Sadyattes
Template:Short description Template:Infobox royalty Sadyattes (Template:Langx; Template:Langx; reigned 637–Template:C.) was the third king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Ardys and the grandson of Gyges of Lydia. Sadyattes reigned 12 years according to Herodotus.
ReignEdit
BackgroundEdit
Sadyattes came to power during period of severe crisis that Lydia was facing because of several waves of invasions by the Cimmerians,<ref name="Dale"/> 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.<ref name="Spalinger">Template:Cite journal</ref>
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,Template:Sfn under their king Kobos, and in alliance with the Cimmerians and the Lycians, attacked Lydia.<ref name="Spalinger"/> 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.<ref name="Dale"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
ReignEdit
Sadyattes's reign was even more short-lived than that of his father Ardys:<ref name="Dale"/> although Herodotus claimed that Ardys had reigned for twelve years, modern estimates give him a much shorter reign of only two years.<ref name="Dale">Template:Cite journal</ref> Little is known about the reign of Sadyattes except that he began a war with the Ionian Greek maritime city of Miletus.<ref name="H46">Template:Harvnb</ref>
End of reignEdit
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.<ref name="Dale"/> He was succeeded by his son Alyattes, who continued the war against Miletus and would transform Lydia into a powerful empire.<ref name="H46"/>
AftermathEdit
Soon after 635 BC, with Assyrian approval<ref name=Rene>Template:Cite book</ref> and in alliance with the Lydians,Template:Sfn 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<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> until they were themselves expelled by the Medes from Western Asia in the 600s BC.<ref name="Spalinger"/> 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
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