Histories

Before the reign of Croesus, all Greeks were free: for the Cimmerian host which invaded Ionia (region (general)), Europe Ionia before his time did not subjugate the cities, but raided and robbed them.

Now the sovereign power that belonged to the descendants of Heracles[*](Descendants of Heracles seems to mean descended from the Asiatic sun god identified with Heracles by the Greeks.) fell to the family of Croesus, called the Mermnadae, in the following way.