Histories

Alyattes the Lydian, his war with the Milesians finished, died after a reign of fifty-seven years.

He was the second of his family to make an offering to Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi (after recovering from his illness) of a great silver bowl on a stand of welded iron. Among all the offerings at Delphi [22.5167,38.4917] (Perseus) Delphi, this is the most worth seeing, and is the work of Glaucus the Chian, the only one of all men who discovered how to weld iron.

After the death of Alyattes, his son Croesus, then thirty-five years of age, came to the throne[*](Croesus' reign began in 560 B.C., probably.). The first Greeks whom he attacked were the Ephesians.

These, besieged by him, dedicated their city to Artemis; they did this by attaching a rope to the city wall from the temple of the goddess, which stood seven stades away from the ancient city which was then besieged.

These were the first whom Croesus attacked; afterwards he made war on the Ionian and Aeolian cities in turn, upon different pretexts: he found graver charges where he could, but sometimes alleged very petty grounds of offense.