concerning these things I am not going to say that they happened thus
or thus,[4a] but when I have pointed to the man who first within my
own knowledge began to commit wrong against the Hellenes, I shall go
forward further with the story, giving an account of the cities of
men, small as well as great: for those which in old times were great
have for the most part become small, while those that were in my own
time great used in former times to be small: so then, since I know
that human prosperity never continues steadfast, I shall make mention
of both indifferently.

*****

6. Crœsus was Lydian by race, the son of Alyattes and ruler of the
nations which dwell on this side of the river Halys; which river,
flowing from the South between the Syrians[5] and the Paphlagonians,
runs out towards the North Wind into that Sea which is called the
Euxine. This Crœsus, first of all the Barbarians of whom we have
knowledge, subdued certain of the Hellenes and forced them to pay
tribute, while others he gained over and made them his friends. Those
whom he subdued were the Ionians, the Aiolians, and the Dorians who
dwell in Asia; and those whom he made his friends were the
Lacedemonians. But before the reign of Crœsus all the Hellenes were
free; for the expedition of the Kimmerians, which came upon Ionia
before the time of Crœsus, was not a conquest of the cities but a
plundering incursion only.[6] 7. Now the supremacy which had belonged
to the Heracleidai came to the family of Crœsus, called Mermnadai, in
the following manner:--Candaules, whom the Hellenes call Myrsilos, was
ruler of Sardis and a descendant of Alcaios, son of Heracles: for
Agron, the son of Ninos, the son of Belos, the son of Alcaios, was the
first of the Heracleidai who became king of Sardis, and Candaules the