ns is indicated in
general terms by Herodotus; the details of the attack on
Ephesus and the destruction of the temple of Artemis are
preserved in a passage of Callimachus, and in the fragments
quoted by Hesychius.

The survivors abandoned the siege and withdrew in disorder towards the
mountains of the interior. On their way they surprised Magnesia on the
Maeander and entirely destroyed it, but this constituted their sole
military success: elsewhere, they contented themselves with devastating
the fields without venturing to attack the fortified towns. Scarcely had
Ardys freed himself from their unwelcome presence, than, like his father
before him, he tried to win the support of Assyria. He sent an envoy to
Nineveh with a letter couched in very humble terms: "The king whom
the gods acknowledge, art thou; for as soon as thou hadst pronounced
imprecations against my father, misfortune overtook him. I am thy
trembling servant; receive my homage graciously, and I will bear thy
yoke!" Assur-bani-pal did not harden his heart to this suppliant who
confessed his fault so piteously, and circumstances shortly constrained
him to give a more efficacious proof of his favour to Ardys than he had
done in the days of Gyges. On quitting Lydia, Tugdami, with his hordes,
had turned eastwards, bent upon renewing in the provinces of the Taurus
and the Euphrates the same destructive raids which he had made among
the peoples of the AEgean seaboard; but in the gorges of Cilicia he came
into contact with forces much superior to his own, and fell fighting
against them about the year 645 B.C. His son Sanda-khshatru led the
survivors of this disaster back towards the centre of the peninsula, but
the conflict had been so sanguinary that the Cimmerian power never fully
recovered from it. Assur-bani-pal celebrated the victory won by
his generals with a solemn thanksgiving to Marduk, accompanied by
substantial offerings of gold and objects of great value.*

* Strabo was aware, perhaps from Xanthus of Lyclia, that
Lygdamis had fallen in battle in Cilicia. The hymn to
Marduk, published by Strong, informs us that the Cimmerian
chief fell upon the Assyrians, and that his son Sanda-
khshatru carried on hostilities some time longer. Sanda-
khshatru is an Iranian name of the same type as that of the
Median king Uva-khshatra or Cyaxares.

The tranquillity of the north-west frontier was thus for a time se