Gyeongju first enters non-Korean records during the Samhan period in the early Common Era. It is recorded in Chinese records as Saro-guk, one of twelve petty states which comprised the Jinhan confederacy. Saro-guk would later become the Silla kingdom. Korean records, probably based on the dynastic chronicles of Silla, record that Saro-guk was established in 57 BCE, when six small villages in the Gyeongju area united under Bak Hyeokgose, the kingdom's first ruler. During the Silla period, the city was called "Seorabeol" (서라벌; 西羅伐) that is assumed to mean Capital, "Gyerim which literally means Rooster's forest," or "Geumseong" (금성; 金成) that refers to "City of Gold".