Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/30

 14 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. thing to be borne in mind, however, is that the Phrygian empire, after a prosperous existence of a hundred and fifty years, was ravaged (circa 660 B.C.), along with that of Lydia, by Cimmerian hordes. The king Midas of that day, unable to endure defeat, put an end to his existence by drinking the blood of a bull. 1 It was but a momentary calamity, which disappeared with the with- drawal of the Cimmerians ; for Herodotus tells us that in the reign of Crcesus, the Phrygian king of that day styled himself son of Gordios and grandson of Midas. 2 The effect of the late invasion, however, had been to weaken and break up the country ; so that its inhabitants offered little resistance to the Lydians when these, a few years afterwards, under the command of Alyattes and Crcesus, entered their territory, which they occupied as far as the banks of the Halys. 3 Consequently, a space of two hundred or two hundred and fifty years may confidently be allowed as the duration of that Phrygian empire, which we credit with the monuments still extant around the springs that feed the western branch of the Sangarius. Strictly speaking, that state has no history, for its span of life was passed too far away from the coast. Until the day when the Greeks entered into intercourse or conflict with Lydia, nothing was known on the coast of the events that were taking place on the plateau. The scanty data we possess as to this empire relate to events which may be dated with certainty within a few years ; landmarks, such as the reign of Gyges, the Cimmerian incursions, the wars of Alyattes and Croesus. Gordios, Midas, together with the monuments situate on the western rim of the great plateau bearing their names, belong, then, to what may be termed the historical period. We are better off in regard to another kingdom, which likewise left recollections of its power and wealth in the mind of the Greeks ; we allude to a state skirting the yEgean, whose capital, fastnesses, and sanctuaries rose on the flanks and within the gorges of Sipylus, between the valley of the Hermus 1 Strabo, I. iii. 21. Allusion to this suicide will be found in PLUTARCH, Flaminitis, 20. 2 Herodotus, i. 35, 45. 3 Herodotus (i. 28) ascribes to Croesus the subjugation of the peninsula to the banks of the Halys ; but Alyattes must have commenced it, since a little further (i. 74) he shows him carrying on a war of six years' duration against Cyaxares. The valley of the Halys and the central plateau were doubtless the scene of this struggle ; there is nothing to indicate that the Medes of that date went near the Mediterranean.