Sadyattes (; ; reigned 637–) was the third king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Ardys and the grandson of Gyges of Lydia. Sadyattes reigned 12 years according to Herodotus.
Reign
Background
Sadyattes came to power during period of severe crisis that Lydia was facing because of several waves of invasions by the
Cimmerians,
a nomadic people from the
Eurasian Steppe who had invaded the
Western Asia. The Cimmerians attacked Lydia several times but had been repelled by Sadyattes's grandfather, Gyges, but in 644 BC, the Cimmerians attacked Lydia for the third time, led by their king
Tugdamme. The
Lydians were defeated, Sardis was sacked, and Gyges was killed, following which he was succeeded by his son, Ardys, who was the father of Sadyattes.
In 637 BC, that is in Ardys's seventh regnal year, the Thracians Treri tribe who had migrated across the Bosporus and invaded Anatolia, under their king Kobos, and in alliance with the Cimmerians and the Lycians, attacked Lydia.
Reign
Sadyattes's reign was even more short-lived than that of his father Ardys:
although
Herodotus claimed that Ardys had reigned for twelve years, modern estimates give him a much shorter reign of only two years.
Little is known about the reign of Sadyattes except that he began a war with the
Greek maritime city of
Miletus.
End of reign
Sadyattes's reign ended in 635 BC. It is possible that, like his grandfather Gyges, he died fighting the Cimmerians. Alternatively, Sadyattes might have been deposed for failing to protect Lydia from the Cimmerian attacks.
He was succeeded by his son
Alyattes, who continued the war against Miletus and would transform Lydia into a powerful empire.
Aftermath
Soon after 635 BC, with Assyrian approval
and in alliance with the Lydians, the
Scythians under their king
Madyes entered Anatolia, expelled the Treres from Asia Minor, and defeated the Cimmerians so that they no longer constituted a threat again, following which the Scythians extended their domination to Central Anatolia
until they were themselves expelled by the Medes from Western Asia in the 600s BC.
This final defeat of the Cimmerians was carried out by the joint forces of Madyes, whom
Strabo credits with expelling the Treres and Cimmerians from Asia Minor, and of Sadyattes's son, the king Alyattes of Lydia, whom
Herodotus and
Polyaenus claim finally defeated the Cimmerians.
Sources
