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The sovereignty of Lydia, which had belonged to the Heraclides,
passed into the family of Croesus, who were called the Mermnadae, in
the manner which I will now relate. There was a certain king of
Sardis, Candaules by name, whom the Greeks called Myrsilus. He
was a descendant of Alcaeus, son of Hercules. The first king of
this dynasty was Agron, son of Ninus, grandson of Belus, and
great-grandson of Alcaeus; Candaules, son of Myrsus, was the
last. The kings who reigned before Agron sprang from Lydus, son of
Atys, from whom the people of the land, called previously Meonians,
received the name of Lydians. The Heraclides, descended from
Hercules and the slave-girl of Jardanus, having been entrusted by
these princes with the management of affairs, obtained the kingdom by
an oracle. Their rule endured for two and twenty generations of men,
a space of five hundred and five years; during the whole of which
period, from Agron to Candaules, the crown descended in the direct
line from father to son.
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