The Twitter Herodotus

1.1 Herodotus here! Writing so we don't forget stuff, esp. the Persian Wars. The Persians say the Phoenicians started it by kidnapping Io.

1.2 Some Greeks then kidnapped Europa from Phoenicia & Medea from Colchis. They refused to return Medea when her father, the king, demanded.

1.3 A generation later, Alexander/Paris carried off Helen. The Greeks demanded her back but the Persians refused, citing the Medea business.

1.4 The Greeks overreacted to Helen's abduction and invaded Asia, and they destroyed Troy. Thus began Persian enmity toward the Greeks.

1.5 The Phoenicians say Io went willingly. *I'll* say who began it & I'll mention cities big & small, for I know GOOD FORTUNE IS INCONSTANT.

1.6 Croesus of Lydia, who ruled all the peoples west of the Halys River, was the first barbarian to submit Greeks to the payment of tribute.

1.7 The Lydian kingship passed from the Heraclidae to the Mermnadae, Croeus' family, as I'll explain. The last Heraclid king was Candaules.

1.8 Candaules fell in love w/his own wife & praised her beauty to his bodyguard Gyges, whom he bid view the queen naked. Gyges begged off.

1.9 But Candaules insisted and told his plan: Gyges would hide behind the door and watch her undress before bed, then he'd slip out unseen.

1.10 Gyges reluctantly obeyed. He hid, watched & left, but she saw him. At once she knew what Candaules had done & she contemplated revenge.

1.11 The next day she gave Gyges an ultimatum: kill the king and take his place or be killed himself. Unwilling again, he chose the former.

1.12 That night he hid behind the same door, then killed Candaules in his sleep. Thus Gyges gained both the queen and the kingship of Lydia.

1.13 The Delphic oracle confirmed Gyges in the kingship & added that vengeance would be exacted from his descendants in the 5th generation.

1.14 Gyges sent many dedicatory offerings to Delphi, both gold and silver. He was the second of the barbarians to do so after King Midas.

1.15 Gyges ruled Lydia for 38 years and was succeeded by his son Ardys.

1.16 Ardys ruled for 49 years and was succeeded by his son Sadyattes, who ruled for 12. Sadyattes was succeeded by his son Alyattes.

1.17 Alyattes attacked Miletus annually when the crops ripened. He destroyed them but nothing else so the enemy would return and sow anew.

1.18 The Lydians--first under Sadyattes, then Alyattes--waged war with Miletus in this way for 11 years.

1.19 In year 12 a temple caught fire when the Lydians burnt the crops. Alyattes got sick, and the Delphic oracle bid him rebuild the temple.

1.20 I got that from the Delphians. The Milesians say Periander of Corinth told Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus, about Alyattes' oracle.