VARIOUS INVASIONS OF ASIA MINOR. 2,>J Herodotus seems to have conceived only one invasion of Asia by the Cimmerians, during the reign of Ardys in Lydia. Ardys was succeeded by his son Sadyattes, -who reigned twelve years ; and it was Alyattes, son and successor of Sadyattes, according to Herodotus, who expelled the Cimmerians from Asia. 1 But Strabo seems to speak of several invasions, in which the Treres, a Thracian tribe, were concerned, and which are not clearly dis- criminated; while Kallisthenes affirmed that Sardis had been taken by the Treres and Lykians. 2 We see only that a large and fair portion of Asia Minor was for much of this seventh century B. c. in possession of these destroying nomads, who, while on the one hand they afflicted the Ionic Greeks, on the other hand indirectly befriended them by retarding the growth of the Lydian monarchy. The invasion of Upper Asia by the Scythians appears to have been nearly simultaneous with that of Asia Minor by the Cim- merians, but more ruinous and longer protracted. The Median lybcs seem to have been the best known, from their iron works, and thcii greater vicinity to the Greek ports : Ephorus recognized them (see Ephori Fragm. 80-82, ed. Marx) ; whether he knew of the more easterly Chalybes, north of Armenia, is less certain : so also Dionysius Periugetes, v, 768 : compare Eustathius, ad loc. The idea which prevailed among ancient writers, of a connection between the Chalybes in these regions and the Scythians or Cimmerians (Xu/b/tof ZKV$<JV u-otKOf, JEschyl. Sept. ad Thebas, 729 ; and Hesiod. ap. Clemen. Alex. Str. i, p. 132), and of which the supposed residence of the Amazons on the river Thermodon seems to be one of the manifestations, is discussed in Hoeckh, Kreta, book i, pp. 294-305 ; and Mannert, Geographic der Griechen und Romer, vi, 2, pp. 408-416 : compare Stephan.Byz. v, XaAv/3ec. Mannert believes in an early Scythian emigration into these regions. The ten thousand Greeks passed through the territory of a people called Skytlii- ni, immediately bordering on the Chalybes to the north ; which region some identify with the Sakasene of Strabo (xi, 511) occupied, according to that geographer, by invaders from Eastern Scythia. It seems that Sinope was one of the most considerable places for the export of the iron used in Greece : the Sinopic as well as the Chalybdic (or Chalybic) iron had a special reputation (Stephan. Byz. v, AaKefiaiftiJv). About the Chalybes, compare Ukcrt, Skythien, pp. 521-523. ' Herodot i, 15-16.
- Strabo, xi, p. 511 ; xii, p. 552 ; xiii, p. 627.
The poet Ivallinns mentioned both Cimmerians and Treres (Fr. 2, 3, ed Bergk; Strabo. xiv, pp. G33-647).
