a
wagon. Gordius and his son Midas were the first they saw approaching the
town, and the crown was conferred upon them. The wagon was consecrated,
and became celebrated for a knot which no one could untie. Whosoever
should untie that knot was promised the kingdom of Asia. It remained
untied until Alexander the Great cut it with his sword.

(M204) The Lydians became celebrated for their music, of which the chief
instruments were the flute and the harp. Their capital, Sardis, was
situated on a precipitous rock, and was deemed impregnable. Among their
kings was Croesus, whose great wealth was derived from the gold found in
the sands of the river Pactolus, which flowed toward the Hermus from Mount
Tmolus, and also from the industry of his subjects. They were the first on
record to coin gold and silver. The antiquity of the Lydian monarchy is
very great, and was traced to Heracles. The Heracleid dynasty lasted five
hundred and five years, and ended with Myrsus, or Kandaules. His wife was
of exceeding beauty, and the vanity of her husband led him to expose her
person to Gyges, commander of his guard. The affronted wife, in revenge,
caused her husband to be assassinated, and married Gyges. A strong party
opposed his ascent to the throne, and a civil war ensued, which was
terminated by a consultation of the oracle, which decided in favor of
Gyges, the first historical king of Lydia, about the year 715 B.C.

(M205) With this king commenced the aggressions from Sardis on the Asiatic
Greeks, which ended in their subjection. How far the Lydian kingdom of
Sardis extended during the reign of Gyges is not known, but probably over
the whole Troad, to Abydus, on the Hellespont. Gyges reigned thirty-eight
years, and was succeeded by his son Ardys, during whose reign was an
extensive invasion of the Cimmerians, and a collision between the
inhabitants of Lydia and those of Upper Asia, under the Median kings, who
first acquired importance about the year 656 B.C. under a king called, by
the Greeks, Phraortes, son of Deioces, who built the city of Ecbatana.

(M206) Phraortes greatly extended the empire of the Medes, and conquered
the Persians, but was defeated and slain by the Assyrians of Nineveh. His
son, Cyaxares (636-595 B.C.) continued the Median conquests to the river
Halys, which was the boundary between the Lydian and Median kingdoms. A
war between these two powers was terminated by the marriage of the
daughter of the Lydian king wit