Anatolian Civilizations and Historical Sites - TEDA

ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS:10x19 antik kentler 8/1/11 10:51 AM Sayfa
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King Candaules was deeply in love with his wife and thought she was
the most beautiful woman in the world. One day he told this to
Gyges-who was his favorite among his soldiers. Seeing that Gyges was
not quite convinced, he said “Ears are not as good as eyes in
teaching man the truth,” and wanted to let him see his wife naked so
that he can reaffirm what he said. Even though Gyges sharply protested,
King Kandaules was determined; he invited him to the palace and let
him see his wife naked. The queen saw Gyges as he was leaving where
he had been hiding, and understood that this had been planned by her
husband. She set her heart on bringing him to account. The queen
proposed Gyges to have her husband killed so that he can succeed to the
throne himself, and she forcibly made him accept this plan. Gyges killed
King Kandaules and married the queen and sat on the Lydian throne.
Thus the old dynasty ended and the lineage of Mermnads, initiated by
Gyges, came to the Lydian throne.
Initially, Gyges attacked the city states such as Miletos and Smyrna,
acquiring Kolophon and the Plain of Manisa. Meanwhile, he prevented
the Assyrians from subjugating his country. The raids of the Cimmerians,
which demolished the Phrygians, were still continuing during this
period. While fighting them, Gyges died on the battle field in 652 BC.
The Lydians constructed a magnificent tumulus by Lake Marmara and
buried him there. His son Ardys succeeded him. He acquired Priene,
besides launching expeditions against Miletos with no success. The
Cimmerian attacks still continued. King Ardys failed to prevent these
attacks, thus the Cimmerians acquired Sardes and pillaged it. All the
king could do was watch the pillage from the ramparts of the upper
castle-which was very difficult to subjugate. Ardys subsequently died in
621 BC, and the throne was succeeded by his son Sadyattes. Sadyattes
too spent his lifetime to prevent the raids of the Cimmerians and died in
610 BC without much success.
With the death of Sadyattes, his son Alyattes succeeded to the throne.
Alyattes halted the Cimmerian raids-which his father and grandfather
had shown no success in-by defeating and dispensing them. After this
success, Alyattes directed his attention to the region. He conquered and
demolished the ancient city of Smyrna in Bayrakl› after a long siege.
Even though he wanted to conquer the other Ionian cities, the Lydian
army was halted by the Klazomenaian forces in today’s Urla.
Expeditions against Miletos proved to be unsuccessful during his period
too, thus peace was made with Miletos in 604 BC. Following this peace