with most of the AEolian or Ionian colonies: during the
anxious years which followed his accession Gyges went still further, and
entered into direct relations with the nations of Greece itself. It was
no longer to the gods of Asia, to Zeus of Telmissos, that he addressed
himself in order to legitimatise his new sovereignty, but, like Midas
of Phrygia, he applied to the prophetic god of Hellas, to the Delphian
Apollo and his priests.

[Illustration: 235.jpg PSAMMETICHUS I.]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.

He recompensed them lavishly for pronouncing judgment in his favour:
beside the silver offerings with which he endowed the temple at Delphi,
he presented to it a number of golden vases, and, among others, six
craters weighing thirty talents each, which, placed by the side of the
throne of Midas, were still objects of admiration in the treasury of the
Corinthians in the time of Herodotus. To these he added at various times
such valuable gifts that the Pythian priestess, who had hitherto been
poor, was in later times accounted to have owed to him her wealth.
Having made sure of the good will of the immortals, Gyges endeavoured to
extend his influence among the Greek colonies along the coast, and if he
did not in every case gain a footing amongst them, his failure seems to
have been due, not to his incapacity, but to the force of circumstances
or to the ambiguous position which he happened to occupy with regard to
these colonies. Ambition naturally incited him to annex them and make
them into Lydian cities, but the bold disposition of their inhabitants
and their impatience of constraint never allowed any foreign rule to
be established over them: conquest, to be permanent, would have to be
preceded by a long period of alliance on equal terms, and of discreet
patronage which might insensibly accustom them to recognise in their
former friend, first a protector, and then a suzerain imbued with
respect for their laws and constitution. Gyges endeavoured to conciliate
them severally, and to attach them to himself by treaties favourable
to their interests or flattering to their vanity, and by timely and
generous assistance in their internecine quarrels; and thus, secretly
fostering their mutual jealousies, he was able to reduce some by force
of arms without causing too much offence to the rest. He took Colophon,
and also, after several fruitless campaigns, the Magnesia which lay
near Sardes, Magnesia of Sipylos, tra