THE FORTUNE OF CRGSUS.

Tue land of the Hellenes, or Greeks, was not con-
fined to the small peninsula now known as Greece.
Hellenic colonies spread far to the east and the
west, to Italy and Sicily on the one hand, to Asia
Minor and the shores of the Black Sea on the
other. The story of the Argonauts probably arose
from colonizing expeditions to the Black Sea. That
of Croesus has to do with the colonies in Asia Minor.

These colonies clung to the coast. Inland lay
other nations, to some extent of Hellenic origin.
One of these was the kingdom of Lydia, whose
history is of the highest importance to us, since the
conflicts between Lydia and the coast colonies were
the first steps towards the invasion of Greece by
the Persians, that most important event in early
Grecian history.

These conflicts began in the reign of Crcesus, an
ambitious king of Lydia in the sixth century before
Christ. What gave rise to the war between Lydia
and the Greek settlements of Ionia and Molia we
do not very well know. An ambitious despot does
not need much pretext for war. He wills the war,
and the pretext follows. It will suffice to say that,
on one excuse or another, Croesus made war on

ie 17