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5. The Persians for their part say that things happened thus; and theyconclude that the beginning of their quarrel with the Hellenes was onaccount of the taking of Ilion: but as regards Io the Phenicians donot agree with the Persians in telling the tale thus; for they denythat they carried her off to Egypt by violent means, and they say onthe other hand that when they were in Argos she was intimate with themaster of their ship, and perceiving that she was with child, she wasashamed to confess it to her parents, and therefore sailed away withthe Phenicians of her own will, for fear of being found out. These arethe tales told by the Persians and the Phenicians severally: andconcerning these things I am not going to say that they happened thusor thus,[4a] but when I have pointed to the man who first within myown knowledge began to commit wrong against the Hellenes, I shall goforward further with the story, giving an account of the cities ofmen, small as well as great: for those which in old times were greathave for the most part become small, while those that were in my owntime great used in former times to be small: so then, since I knowthat human prosperity never continues steadfast, I shall make mentionof both indifferently.*****6. Crœsus was Lydian by race, the son of Alyattes and ruler of thenations which dwell on this side of the river Halys; which river,flowing from the South between the Syrians[5] and the Paphlagonians,runs out towards the North Wind into that Sea which is called theEuxine. This Crœsus, first of all the Barbarians of whom we haveknowledge, subdued certain of the Hellenes and forced them to paytribute, while others he gained over and made them his friends. Thosewhom he subdued were the Ionians, the Aiolians, and the Dorians whodwell in Asia; and those whom he made his friends were theLacedemonians. But before the reign of Crœsus all the Hellenes werefree; for the expedition of the Kimmerians, which came upon Ioniabefore the time of Crœsus, was not a conquest of the cities but aplundering incursion only.[6] 7. Now the supremacy which had belongedto the Heracleidai came to the family of Crœsus, called Mermnadai, inthe following manner:--Candaules, whom the Hellenes call Myrsilos, wasruler of Sardis and a descendant of Alcaios, son of Heracles: forAgron, the son of Ninos, the son of Belos, the son of Alcaios, was thefirst of the Heracleidai who became king of Sardis, and Candaules theson of Myrsos was the last; but those who were kings over this landbefore Agrond, were descendants of Lydos the son of Atys, whence thiswhole nation was called Lydian, having been before called Meonian.From these the Heracleidai, descended from Heracles and the slave-girlof Iardanos, obtained the government, being charged with it by reasonof an oracle; and they reigned for two-and-twenty generations of men,

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