d and killed by the Scythians under
Madyes about 633. The repeated repulses they had suffered had the effect
of quickly relieving Lydia, Phrygia, and the remaining states of the
AEgean and the Black Sea from their inroads; the Milesians wrested
Sinope from them about 630, and the few bands left behind when the main
body set out for the countries of the Euphrates were so harried and
decimated by the people over whom they had terrorised for nearly a
century, that they had soon no refuge except round the fortress of
Antandros, in the mountains of the Troad. Most of the kingdoms whose
downfall they had caused never recovered from their reverses; but
Lydia, which had not laid down its arms since the death of Gyges, became
possessed by degrees of the whole of their territory; Phrygia proper
came back to her in the general redistribution, and with it most of the
countries which had been under the rule of the dynasty of Midas, from
the mountains of Lycia to the shores of the Black Sea. The transfer was
effected, apparently, with very slight opposition and with little loss
of time, since in the four or five years which followed the death of
Kobos, Ardys had risen in the estimation of the Greeks to the position
enjoyed by Gyges; and when, in 628, Aristomenes, the hero of the
Messenian wars, arrived at Rhodes, it is said that he contemplated
proceeding from thence, first to Sardes and then to Ecbatana, for the
purpose of gaining the adherence of Lydia and Media to his cause.

[Illustration: 390.jpgA VIEW IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MESSOGIS]

Drawn by Boudier, from the heliogravure of Rayet and Thomas.

Death put an end to his projects, but he would not for a moment have
entertained them had not Ardys been at that time at the head of a
renowned and flourishing kingdom. The renewal of international commerce
followed closely on the re-establishment of peace, and even if the long
period of Scythian invasion, followed by the destruction of Nineveh,
rendered the overland route less available for regular traffic than
before, at all events relations between the inhabitants of the Euphrates
valley and those of the iEgean littoral were resumed to such good
purpose that before long several fresh marts were opened in Lydia.

[Illustration: 391.jpg THE SITE OF PRIENE.]

Drawn by Boudier, from the heliogravure of Rayet and Thomas.

Kyme and Ephesus put the region of the Messogis and the Tmolus into
communication with the sea, but th