southward to the very extremity
of: Syria, where their general, Ascalus, had founded a great city and
called it after his name.

Such were the Lydian traditions with respect to the more remote times.
Of their real history they seem to have known but little, and that
little did not extend further back than about two hundred years before
Cyaxares. Within this space it was certain that they had had a change
of dynasty, a change preceded by a long feud between their two greatest
houses, which were perhaps really two branches of the royal family. The
Heraclidae had grown jealous of the Mermnadae, and had treated them with
injustice; the Mormnadae had at first sought their safety in flight,
and afterwards, when they felt themselves strong enough, had returned,
murdered the Heraclide monarch, and placed their chief, Gyges, upon
the throne. With Gyges, who had commenced his reign about B.C. 700, the
prosperity of the Lydians had greatly increased, and they had begun to
assume an aggressive attitude towards their neighbors. Gyges' revenue
was so great that his wealth became proverbial, and he could afford to
spread his fame by sending from his superfluity to the distant temple
of Delphi presents of such magnificence that they were the admiration
of later ages. The relations of his predecessors with the Greeks of
the Asiatic coast had been friendly, Gyges changed this policy, and,
desirous of enlarging his seaboard, made war upon the Greek maritime
towns, attacking Miletus and Smyrna without result, but succeeding in
capturing the Ionic city of Colophon. He also picked a quarrel with
the inland town of Magnesia, and after many invasions of its territory
compelled it to submission. According to some, he made himself master
of the whole territory of the Troad, and the Milesians had to obtain his
permission before they could establish their colony of Abydos upon the
Hellespont. At any rate he was a rich and puissant monarch in the
eyes of the Greeks of Asia and the islands, who were never tired of
celebrating his wealth, his wars, and his romantic history.

The shadow of calamity had, however, fallen upon Lydia towards the close
of Gyges' long reign. About thirty years before the Scythians from
the Steppe country crossed the Caucasus and fell upon Media, the same
barrier was passed by another groat horde of nomads. The Cimmerians,
probably a Celtic people, who had dwelt hitherto in the Tauric
Chersonese and the country adjoining u