country yielded, almost for the trouble of picking them up. Not only were easily accessible veins of precious ore worked in the principal Lydian mountain ridges, TMOLOS and SIPYLOS, but the sands of the river PACTOLOS, which flowed through the capital, Sardis, carried along a bountiful per

33. EARLY AND LATER LYDIAN COINS.

centage of a peculiar kind of pale gold, largely mixed with silver, obtainable by the easy process of washing. This mixture, in which the proportion of silver ranges from twenty to over forty per cent., is known under the special name of ELECTRON, whether

natural, as found in Lydia, or imitated artificially, as it has been at various times. Of this electron, which was considered inferior in value to gold, but superior to silver, the first Lydian coins were made. Numbers of them, and also of pure gold and silver coins, have been found within a circuit of thirty miles round Sardis, and very rude they were, showing only the square punch mark. Only after a series of gradual improvements, we see the well-drawn device of royal Lydia-a lion's head, or a lion and bull--make its appearance, under Gyges' fourth descendant, the celebrated Kroisos. The invention, however, has remained associated with the name of the former, and late Greek authors speak of ancient coins which they call "gold pieces of Gyges." Thus it is that of the half-dozen great inventions which, each in turn, can be said to have changed the face of the world--the alphabet, coining, printing, gunpowder, the use of steam and electricity--we owe two to remote antiquity and to Oriental nations. *

15. When the dynasty of the Mermnadæ came to the throne in the person of Gyges, the change made itself felt at once in the greater energy, ambition, and sounder statesmanship which were exerted, both in foreign and domestic affairs. A steady policy of territorial aggrandizement was inaugurated by the annexation of Mysia. The blunder that had been made by former kings, in suffering the Greek settle

* Several writers, both ancient and modern, claim the invention of coining for the Greeks and attribute it to a Greek tyrant, PHEIDON OF ARGOS, who seems to have been a contemporary of Gyges. The probabilities are that Pheidon was the first to appreciate the new invention and to introduce it into his own country.

ments to extend their chain of many links all along the sea-coast, was to be retrieved, and Gyges began a systematical attack against the Greek cities, commencing with those nearest to him, with the firm intent of making them subject to Lydia, that the country might repossess itself of the mouths of its own rivers and the harbors of its own sea-coast. But the cities had become populous and strong, and valiantly held their own. Moreover, the operations were unexpectedly interrupted by that Cimmerian invasion of which we know the fatal issue for the Lydian king.*

16. His son ARDYS, however, and his grandson SADYATTÊS, when freed from the inroads of the obnoxious freebooters, resumed the thoroughly national war against the Greek cities. Some they took, others repulsed them, and Miletus especially, which had defied Gyges, was still as unconquered as ever half a century later, under Sadyattês, actually sending out colonies, and generally living its busy, prosperous life under the very eyes of the besieging Lydians. Then Sadyattês, not to weary his soldiers' strength and patience, invented a new and most ingenious mode of warfare. which is best described in Herodotus' own entertaining narrative:

"When the harvest was ripe on the ground, he marched his army into Milesia to the sound of pipes and harps and flutes. The buildings that were scattered over the country he neither pulled down nor burnt, nor did he even bear 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

* See "Story of Assyria," pp. 378-381.

that he did not demolish their buildings was, that the inhabitants might be tempted to use them as homesteads from which to go forth and till and sow their lands, and so each time he invaded their country he might find something to plunder. In this way he carried on the war for eleven years, in the course of which he inflicted on them two terrible blows."

17. Of these eleven years, six only fall to the reign of Sadyattês; the other five belong to that of his son ALYATTÊS. This was the greatest of the Lydian kings. Under him the dynasty of the Mermnadæ, which was to end so tragically already in the next generation, reached its culminating point of glory. The Lydian monarchy had gradually absorbed all the surrounding countries of Asia Minor as far as the river Halys, which now marked its eastern boundary. There, however, it was confronted by the newly formed Median monarchy, which had reached the same line moving towards it from the opposite direction. There can be no doubt that each potentate was anxious to cross the slight dividing line and therefore looked grimly and threateningly on the other, and that the only question was: Which of the two would find a plausible pretence for aggression? Chance gave this advantage to Kyaxares of Media. A body of Scythian soldiers, probably a picked guard composed of survivors of the massacre which delivered the Medes from their troublesome guests, --who had been some time in Kyaxares' service, left him secretly, being discontented with something or other, and, crossing the Halys, sought the protection of Alyattês. Kyaxares demanded that the deserters should be sent back to him, and, on the Lydian's refusal to do so, declared war.

18. Alyattês was ready for him, having some time before closed the conflict against the Greek cities, in a manner, on the whole, satisfactory to himself: the smaller cities had submitted to Lydian supremacy and agreed to pay tribute, but with the proud and unconquerable Miletus he had been fain to make. peace and to enter into a treaty of friendship and alliance. He was therefore free to give his whole attention to a war from which perhaps he was not averse in the beginning, but which soon grew into a vital conflict. It is probable that he found in the young and aspiring power of the Medes a more formidable foe than he had counted upon. Still Lydia stood her ground most bravely, and the success of the war kept evenly balanced between the two adversaries through five whole years; but the final victory was about to incline towards Kyaxares, and he would surely have annexed at one stroke the whole of Asia Minor, but for the timely interference of neighbors, who saw great danger to themselves in the sudden aggrandizement of their rising Battle of the rival. An unlooked for accident gave them the best possible opportunity. A great battle was fought, which would probably have been decisive, when the sun suddenly was obscured, and such darkness set in that the day was turned into night. An eclipse of the sun was even then no very terrible thing, and the Greeks claim that this particular one had been predicted by one of their wise men, THALES OF MILETUS. But the Medes, on one side, were very much behind their time in knowledge of all sorts, and so, for that mat

Eclipse. 585 B.C. Death of Kyaxares. 584 B.C.