Editing Alyattes (section)

===Relations with Caria===
In the south, Alyattes continued what had been the Lydian policy since Gyges's reign of maintaining alliances with the city-states of the [[Carians]], with whom the Lydians also had strong cultural connections, 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. These alliances between the Lydian kings and the various Carian dynasts required the Lydian and Carian rulers had to support each other, and to solidify these alliances, Alyattes married a woman from the Carian aristocracy with whom he had a son, Croesus, who would eventually succeed him. These connections established between the Lydian kings and the Carian city-states 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 in [[Aphrodisias]].<ref name="Leloux-1"/>