Candaules, or himself be slain, followed his mistress into the
sleeping-room. She placed a dagger in his hand and hid him carefully
behind the self-same door. Then Gyges, when the king was fallen asleep,
entered privily into the chamber and struck him dead. Thus did the
wife and kingdom of Candaules pass into the possession of Gyges, of
whom Archilochus the Parian, who lived about the same time, made mention
in a poem written in iambic trimeter verse. 

Gyges was afterwards confirmed in the possession of the throne by
an answer of the Delphic oracle. Enraged at the murder of their king,
the people flew to arms, but after a while the partisans of Gyges
came to terms with them, and it was agreed that if the Delphic oracle
declared him king of the Lydians, he should reign; if otherwise, he
should yield the throne to the Heraclides. As the oracle was given
in his favour he became king. The Pythoness, however, added that,
in the fifth generation from Gyges, vengeance should come for the
Heraclides; a prophecy of which neither the Lydians nor their princes
took any account till it was fulfilled. Such was the way in which
the Mermnadae deposed the Heraclides, and themselves obtained the
sovereignty. 

When Gyges was established on the throne, he sent no small presents
to Delphi, as his many silver offerings at the Delphic shrine testify.
Besides this silver he gave a vast number of vessels of gold, among
which the most worthy of mention are the goblets, six in number, and
weighing altogether thirty talents, which stand in the Corinthian
treasury, dedicated by him. I call it the Corinthian treasury, though
in strictness of speech it is the treasury not of the whole Corinthian
people, but of Cypselus, son of Eetion. Excepting Midas, son of Gordias,
king of Phrygia, Gyges was the first of the barbarians whom we know
to have sent offerings to Delphi. Midas dedicated the royal throne
whereon he was accustomed to sit and administer justice, an object
well worth looking at. It lies in the same place as the goblets presented
by Gyges. The Delphians call the whole of the silver and the gold
which Gyges dedicated, after the name of the donor, Gygian.

As soon as Gyges was king he made an in-road on Miletus and Smyrna,
and took the city of Colophon. Afterwards, however, though he reigned
eight and thirty years, he did not perform a single noble exploit.
I shall therefore make no further mention of him, but pass on to his
son and successor in the kingdom, Ardys. 

Ardys took Priene and made war upon Miletus. In his reign the Cimmerians,
driven from their homes by the nomads of Scythia, entered Asia and
captured Sardis, all but the citadel. He reigned forty-nine years,
and was succeeded by his son, Sadyattes, who reigned twelve years.
At his death his son Alyattes mounted the throne. 

This prince waged war with the Medes under Cyaxares, the grandson
of Deioces, drove the Cimmerians out of Asia, conquered Smyrna, the
Colophonian colony, and invaded Clazomenae. From this last contest
he did not come off as he could have wished, but met with a sore defeat;
still, however, in the course of his reign, he performed other actions
very worthy of note, of which I will now proceed to give an account.

Inheriting from his father a war with the Milesians, he pressed the
siege against the city by attacking it in the following manner. When
the harvest was ripe on the ground he marched his army into Milesia
to the sound of pipes and harps, and flutes masculine and feminine.
The buildings that were scattered over the country he neither pulled
down nor burnt, nor did he even tear away the doors, but left them
standing as they were. He cut down, however, and utterly destroyed
all the trees and all the corn throughout the land, and then returned
to his own dominions. It was idle for his army to sit down before
the place, as the Milesians were masters of the sea. The reason that
he did not demolish their buildings was that the inhabitants might
be tempted to use them as homesteads from which to go forth to sow
and till their lands; and so each time that he invaded the country
he might find something to plunder. 

In this way he carried on the war with the Milesians for eleven years,
in the course of which he inflicted on them two terrible blows; one
in their own country in the district of Limeneium, the other in the
plain of the Maeander. During six of these eleven years, Sadyattes,
the son of Ardys who first lighted the flames of this war, was king
of Lydia, and made the incursions. Only the five following years belong
to the reign of Alyattes, son of Sadyattes, who (as I said before)
inheriting the war from his father, applied himself to it unremittingly.
The Milesians throughout the contest received no help at all from
any of the Ionians, excepting those of Chios, who lent them troops
in requital of a like service rendered them in former times, the Milesians
having fought on the side of the Chians during the whole of the war
between them and the people of Erythrae. 

It was in the twelfth year of the war that the following mischance
occurred from the firing of the harvest-fields. Scarcely had the corn
been set alight by the soldiers when a violent wind carried the flames
against the temple of Minerva Assesia, which caught fire and was burnt
to the ground. At the time no one made any account of the circumstance;
but afterwards, on the return of the army to Sardis, Alyattes fell
sick. His illness continued, whereupon, either advised thereto by
some friend, or perchance himself conceiving the idea, he sent messengers
to Delphi to inquire of the god concerning his malady. On their arrival
the Pythoness declared that no answer should be given them until they
had rebuilt the temple of Minerva, burnt by the Lydians at Assesus
in Milesia. 

Thus much I know from information given me by the Delphians; the remainder
of the story the Milesians add. 

The answer made by the oracle came to the ears of Periander, son of
Cypselus, who was a very close friend to Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus
at that period. He instantly despatched a messenger to report the
oracle to him, in order that Thrasybulus, forewarned of its tenor,
might the better adapt his measures to the posture of affairs.

Alyattes, the moment that the words of the oracle were reported to
him, sent a herald to Miletus in hopes of concluding a truce with
Thrasybulus and the Milesians for such a time as was needed to rebuild
the temple. The herald went upon his way; but meantime Thrasybulus
had been apprised of everything; and conjecturing what Alyattes would
do, he contrived this artifice. He had all the corn that was in the
city, whether belonging to himself or to private persons, brought
into the market-place, and issued an order that the Milesians should
hold themselves in readiness, and, when he gave the signal, should,
one and all, fall to drinking and revelry. 

The purpose for which he gave these orders was the following. He hoped
that the Sardian herald, seeing so great store of corn upon the ground,
and all the city given up to festivity, would inform Alyattes of it,
which fell out as he anticipated. The herald observed the whole, and
when he had delivered his message, went back to Sardis. This circumstance
alone, as I gather, brought about the peace which ensued. Alyattes,
who had hoped that there was now a great scarcity of corn in Miletus,
and that the people were worn down to the last pitch of suffering,
when he heard from the herald on his return from Miletus tidings so
contrary to those he had expected, made a treaty with the enemy by
which the two nations became close friends and allies. He then built
at Assesus two temples to Minerva instead of one, and shortly after
recovered from his malady. Such were the chief circumstances of the
war which Alyattes waged with Thrasybulus and the Milesians.

This Periander, who apprised Thrasybulus of the oracle, was son of
Cypselus, and tyrant of Corinth. In his time a very wonderful thing
is said to have happened. The Corinthians and the Lesbians agree in
their account of the matter. They relate that Arion of Methymna, who
as a player on the harp, was second to no man living at that time,
and who was, so far as we know, the first to invent the dithyrambic
measure, to give it its name, and to recite in it at Corinth, was
carried to Taenarum on the back of a dolphin. 

He had lived for many years at the court of Periander, when a longing
came upon him to sail across to Italy and Sicily. Having made rich
profits in those parts, he wanted to recross the seas to Corinth.
He therefore hired a vessel, the crew of which were Corinthians, thinking
that there was no people in whom he could more safely confide; and,
going on board, he set sail from Tarentum. The sailors, however, when
they reached the open sea, formed a plot to throw him overboard and
seize upon his riches. Discovering their design, he fell on his knees,
beseeching them to spare his life, and making them welcome to his
money. But they refused; and required him either to kill himself outright,
if he wished for a grave on the dry land, or without loss of time
to leap overboard into the sea. In this strait Arion begged them,
since such was their pleasure, to allow him to mount upon the quarter-deck,
dressed in his full costume, and there to play and sing, and promising
that, as soon as his song was ended, he would destroy himself. Delighted
at the prospect of hearing the very best harper in the world, they
consented, and withdrew from the stern to the middle of the vessel:
while Arion dressed himself in the full costume of his calling, took
his harp, and standing on the quarter-deck, chanted the Orthian. His
strain ended, he flung himself, fully attired as he was, headlong
into the sea. The Corinthians then sailed on to Corinth. As for Arion,
a dolphin, they say, took him upon his back and carried him to Taenarum,
where he went ashore, and thence proceeded to Corinth in his musician's
dress, and told all that had happened to him. Periander, however,
disbelieved the story, and put Arion in ward, to prevent his leaving
Corinth, while he watched anxiously for the return of the mariners.
On their arrival he summoned them before him and asked them if they
could give him any tiding of Arion. They returned for answer that
he was alive and in good health in Italy, and that they had left him
at Tarentum, where he was doing well. Thereupon Arion appeared before
them, just as he was when he jumped from the vessel: the men, astonished
and detected in falsehood, could no longer deny their guilt. Such
is the account which the Corinthians and Lesbians give; and there
is to this day at Taenarum, an offering of Arion's at the shrine,
which is a small figure in bronze, representing a man seated upon
a dolphin. 

Having brought the war with the Milesians to a close, and reigned
over the land of Lydia for fifty-seven years, Alyattes died. He was
the second prince of his house who made offerings at Delphi. His gifts,
which he sent on recovering from his sickness, were a great bowl of
pure silver, with a salver in steel curiously inlaid, a work among
all the offerings at Delphi the best worth looking at. Glaucus, the
Chian, made it, the man who first invented the art of inlaying steel.

On the death of Alyattes, Croesus, his son, who was thirty-five years
old, succeeded to the throne. Of the Greek cities, Ephesus was the
first that he attacked. The Ephesians, when he laid siege to the place,
made an offering of their city to Diana, by stretching a rope from
the town wall to the temple of the goddess, which was distant from
the ancient city, then besieged by Croesus, a space of seven furlongs.
They were, as I said, the first Greeks whom he attacked. Afterwards,
on some pretext or other, he made war in turn upon every Ionian and
Aeolian state, bringing forward, where he could, a substantial ground
of complaint; where such failed him, advancing some poor excuse.

In this way he made himself master of all the Greek cities in Asia,
and forced them to become his tributaries; after which he began to
think of building ships, and attacking the islanders. Everything had
been got ready for this purpose, when Bias of Priene (or, as some
say, Pittacus the Mytilenean) put a stop to the project. The king
had made inquiry of this person, who was lately arrived at Sardis,
if there were any news from Greece; to which he answered, "Yes, sire,
the islanders are gathering ten thousand horse, designing an expedition
against thee and against thy capital." Croesus, thinking he spake
seriously, broke out, "Ah, might the gods put such a thought into
their minds as to attack the sons of the Lydians with cavalry!" "It
seems, oh! king," rejoined the other, "that thou desirest earnestly
to catch the islanders on horseback upon the mainland,- thou knowest
well what would come of it. But what thinkest thou the islanders desire
better, now that they hear thou art about to build ships and sail
against them, than to catch the Lydians at sea, and there revenge
on them the wrongs of their brothers upon the mainland, whom thou
holdest in slavery?" Croesus was charmed with the turn of the speech;
and thinking there was reason in what was said, gave up his ship-building
and concluded a league of amity with the Ionians of the isles.

Croesus afterwards, in the course of many years, brought under his
sway almost all the nations to the west of the Halys. The Lycians
and Cilicians alone continued free; all the other tribes he reduced
and held in subjection. They were the following: the Lydians, Phrygians,
Mysians, Mariandynians, Chalybians, Paphlagonians, Thynian and Bithynian
Thracians, Carians, Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians and Pamphylians.

When all these conquests had been added to the Lydian empire, and
the prosperity of Sardis was now at its height, there came thither,
one after another, all the sages of Greece living at the time, and
among them Solon, the Athenian. He was on his travels, having left
Athens to be absent ten years, under the pretence of wishing to see
the world, but really to avoid being forced to repeal any of the laws
which, at the request of the Athenians, he had made for them. Without
his sanction the Athenians could not repeal them, as they had bound
themselves under a heavy curse to be governed for ten years by the
laws which should be imposed on them by Solon.