Editing Gyges of Lydia (section)

===Sending mercenaries to Egypt===
Gyges's extensive alliances with the Carian dynasts allowed him to recruit Carian and Ionian Greek soldiers to send overseas to assist the [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] king [[Psamtik I]] of the city of [[Sais]], with whom he had established contact around 662 BC. With the help of these armed forces, Psamtik I united Egypt under his rule after eliminating the eleven other kinglets with whom he had been co-ruling [[Lower Egypt]] following [[Esarhaddon]]'s and Ashurbanipal's [[Assyrian conquest of Egypt|invasions]].{{sfn|Braun|1982|p=36}}<ref name="Spalinger1976"/><ref name="Spalinger1978"/>{{sfn|Mellink|1991|p=663}}

Interpretations of these actions as an alliance between Lydia and Sais against Assyria, however, are inaccurate; Psamtik I's military activities were directed solely against the other local kinglets of Lower Egypt and not against Assyria, although Ashurbanipal disapproved of Psamtik I's actions since he knew he needed these kinglets' support to maintain Assyrian power in Egypt.<ref name="Spalinger1976">{{cite journal |last=Spakinger |first=Anthony |date=1976 |title=Psammetichus, King of Egypt: I |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40001126 |journal=Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt  |volume=13 |issue= |pages=133–147 |doi=10.2307/40001126  |jstor=40001126 |access-date=2 November 2021 }}</ref> Moreover, not only had the Assyrians raised Sais to preeminence in Egypt after expelling the Saites' [[Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt|Kushite]] enemies from the country, but the two kings had signed a treaty with each other, and no hostilities between them are recorded. Thus Psamtik I and Ashurbanipal had remained allies since the former had been put in power with Assyrian military support.  Furthermore, the silence of Assyrian sources concerning Psamtik I's expansion imply there was no hostility, whether overt or covert, between Assyria and Sais during Psamtik I's unification of Egypt under his rule.<ref name="Spalinger1976"/><ref name="Spalinger1978"/>

Likewise, Gyges's military support of Psamtik I was not directed against Assyria and is not mentioned as hostile to Assyria or allied with other countries against Assyria in Assyrian records;<ref name="Spalinger1976"/> the Assyrian disapproval of Gyges's support for Psamtik I was primarily motivated by Gyges's refusal to form an alliance with Assyria and his undertaking of these actions independently of Assyria, which the Assyrians interpreted as an act of arrogance, rather than by the support itself.<ref name="Spalinger1978"/>

Gyges's military support to Psamtik I lasted until 658 BC, at which point he faced an impending Cimmerian invasion. The Cimmerians invaded Lydia again in 657 BC, though not much is known about this attack except that Gyges survived it. This event is recorded in the Assyrian oracular reports, where it is called a "bad omen" for the "Westland", that is for Lydia.<ref name="Spalinger1978"/>