ALYATTES, king of Lydia (609-560 B.C.), the real founder
of the Lydian empire, was the son of Sadyattes, of the house
of the Mermnadae. For several years he continued the war
against Miletus begun by his father, but was obliged to turn
his attention to the Medes and Babylonians. On the 28th
of May 585, during a battle on the Halys between him and
Cyaxares, king of Media, an eclipse of the sun took place;
hostilities were suspended, peace concluded, and the Halys
fixed as the boundary between the two kingdoms. Alyattes
drove the Cimmerii (see SCYTIHA) from Asia, subdued the
Carians, and took several Ionian cities (Smyrna, Colophon).
He was succeeded by his son Croesus. His tomb still exists on
the plateau between lake Gygaea and the river Hermus to the
north of Sardis -- a large mound of earth with a substructure
of huge stones. It was excavated by Spiegelthal in 1854,
who found that it covered a large vault of finely-cut marble
blocks approached by a flat-roofed passage of the same stone
from the south. The sarcophagus and its contents had been
removed by early plunderers of the tomb, all that was left
being some broken alabaster vases, pottery and charcoal.
On the summit of the mound were large phalli of stone.
See A. von Olfers, "Uber die lydischen
Konigsgraber bei Sardes," Abh. Berl. Ak., 1858.
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed