goblets", which weighed* no less than thirty talents, deserve particular attention. These now stand in the treasury of Corinth; though, in strict truth, that treasure was not given by the people of Corinth, but by Cypselus the son of Eetion. This Gyges was the first of the Barbarians whose history we know, who made votive offerings to the oracle, after Midas the son of Gordius", king of Phrygia.

29 Six golden goblets.]-In the time of Herodotus, the proportion of silver to gold was as one to thirteen: these six goblets, therefore, were equivalent to 2,106,000 livres. The calculations of Herodotus differ in some respects from those of Diodorus Siculus.-Voyage de Jeune Anacharsis. See Purchas, vol. i. p. 35.

Alyattes and Croesus obtained their wealth from some mines in Lydia, situated between Atarna and Pergamos. The riches of Gyges were proverbial, and were mentioned in the verses of Archilochus: those of Cræsus effectually surpass them.

Divitis audita est cui non opulentia Crœsi.—Ovid.

Larcher.

*It may here properly be observed, that Herodotus always refers to the weights and measures of Greece and of Athens in particular.

30 But by Cypselus the son of Eetion.]-In the temple at Delphi were certain different apartments or chapels, belonging to different cities, princes, or opulent individuals. The offerings which these respectively made to the Deity, were here deposited.-Larcher.

Midas the son of Gordius.]-There were in Phrygia a number of princes called after these names, as is sufficiently proved by Bouhier.-Larcher.

Phrygia. Midas consecrated to this purpose his own royal throne, a most beautiful specimen of art, from which he himself was accustomed to administer justice. This was deposited in the same place with the goblets of Gyges, to whose offerings of gold and silver, the Delphians assigned the name of the donor. Gyges, as soon as he succeeded to the throne, carried his arms against Miletus and Smyrna*, and took the city Colophon. Although he reigned thirty-eight years, he performed no other remarkable exploit: I shall proceed, therefore, to speak of his son and successor, Ardys.

XV. This prince vanquished the Prienians, and attacked Miletus. During his reign, the Cimmerians, being expelled their country by the Nomades of Scythia, passed over into Asia, and possessed themselves of all Sardis, except the citadel.

XVI. After reigning forty-nine years, he was succeeded by his son Sadyattes, who reigned twelve years. After him, his son Alyattes possessed the throne. He carried on war against Cyaxares'

32

the

* It appears from Pausanias, that the ancient poet Mimnermus wrote some elegiac verses upon this expedition of Gyges against Smyrna.

32 Against Cyaxares.]-This is perfectly consistent. Phra

ortes,

the grandson of Deioces, drove the Cimmerians out of Asia, took Smyrna, which Colophon33 had built, and invaded Clazomena. In his designs upon this place he was greatly disappointed; but he performed, in the course of his reign, these very memorable actions.

XVII. He resumed the war against the Milesians, which his father had commenced; and he conducted it in this manner:-When the time of harvest approached, he marched an army into their country to the sound of the pastoral pipe, harp, and flutes masculine and feminine 34. On his arrival in their territories, he neither pulled down

nor

ortes, the father of Cyaxares, reigned in Media at the same time that Ardys, grandfather of Alyattes, sat on the throne of Sardis.-Larcher.

33 Colophon.]-Gyges had taken Colophon, about which time doubtless a colony deserted it, and settled at Sinyrna. KT, as Wesseling properly observes, is continually used for, to send out a colony. In chap. cl. it is said, that some Colophonians, banished for sedition, had settled at Smyrna. If he alludes to the same emigrants, their sedition was probably against Gyges, after his conquest; but they could hardly be numerous or respectable enough to deserve the name of a colony.-T.

34 Flutes masculine and feminine.]-Aulus Gellius says, that Alyattes had in his army female players on the Aute. Larcher is of opinion, that Herodotus alludes only to the different kinds of flutes mentioned in Terence, or perhaps to the Lydian and Phrygian flutes, the sound of one of which was grave, of the other acute.-T.

nor burned, nor in any respect injured, their edifices which stood in the fields; but he totally destroyed their trees and the produce of their lands, and then returned. As the Milesians were masters of the sea, the siege of their city would probably have proved ineffectual. His motive for not destroying their buildings was, that they might be induced again to cultivate their lands, and that on every repetition of his incursions, he might be secure of plunder.

XVIII. In this manner the war was protracted during a period of eleven years; in which time the Milesians received two remarkable defeats, one in a pitched battle at Limeneium, within their own territories, another on the plains of Meander. Six of these eleven years, Sadyattes the son of Ardys reigned over the Lydians: he commenced the Milesian war, which his son Alyattes afterwards continued with increase of ardour. The Milesians, in this contest, received assistance from none of the Ionians, except from Chios. The inhabitants of Chios offered their support, in return for the aid which they had formerly received from the Milesians, in a war with the Erythræans.

XIX. In the twelfth year of the war, the following event happened, in consequence of the corn being set on fire by the enemy's army. A VOL. I. sudden

E

sudden wind directed the flames against the temple of the Assesian Minerva ", and entirely consumed it. It was at first considered as a matter of no importance; but after the return of the army to Sardis, Alyattes was seized with a severe and lingering disease. From the impulse of his own mind, or from the persuasion of friends, he sent to make enquiries of the oracle concerning his On the arrival of his messengers, recovery. the Pythian said, that till the temple of the Assesian Minerva, which they had consumed by fire, should be restored, no answer would be given them.

XX. I was myself informed of this circumstance at Delphi; but the Milesians add more. They tell us, that Periander the son of Cypselus, when he heard the answer given to Alyattes, dispatched an emissary to Thrasybulus king of Miletus, with whom he was intimately connected, desiring

35 Assesian Minerva.]-Assesos was a small town dependent on Miletus. Minerva here had a temple, and hence took the name of the Assesian Minerva. This deity was then called the Minerva of Assesos; as we say, at the present day, the Virgin of Loretto.-Larcher.

The Virgin of the Romish church certainly resembles, in many respects, a heathen tutelary divinity; and affords one of those instances of similarity between one worship and the other, so well illustrated in Middleton's celebrated Letter from Rome.-T.