Sadyattes

Sadyattes came to power during period of severe crisis that Lydia was facing because of several waves of invasions by the Cimmerians, a nomadic people from the Eurasian Steppe who had invaded the Western Asia. The Cimmerians attacked Lydia several times but had been repelled by Sadyattes's grandfather, Gyges, but in 644 BC, the Cimmerians attacked Lydia for the third time, led by their king Lygdamis. The Lydians were defeated, Sardis was sacked, and Gyges was killed, following which he was succeeded by his son, Ardys, who was the father of Sadyattes.{{cite journal |last=Spalinger |first=Anthony J. |date=1978 |title=The Date of the Death of Gyges and Its Historical Implications |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/599752 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=98 |issue=4 |pages=400–409 |doi=10.2307/599752 |jstor=599752 |access-date=25 October 2021 }}

In 637 BC, that is in Ardys's seventh regnal year, the Thracian Treres tribe who had migrated across the Thracian Bosporus and invaded Anatolia,{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=94-55}} under their king Kobos, and in alliance with the Cimmerians and the Lycians, attacked Lydia. They defeated the Lydians again and for a second time sacked the Lydian capital of Sardis, except for its citadel. It is probable that Ardys was killed during this Cimmerian attack, or that he was deposed for being unable to protect Lydia from the Cimmerian attacks.{{cite book | last=Kristensen | first=Anne Katrine Gade | title=Who were the Cimmerians, and where did they come from?: Sargon II, and the Cimmerians, and Rusa I | year=1988 | publisher=The Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters | location=Copenhagen, Denmark }}

Sadyattes's reign was even more short-lived than that of his father Ardys: although Herodotus claimed that Ardys had reigned for twelve years, modern estimates give him a much shorter reign of only two years.{{cite journal |last=Dale |first=Alexander |date=2015 |title=WALWET and KUKALIM: Lydian coin legends, dynastic succession, and the chronology of Mermnad kings |url=https://www.academia.edu/29719834 |journal=Kadmos |volume=54 |issue= |pages=151–166 |doi=10.1515/kadmos-2015-0008 |s2cid=165043567 |access-date=10 November 2021}} Little is known about the reign of Sadyattes except that he began a war with the Ionian Greek maritime city of Miletus.{{harvnb | Herodotus|1975 | p=46}}

Sadyattes's reign ended in 635 BC. It is possible that, like his grandfather Gyges, he died fighting the Cimmerians. Alternatively, Sadyattes might have been deposed for failing to protect Lydia from the Cimmerian attacks. He was succeeded by his son Alyattes, who continued the war against Miletus and would transform Lydia into a powerful empire.

Soon after 635 BC, with Assyrian approval{{Cite book |last=Grousset |first=René |author-link=René Grousset |title=The Empire of the Steppes |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1970 |isbn=0-8135-1304-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/empireofsteppesh00prof/page/8 9] |url=https://archive.org/details/empireofsteppesh00prof |quote=A Scythian army, acting in conformity with Assyrian policy, entered Pontis to crush the last of the Cimmerians }} and in alliance with the Lydians,{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=126}} the Scythians under their king Madyes entered Anatolia, expelled the Treres from Asia Minor, and defeated the Cimmerians so that they no longer constituted a threat again, following which the Scythians extended their domination to Central Anatolia{{cite journal |last=Phillips |first=E. D. |date=1972 |title=The Scythian Domination in Western Asia: Its Record in History, Scripture and Archaeology |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/123971 |journal=World Archaeology |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=129–138 |doi= 10.1080/00438243.1972.9979527|jstor=123971 |access-date=5 November 2021 }} until they were themselves expelled by the Medes from Western Asia in the 600s BC. This final defeat of the Cimmerians was carried out by the joint forces of Madyes, whom Strabo credits with expelling the Treres and Cimmerians from Asia Minor, and of Sadyattes's son, the king Alyattes of Lydia, whom Herodotus and Polyaenus claim finally defeated the Cimmerians.{{sfn|Ivantchik|1993|p=95-125}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|2006|p=151}}

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• {{cite book |last=Diakonoff |first=I. M. |author-link=Igor M. Diakonoff |editor-last=Gershevitch |editor-first=Ilya |editor-link=Ilya Gershevitch |date=1985 |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |volume=2 |chapter=Media |url= |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=94–95 |isbn=978-0-521-20091-2 }}
• {{cite book | last=Herodotus | author-link=Herodotus | title=The Histories | editor1-last=Burn | editor1-first=A. R. | editor2-last=de Sélincourt | editor2-first=Aubrey | publisher=Penguin Books | location=London | year=1975 | orig-year=first published 1954 | isbn=0-14-051260-8}}
• {{cite book |last=Ivantchik |first=Askold |author-link=Askold Ivantchik |date=1993 |title=Les Cimmériens au Proche-Orient |trans-title=The Cimmerians in the Near East |url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/151019/1/Ivantchik_1993_Les_Cimmerians_au_Proche-Orient.pdf |language=fr |location=Fribourg, Switzerland; Göttingen, Germany |publisher=Editions Universitaires (Switzerland); Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Germany) |isbn=978-3-727-80876-0}}
• {{cite book |editor-last1=Aruz |editor-first1=Joan |editor-last2=Farkas |editor-first2=Ann |editor-last3=Fino |editor-first3=Elisabetta Valtz |last=Ivantchik |first=Askold |author-link=Askold Ivantchik |date=2006 |title=The Golden Deer of Eurasia: Perspectives on the Steppe Nomads of the Ancient World |url= |location=New Haven, Connecticut, United States; New York City, United States; London, United Kingdom |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Yale University Press |page=146-153 |isbn=978-1-588-39205-3 }}

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{{S-hou|Mermnad dynasty||||{{c.|635 BC}}|name=}}

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{{S-bef|before=Ardys}}

{{S-ttl|title=King of Lydia|years=637–{{c.|635 BC}}}}

{{S-aft|after=Alyattes}}

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Category:Kings of Lydia

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:6th-century BC monarchs in Asia

Category:7th-century BC monarchs in Asia

Category:590s BC deaths

Category:Mermnad dynasty

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