or their
commerce, which they regarded as compensatory for the abandonment of
their claim to the district of Pteria. To strengthen the alliance, it
was agreed that Alyattes should give his daughter Aryenis in marriage
to Ishtuvigu, or, as the Greeks called him, Astyages, the son of
Cyaxares.** According to the custom of the times, the two contracting
parties, after taking the vow of fidelity, sealed the compact by
pricking each other's arms and sucking the few drops of blood which
oozed from the puncture.***

* The name Labynetos given by Herodotus is a transcript of
Nabonidus, but cannot here designate the Babylonian king of
that name, for the latter reigned more than thirty years
after the peace was concluded between the Lydians and the
Medes. If Herodotus has not made the mistake of putting
Labynetos for Nebuchadrezzar, we may admit that this
Labynetos was a prince of the royal family, or simply a
general who was commanding the Chaldoan auxiliaries of
Cyaxares.

** The form Ishtuvigu is given us by the Chaldoan documents.
Its exact transcript was Astuigas, Astyigas, according to
Ctosias; in fact, this coincides so remarkably with the
Babylonian mode of spelling, that we may believe that it
faithfully reproduces the original pronunciation.

*** Many ancient authors have spoken of this war, or at
least of the eclipse which brought it to an end. Several of
them place the conclusion of peace not in the reign of
Cyaxares, but in that of Astyages--Cicero, Solinus, and the
Armenian Eusebius--and their view has been adopted by some
modern historians. The two versions of the account can be
reconciled by saying that Astyages was commanding the Median
army instead of his father, who was too old to do so, but
such an explanation is unnecessary, and Cyaxares, though
over seventy, might still have had sufficient vigour to wage
war. The substitution of Astyages for Cyaxares by the
authors of Roman times was probably effected with the object
of making the date of the eclipse agree with a different
system of chronology from that followed by Herodotus.

Cyaxares died in the following year (584), full of days and renown, and
was at once succeeded by Astyages. Few princes could boast of having had
such a successful career as his, even in that century of unprecedented
fortunes and boundless am