View source for Gyges of Lydia

===Alliance with the Carians===
To the south, Gyges continued maintaining alliances with the dynasts of the various city-states of the [[Carians]], which required the Lydian and Carian rulers to support each other, and his successors would continue to maintain these alliances and solidify them through marriage. These connections ensured that the Lydians were able to control [[Caria]] through alliances with Carian dynasts ruling over fortified settlements, such as Mylasa and [[Pedasa]], and through Lydian aristocrats settled in Carian cities, such as [[Aphrodisias]]. In addition to diplomatic ties, the Lydians also shared strong cultural connections with the Carians, such as sharing the sanctuary of the god Zeus of [[Milas|Mylasa]] with the Carians and the Mysians because they believed these three peoples descended from three brothers.<ref name="Leloux-1"/>[[File:Gyges Tablet, British Museum.jpg|thumb|Gyges tablet, British Museum]]

Gyges entertained better relations with the leading [[Aeolis|Aeolian]] Greek city of [[Cyme (Aeolis)|Cyme]], which had already established friendly relations with Lydia during the preceding Heraclid dynasty, and with the [[Ionia]]n Greek city of [[Ephesus]], whose tyrant, Melas the Elder, married one of the daughters of Gyges. These ties with Ephesus would be renewed by Gyges's son [[Ardys of Lydia|Ardys]] through the marriage of his daughter [[Lyde of Lydia|Lyde]] with Melas's grandson Miletus, and by Gyges's great-grandson Alyattes, who married one of his daughters to the Ephesian tyrant Melas the Younger, himself a descendant of both Melas the Elder and of Miletus. These cordial relations between Lydia and Ephesus would continue until they were broken by Gyges's great-great-grandson Croesus.<ref name="Leloux-1"/>