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following-Let every man look to the things that concern himself.' I am persuaded that she is the most beautiful of her sex, but I entreat of you not to require what is wicked." 9. Saying thus, Gyges fought off the proposal, dreading lest some harm should befall himself; but the king answered, "Gyges, take courage, and be not afraid of me, as if I desired to make trial of you by speaking thus, nor of my wife, lest any harm should befall you from her. For from the outset I will so contrive that she shall not know she has been seen by you. I will place you behind the open door of the apartment in which we sleep; as soon as I enter, my wife will come to bed; there stands by the entrance a chair; on this she will lay her garments one by one as she takes them off, and then she will give you an opportunity to look at her at your leisure; but when she steps from the chair to the bed, and you are at her back, be careful that she does not see you as you are going out by the door." 10. Gyges therefore, finding he could not escape, prepared to obey. And Candaules, when it seemed to be time to go to bed, led him to the chamber, and the lady soon afterward appeared, and Gyges saw her enter and lay her clothes on the chair: when he was at her back, as the lady was going to the bed, he crept secretly out, but she saw him as he was going away. Perceiving what her husband had done, she neither cried out through modesty, nor appeared to notice it, purposing to take vengeance on Candaules; for among the Lydians and almost all the barbarians, it is deemed a great disgrace even for a man to be seen naked. 11. At the time, therefore, having shown no consciousness of what had occurred, she held her peace, and as soon as it was day, having prepared such of her domestics as she knew were most to be trusted, she sent for Gyges. He, supposing that she knew nothing of what had happened, came when he was sent for, for he had been before used to attend whenever the queen sent for him. When Gyges came, the lady thus addressed him: "Gyges, I submit two proposals to your choice: either kill Candaules and take possession of me and of the Lydian kingdom, or expect immediate death, so that you may not, from your obedience to Candaules in all things, again see what you ought not. It is necessary, however, that he who planned this, or that you who have seen me naked, and have done what is not decorous, should die. Gyges for a

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time was amazed at what he heard, but afterward he implored her not to compel him to make such a choice. He, however, could not persuade, but saw a necessity imposed on him either to kill his master Candaules or die himself by the hands of others; he chose, therefore, to survive, and made the following inquiry: "Since you compel me to kill my master against my will, tell me how we shall lay hands on him." swered, "The assault shall be made from the very spot whence he showed me naked; the attack shall be made on him while asleep." 12. When they had concerted their plan, on the approach of night he followed the lady to the chamber; then (for Gyges was not suffered to depart, nor was there any possibility of escape, but either he or Candaules must needs perish) she, having given him a dagger, concealed him behind the same door; and after this, when Candaules was asleep, Gyges having crept stealthily up and slain him, possessed himself both of the woman and the kingdom. Of this event, also, Archilochus9 the Parian, who lived about the same time, has made mention in a trimeter Iambic poem. 13. Thus Gyges obtained the kingdom, and was confirmed in it by the oracle at Delphi. For when the Lydians resented the murder of Candaules, and were up in arms, the partisans of Gyges and the other Lydians came to the following agreement: that if the oracle should pronounce him king of the Lydians, he should reign; if not, he should restore the power to the Heraclidæ. The oracle, however, answered accordingly, and so Gyges became king. But the Pythian added this, "that the Heraclidæ should be avenged on the fifth descendant of Gyges." Of this prediction neither the Lydians nor their kings took any notice until it was actually accomplished.

14. Thus the Mermnadæ, having deprived the Heraclidæ, possessed themselves of the supreme power. Gyges, having obtained the kingdom, sent many offerings to Delphi; for most of the silver offerings at Delphi are his; and besides the silver, he gave a vast quantity of gold; and among the rest, what is especially worthy of mention, the bowls of gold, six in number, were dedicated by him: these now stand in the

9 Archilochus was one of the earliest writers of Iambics. All that remains of his is to be met with in Brunck's Analecta.

1 See I. 91.

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treasury of the Corinthians, and are thirty talents in weight; though, to say the truth, this treasury does not belong to the people of Corinth, but to Cypselus, son of Eetion. This Gyges is the first of the barbarians whom we know of that dedicated offerings at Delphi; except Midas, son of Gordius, king of Phrygia, for Midas dedicated the royal throne, on which he used to sit and administer justice, a piece of workmanship deserving of admiration. This throne stands in the same place as the bowls of Gyges. This gold and silver, which Gyges dedicated, is by the Delphians called Gygian, from the name of the donor. Now this prince, when he obtained the sovereignty, led an army against Miletus and Smyrna, and took the city of Colophon; but as he performed no other great action during his reign of eight-and-thirty years, we will pass him over, having made this mention of him. 15. I will proceed to mention Ardys, the son and successor of Gyges. He took Priene, and invaded Miletus. During the time that he reigned at Sardis, the Cimmerians, being driven from their seats by the Scythian nomades, passed into Asia, and possessed themselves of all Sardis except the citadel.

16. When Ardys had reigned forty-nine years, his son Sadyattes succeeded him, and reigned twelve years; and Alyattes succeeded Sadyattes. He made war upon Cyaxares, a descendant of Deioces, and upon the Medes. He drove the Cimmerians out of Asia; took Smyrna, which was founded from Colophon, and invaded Clazomena. From this place he departed, not as he could wish, but signally defeated. He also performed in the course of his reign the following actions worthy of mention. 17. He continued the war which his father had begun against the Milesians; and leading his army against Miletus, he invaded it in the following manner. When their fruits were ripe on the ground, he led his army into their territory, attended in his march with pipes, harps, and flutes, masculine and feminine. On his arrival in Milesia, he neither demolished nor burned their country houses, nor forced off the doors, but let them stand as they were; but when he had destroyed their trees and the fruits on the ground, he returned home; for the Milesians were masters of the sea, so that there was no use in the army's besieging it. And the Lydian king would not destroy their houses, for this reason, that the Milesians, having those habitations,

might come out to sow and cultivate the ground, and when they had cultivated it, he might have something to ravage when he should invade them with his army. 18. In this manner he carried on the war eleven years, during which the Milesians received two great blows, one in a battle at Limeneion in their own territory, the other in the plain of the Mæander. Six of these eleven years, Sadyattes, the son of Ardys, was still king of the Lydians, and during those he made incursions into the Milesian territory (for this Sadyattes was the person that began the war). But during the five years that succeeded the six, Alyattes, the son of Sadyattes, who (as I have before mentioned) received it from his father, earnestly applied himself to it. None of the Ionians, except the Chians, assisted the Milesians in bearing the burden of this war: they did it in requital for succor they had received; for formerly the Milesians had assisted the Chians in prosecuting the war against the Erythræans. 19. In the twelfth year, when the corn had been set on fire by the army, an accident of the following nature occurred. As soon as the corn had caught fire, the flames, carried by the wind, caught a temple of Minerva, called Assesian;2 and the temple, thus set on fire, was burned to the ground. No notice was taken of this at the time; but afterward, when the army had returned to Sardis, Alyattes fell sick. When the disease continued a considerable time, he sent messengers to Delphi to consult the oracle, either from the advice of some friend, or because it appeared right to himself to send and make inquiries of the god concerning his disorder. Pythian, however, refused to give any answer to the mes sengers when they arrived at Delphi, until they had rebuilt the temple of Minerva which they had burned at Assesus in the territory of Milesia. 20. This relation I had from the Delphians; but the Milesians add, that Periander, the son of Cypselus, who was a very intimate friend of Thrasybulus, at that time king of Miletus, having heard of the answer given to Alyattes, dispatched a messenger to inform him of it, in order that, being aware of it beforehand, he might form his plans according to present circumstances. This is the Milesian account. 21. Alyattes, when the above an

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2 Assesus was a small town dependent on Miletus. Minerva had a temple there, and hence took the name of the Assesian Minerva,—Larcher.

swer was brought to him, immediately sent a herald to Miletus, desiring him to make a truce with Thrasybulus and the Milesians till such time as he should have rebuilt the temple. The herald accordingly went on this mission to Miletus. But Thrasybulus being accurately informed of the whole matter, and knowing the design of Alyattes, had recourse to the following artifice: having collected in the market-place all the corn that was in the city, both his own and what belonged to private persons, he made a proclamation, that when he gave the signal, all the inhabitants should feast together. 22. Thrasybulus contrived and ordered this, to the end that the Sardian herald, seeing so great a profusion of corn, and the people enjoying themselves, might report accordingly to Alyattes; and so it came to pass. For when the herald had seen these things, and delivered to Thrasybulus the message of the Lydian king, he returned to Sardis; and, as I am informed, a reconciliation was brought about for no other reason. For Alyattes expecting that there was a great scarcity of corn in Miletus, and that the people were reduced to extreme distress, received from the herald on his return from Miletus an account quite contrary to what he expected. Soon afterward a reconciliation took place between them, on terms of mutual friendship and alliance. And Alyattes built two temples to Minerva at Assesus instead of one, and himself recovered from sickness. Such were the circumstances of the war that Alyattes made against the Milesians and Thrasybulus.

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23. Periander was the son of Cypselus-he it was who acquainted Thrasybulus with the answer of the oracle. Now Periander was king of Corinth, and the Corinthians say (and the Lesbians confirm their account) that a wonderful prodigy occurred in his life-time. They say that Arion of Methymna, who was second to none of his time in accompanying the harp, and who was the first, that we are acquainted with, who composed, named, and represented the dithyrambus at Corinth, was carried to Tænarus on the back of a dolphin. 24. They say that this Arion, having continued a long time with Periander, was desirous of making a voyage to Italy and Sicily; and that having acquired great wealth, he determined to return to Corinth: that he set out from Tarentum, and hired a ship of certain Corinthians, because he put

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