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For the Median war and the general policy of Alyattes cf. cc. 73-4 nn. He was the founder of Lydian greatness, extending his power to the Halys.

κτισθεῖσαν, ‘colonized from’; it was previously an Aeolian city. Smyrna was destroyed as a city, and only inhabited κωμηδόν (Strabo, 646); it does not occur in the Athenian tribute-lists, but its coins begin again in the fourth century, at least fifty years before its refounding by Antigonus and Lysimachus, circ. 300 B. C. (Head, H. N. 591). The Lydian conquest was generally merciful; but Smyrna, commanding as it did the outlet of the Hermus valley, was too formidable to be spared. Clazomenae also was attacked in order to secure this valley. The defeat of Alyattes at Clazomenae must have been after his capture of Smyrna; it lay further west on the gulf of Smyrna. All these later campaigns are after the Median war (cf. c. 73 and Busolt, ii. 469).

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