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The customs of the Lydians are like those of the Greeks, except that they make prostitutes of their female children. They were the first men whom we know who coined and used gold and silver currency; and they were the first to sell by retail.
The customs of the Lydians are like those of the Greeks, except that they make prostitutes of their female children. They were the first men whom we know who coined and used gold and silver currency; and they were the first to sell by retail.
[2] And, according to what they themselves say, the games now in use among them and the
Greeks were invented by the
Lydians: these, they say, were invented among them at the time when they colonized
Etruria (region (general)), Italy, EuropeTyrrhenia. This is their story:
[3] In the reign of
Atys son of Manes there was great scarcity of food in all
Lydia [27.516,38.683] (region (general)), Turkey, Asia
Lydia
. For a while the
Lydians bore this with what patience they could; presently, when the famine did not abate, they looked for remedies, and different plans were devised by different men. Then it was that they invented the games of dice and knuckle-bones and ball and all other forms of game except dice, which the
Lydians do not claim to have discovered.
[4] Then, using their discovery to lighten the famine, every other day they would play for the whole day, so that they would not have to look for food, and the next day they quit their play and ate. This was their way of life for eighteen years.
[5] But the famine did not cease to trouble them, and instead afflicted them even more. At last their king divided the people into two groups, and made them draw lots, so that the one group should remain and the other leave the country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew the lot to remain there, and his son, whose name was
Tyrrhenus, of those who departed.
[6] Then the one group, having drawn the lot, left the country and came down to
Smyrna [27.1667,38.4167] (Perseus)
Smyrna
and built ships, in which they loaded all their goods that could be transported aboard ship, and sailed away to seek a livelihood and a country; until at last, after sojourning with one people after another, they came to the
Ombrici,
1
where they founded cities and have lived ever since.
[7] They no longer called themselves
Lydians, but
Tyrrhenians, after the name of the king's son who had led them there.
The Lydians, then, were enslaved by the Persians.
The Lydians, then, were enslaved by the Persians.
Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
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