that he should be set aside in favour of his brother Pantaleon, the son of Alyattes by an Ionian.  Croesus, having sown his wild oats, was anxious to regain his father’s favour, and his only chance of so doing was by distinguishing himself in the coming war, if only money could be found for paying his mercenaries.  Sadyattes, the richest banker in Lydia, who had already had dealings with all the members of the royal family, refused to make him a loan, but Theokharides of Priene advanced him a thousand gold staters, which enabled Crosus to enroll his contingent at Bphesus, and to be the first to present himself at the rallying-place for the troops.**

* Radet places the operations in Bithynia before the Median war, towards 594 at the latest.  I think that they are more probably connected with those in Mysia, and that they form part of the various measures taken after the Median war to achieve the occupation of the regions west of the Halys.

** A mutilated extract from Xanthus of Lydia in Suidas seems to carry these events back to the time of the war against Priene, towards the beginning of the reign.  The united evidence of the accompanying circumstances proves that they belong to the time of the old age of Alyattes, and makes it very likely that they occurred in 566, the date proposed by Radet for the Carian campaign.

Caria was annexed to the kingdom, but the conditions under which the annexation took place are not known to us;* and Croesus contributed so considerably to the success of the campaign, that he was reinstated in popular favour.  Alyattes, however, was advancing in years, and was soon about to rejoin his adversaries Cyaxares and Nebuchadrezzar in Hades.  Like the Pharaohs, the kings of Lydia were accustomed to construct during their lifetime the monuments in which they were to repose after death.  Their necropolis was situated not far from Sardes, on the shores of the little lake Gygaea; it was here, close to the resting-place of his ancestors and their wives, that Alyattes chose the spot for his tomb,** and his subjects did not lose the opportunity of proving to what extent he had gained their affections.

     * The fragment of Nicolas of Damascus does not speak of the
     result of the war, but it was certainly favourable, for
     Herodotus counts the Carians among Croesus’ subjects.

** The only one of these monuments, besides that of Alyattes, which is mentioned by the ancients, belonged to one of the favourites of Gyges, and was called the Tomb of the Courtesan.  Strabo, by a manifest error, has applied this name to the tomb of Alyattes.

[Illustration:  050.jpg THE TUMULUS OF ALYATTES AND THE ENTRANCE TO THE PASSAGE]

     Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch by Spiegolthal.

His predecessors had been obliged to finish their work at their own expense and by forced labour;* but in the case of Alyattes the three wealthiest classes of the population, the merchants, the craftsmen, and the courtesans, all united to erect for him an enormous tumulus, the remains of which still rise 220 feet above the plains of the Hermus.