He an is this vast crowd so earnestly employed about?” swered, "They are sacking your city and plundering your riches.' "Not so," Croesus replied; "they are neither sacking my city nor plundering my riches, for they no longer belong to me, but they are ravaging what belongs to you." 89. The reply of Croesus attracted the attention of Cyrus; he therefore ordered all the rest to withdraw, and asked Croesus what he thought should be done in the present conjuncture. He answered: "Since the gods have made me your servant, I think it my duty to acquaint you if I perceive any thing deserving of remark. The Persians, who are by nature overbearing, are poor. If, therefore, you permit them to plunder and possess great riches, you may expect the following results: whoso acquires the greatest possessions, be assured will be ready to rebel. Therefore, if you approve what I say, adopt the following plan: place some of your body-guard as sentinels at every gate, with orders to take the booty from all those who would go out, and to acquaint them that the tenth must of necessity be consecrated to Jupiter: thus you will not incur the odium of taking away their property; and they, acknowledging your intention to be just, will readily obey." 90. Cyrus, when he heard this, was exceedingly delighted, as he thought the suggestion a very good one. Having, therefore, commended it highly, and ordered his guards to do what Croesus suggested, he addressed Croesus as follows: "Crosus, since you are resolved to display the deeds and words of a true king, ask whatever boon you desire on the instant." "Sir," he answered, "the most acceptable favor you can bestow upon me is to let me send my fetters to the god of the Grecians, whom I have honored more than any other deity, and to ask him if it be his custom to deceive those who deserve well of him." Cyrus asked him what cause he had to complain, that induced him to make this request: upon which Croesus recounted to him all his projects, and the answers of the oracles, and particularly the offerings he had presented; and how he was incited by the oracle to make war against the Persians. When he had said this, he again besought him to grant him leave to reproach the god with these things. But Cyrus, smiling, said, "You shall not only receive this boon from me, but whatever else you may at any time desire." When Croesus heard this, he sent certain Lyd ians to Delphi, with orders to lay his fetters at the entrance of the temple, and to ask the god if he were not ashamed to have encouraged Croesus by his oracles to make war on the Persians, assuring him that he would put an end to the power of Cyrus, of which war such were the first-fruits (commanding them at these words to show the fetters), and at the same time to ask if it were the custom of the Grecian gods to be ungrateful. 91. When the Lydians arrived at Delphi, and had delivered their message, the Pythian is reported to have made this answer: "The god himself even can not avoid the decrees of fate; and Croesus has atoned the crime of his ancestor in the fifth generation, who, Leing one of the body-guard of the Heraclidæ, was induced by the artifice of a woman to murder his master, and to usurp his dignity, to which he had no right. But although Apollo was desirous that the fall of Sardis might happen in the time of the sons of Croesus, and not during his reign, yet it was not in his power to avert the fates; but so far as he allowed they accomplished, and conferred the boon on him; for he delayed the capture of Sardis for the space of three years. Let Croesus know, therefore, that he was taken prisoner three years later than the fates had ordained; and in the next place, he came to his relief when he was upon the point of being burned alive. Then, as to the prediction of the oracle, Croesus has no right to complain; for Apollo foretold him that if he made war on the Persians, he would subvert a great empire; and had he desired to be truly informed, he ought to have sent again to inquire whether his own or that of Cyrus was meant. But since he neither understood the oracle, nor inquired again, let him lay the blame on himself. And when he last consulted the oracle, he did not understand the answer concerning the mule; for Cyrus was that mule; inasmuch as he was born of parents of different nations, the mother superior, but the father inferior. For she was a Mede, and daughter of Astyages, king of Media; but he was a Persian, subject to the Medes; and though in every respect inferior, he married his own mistress." The Pythian gave this answer to the Lydians, and they carried it back to Sardis, and reported it to Croesus, and he, when he heard it, acknowledged 1 Croesus was the fifth descendant of Gyges, if we include the two extremes; for the house of the Mermnade was as follows: Gyges, Ardys, Sadyattes, Alyattes, Croesus. See chap. 13. Such is the account of subjection of Ionia. the fault to be his, and not the god's. the kingdom of Croesus, and the first 92. Many other offerings were also consecrated by Croesus in Greece, besides those already mentioned; for at Thebes of Boeotia there is a golden tripod, which he dedicated to Ismenian Apollo; and in Ephesus, the golden heifers, and several of the pillars; and in the Pronæa at Delphi a large golden shield. All these were in existence in my day; but others have been lost. The offerings he dedicated in Branchis, a city of the Milesians, were, as I am informed, equal in weight and similar to those at Delphi. Now the offerings which he made to Delphi and to Amphiaraus were his own property and the first-fruits of his patrimonial riches; but the rest were the produce of the property of an enemy, who, before he came to the throne, had set up an adverse faction, endeavoring to raise Pantaleon to the throne: now Pantaleon was the son of Alyattes, but not of the same mother as Croesus; for Alyattes had Croesus by a Carian, and Pantaleon by an Ionian woman. When, therefore, Croesus, by the will of his father, obtained the kingdom, he put his opponent to death by tearing his flesh with a fuller's thistle; and having already vowed all his treasure to the gods, he dedicated it in the manner above described to the places I have mentioned. And this may suffice respecting the offerings. 93. The Lydian territory does not present many wonders worthy of description, like some other countries, except the gold dust brought down from Mount Tmolus. It exhibits, however, one work the greatest of all, except those of the Egyptians and Babylonians. There is there a monument to Alyattes, father of Croesus, the basis of which is composed of large stones, the rest is a mound of earth. This fabric was raised by merchants, artificers, and prostitutes. On the summit of this monument there remained, even in my day, five termini, upon which were inscriptions, showing how much of the work each class executed, and when measured the work of the females proved to be the greatest. For the daughters of the Lydian common people all prostitute themselves, for the purpose of providing themselves with dowries; and they continue to do so until they marry; and they dispose of themselves in marriage. This monument is six stades and two plethra in circumference, and in breadth thirteen plethra; contiguous to it is a large lake, which the Lydians say is fed by perpetual springs, and it is called the Gygean lake. This may suffice for this subject. 94. The customs of the Lydians differ little from those of the Grecians, except that they prostitute their females. They are the first of all nations we know of that introduced the art of coining gold and silver; and they were the first retailers. The Lydians themselves say that the games which are now common to themselves and the Greeks were their invention; and they say they were invented about the time they sent a colony to Tyrrhenia, of all which they give the following account. During the reign of Atys, son of Manes, king of Lydia, a great scarcity of corn pervaded all Lydia: for some time the Lydians supported it with constancy; but when they saw the evil still continuing, they sought for remedies, and some devised one thing, some another; and at that time the games of dice, hucklebones, ball, and all other kinds of games except draughts, were invented, for the Lydians do not claim the invention of this last; and having made these inventions to alleviate the famine, they employed them as follows: they used to play one whole day that they might not be in want of food; and on the next, they ate and abstained from play; thus they passed eighteen years; but when the evil did not abate, on the contrary became still more virulent, their king divided the whole people into two parts, and cast lots which should remain and which quit the country, and over that part whose lot it should be to stay he appointed himself king, and over that part which was to emigrate he appointed his own son, whose name was Tyrrhenus. Those to whose lot it fell to leave their country went down to Smyrna, built ships, and, having put all their movables which were of use on board, set sail in search of food and land, till, having passed by many nations, they reached the Ombrici, where they built towns, and dwell to this day. From being called Lydians, they changed their name to one after the king's son, who led them out; from him they gave themselves the appellation of Tyrrhenians. The Lydians then were reduced under the power of the Persians. 95. My history hence proceeds to inquire who Cyrus was that overthrew the power of Croesus, and how the Persians became masters of Asia; in which narration I shall fol low those Persians who do not wish to magnify the actions of Cyrus, but to relate the plain truth, though I am aware that there are three other ways of relating Cyrus's history. After the Assyrians had ruled over Upper Asia five hundred and twenty years, the Medes first began to revolt from them; and they, it seems, in their struggle with the Assyrians for liberty, proved themselves brave men; and having shaken off the yoke, became free: afterward the other nations also did the same as the Medes. When all throughout the continent were independent, they were again reduced under a despotic government in the following manner. 96. There was among the Medes a man famous for wisdom, named Deicces, son of Phraortes." This Deioces, aiming at absolute power, had recourse to the following plan. The Medes were at that time distributed into villages, and Deioces, who was already highly esteemed in his own district, applied himself with great zeal to the exercise of justice; and this he did, since great lawlessness prevailed throughout the whole of Media, and he knew that injustice and justice are ever at variance. The Medes of the same village, observing his conduct, chose him for their judge; and he, constantly keeping the sovereign power in view, showed himself upright and just. By this conduct he acquired no slight praise from his fellow-citizens, so much so that the inhabitants of other villages, hearing that Deioces was the only one who judged uprightly, having before met with unjust sentences, when they heard of him gladly came from all parts to Deioces, in order to submit their quarrels to his decision; and at last they would commit the decision to no one else. 97. In the end, when the number of those who had recourse to him continually increased as men heard of the justice of his decisions, Deioces, seeing the whole devolved upon himself, would no longer occupy the seat where he used to sit to determine differences, and refused to act as judge any more, for that it was no advantage to him to neglect his own affairs, and spend the day in deciding the quarrels of others. Upon this, rapine and lawlessness growing far more frequent throughout the villages than before, the Medes called an assembly and consulted together about the present state of things, but, as I suspect, the partisans of Deioces spoke to the following purpose: "Since it is impossible for us to inhabit the country if we continue in our present condition, let us |