Lydia

He wanted to invade the Persian Empire before Cyrus even thought about coming to Lydia.

Cyrus had heard Croesus was on his way.

In the distance, he saw the Lydian troops.

The soldiers raised their spears at one another as they grew closer.

Arrows were launched high into the air.

I will meet Croesus myself, Cyrus declared.

Riding horses and camels, his soldiers galloped towards Sardis.

There in front of him, Lydian troops on horseback.

He married Nyssia, and possessed himself of the kingdom.

After this, he and his successors reigned for many years over the kingdom of Lydia, constituting the dynasty of the Myrmidæ, from which, in process of time, King Croesus descended.

The successive sovereigns of this dynasty gradually extended the Lydian power over the countries around them.

The name of Croesus's father, who was the monarch that immediately preceded him, was Alyattes.

Alyattes waged war toward the southward into the territories of the city of Miletus.

A marble statue representing a man seated upon a dolphin was erected at Taenarus to commemorate this event, where it remained for centuries afterward, a monument of the wonder which Arion had achieved.

At length, Alyattes died, and Croesus succeeded him.

Croesus extended still further the power and fame of the Lydian Empire and was for a time very successful in all his military schemes.

We've seen that sometime in the late 700s, they have moved into the southern Caucasus, and by the late 700s, they are well into Anatolia, in the region between Urartu and Phrygia.

Then through the 600s, they smash first through Phrygia and then into Lydia in western Anatolia, sacking the Lydian capital of Sardis around 640.

After that, however, their fortunes would reverse, as Greek tales tell us that King Alyattes of Lydia would recover from all of that, kill the Cimmerian king, and then push them back out of the region.

As the Cimmerians move away, they push into Assyrian territory, whereas there is a little war between them and Ashurbanipal, which the Assyrians mostly win.

They famously make a move to raid into Egypt, but are met at the border of Philistia by the pharaoh of the era, who buys them off, and then they go back home.

Even their Anatolian campaigns are only kind of interesting.

They do beat the two major Anatolian powers pretty badly for a little while, but they never established any rival state there, or if they did, some suspect they did, it would have been quite minor.

And they never fully crushed either Phrygia or Lydia, just reshaped the balance of power and stood as a threat for a while.

¿No es cierto? Estos son los antecedentes.

Lidia.

¿Qué tal, Lidia?

¿Qué tal, cómo anda?

Hospedó a unos pastores escitas que pidieron refugio porque eran perseguidos por el rey de Media, el rey de los medos, Ciaxares.

Aliates, el rey de Lidia, se negó a entregarlos.

Se negó a entregarlos y así o-ocurrió la guerra.

Y esta guerra duró cinco años.