Book 13
4.8
Callisthenes says that Sardes was taken first by Cimmerians, then by Treres and Lycians, which Callinus also, the elegiac poet, testifies, and that it was last captured in the time of Cyrus and Croesus. When Callinus says that the incursion of the Cimmerians when they took Sardes was directed against the Esioneis, the Scepsian (Demetrius) supposes the Asioneis to be called by him Esioneis, according to. the Ionian dialect; for perhaps Meonia, he says, was called Asia, as Homer describes the country, in the Asian meadows about the streams of Caÿster. Il. ii. 461.Il. ii. 461. The city, on account of the fertility of the country, was afterwards restored, so as to be a considerable place, and was inferior to none of its neighbours; lately it has lost a great part of its buildings by earthquakes. But Sardes, and many other cities which participated in this calamity about the same time, have been repaired by the provident care and beneficence of Tiberius the present emperor.
4.9
The distinguished natives of Sardes were two orators of the same name and family, the Diodori; the elder of whom was called Zonas, who had pleaded the cause of Asia in many suits. At the time of the invasion of Mithridates the king, he was accused of occasioning the revolt of the cities from him, but in his defence he cleared himself of the charge.
4.9
The younger Diodorus was my friend; there exist of his historical writings, odes, and poems of other kinds, which very much resemble the style of the ancients.
4.9
4anthus, the ancient historian, is said to be a Lydian, but whether of Sardes I do not know.
