ABSTRACT
The tribes occupying the fertile south-eastern corner of the peninsula, the Chinhan, had by the third century AD developed into a third state known as Saro or Silla. According to Kim Pu-sik, himself of Sillan descent, its founders were six migrant families from Chos n, and this is consistent with some of the bronze items discovered in the area, but they were obviously not its original inhabitants. Sometime in the last century BC the leaders of these six clans, worried by the threat of external enemies, including raids from Japan, met by the side of a stream at the site of what would become its capital, Ky ngju, and elected one of their number, Pak Hy kk se, as their first ruler.
