for the Heracleidai should come upon the descendants of Gyges in the
fifth generation. Of this oracle the Lydians and their kings made no
account until it was in fact fulfilled.

14. Thus the Mermnadai obtained the government having driven out from
it the Heracleidai: and Gyges when he became ruler sent votive
offerings to Delphi not a few, for of all the silver offerings at
Delphi his are more in number than those of any other man; and besides
the silver he offered a vast quantity of gold, and especially one
offering which is more worthy of mention than the rest, namely six
golden mixing-bowls, which are dedicated there as his gift: of these
the weight is thirty talents, and they stand in the treasury of the
Corinthians, (though in truth this treasury does not belong to the
State of the Corinthians, but is that of Kypselos the son of
Aëtion).[12] This Gyges was the first of the Barbarians within our
knowledge who dedicated votive offerings at Delphi, except only Midas
the son of Gordias king of Phrygia, who dedicated for an offering the
royal throne on which he sat before all to decide causes; and this
throne, a sight worth seeing, stands in the same place with the bowls
of Gyges. This gold and silver which Gyges dedicated is called Gygian
by the people of Delphi, after the name of him who offered it.

Now Gyges also,[13] as soon as he became king, led an army against
Miletos and Smyrna, and he took the lower town of Colophon:[14] but no
other great deed did he do in his reign, which lasted eight-and-thirty
years, therefore we will pass him by with no more mention than has
already been made, 15, and I will speak now of Ardys the son of Gyges,
who became king after Gyges. He took Priene and made an invasion
against Miletos; and while he was ruling over Sardis, the Kimmerians
driven from their abodes by the nomad Scythians came to Asia and took