THE CONQUEST OF LYDIA.
B.C. 546
Reasons which induced Croesus to invade Media.--The
Lacedaemonians.--Embassadors to Sparta.--Preparations of Croesus.--The
counsel of Sardaris.--The army begins to march.--Thales the
Milesian.--Mathematical skill of Thales.--His theorems.--Ingenious
plan of Thales for crossing the Halys.--Advance of Cyrus.--Preparations
for battle.--Great battle at Pteria.--Undecisive result.--Croesus
returns to Sardis.--Cyrus follows him.--Confusion and alarm at
Sardis.--The Lydian cavalry.--Nature of cavalry.--Manner of receiving
a cavalry charge.--The camels.--Cyrus opposes them to the cavalry.--The
battle fought.--Cyrus victorious.--Situation of Sardis.--Its walls.--An
ancient legend.--Cyrus besieges the city.--The reconnoissance.--The
walls scaled.--Storming of the city.--Croesus made prisoner.--The
funeral pile.--Anguish and despair of Croesus.--The saying of
Solon.--Croesus is saved.--He becomes Cyrus's friend.--Croesus
sends his fetters to the oracle at Delphi.--Explanations of the
priests.--Their adroitness and dexterity.
There were, in fact, three inducements which combined their influence
on the mind of Croesus, in leading him to cross the Halys, and
invade the dominions of the Medes and Persians: first, he was
ambitious to extend his own empire; secondly, he feared that if he did
not attack Cyrus, Cyrus would himself cross the Halys and attack him;
and, thirdly, he felt under some obligation to consider himself the
ally of Astyages, and thus bound to espouse his cause, and to aid him
in putting down, if possible, the usurpation of Cyrus, and in
recovering his throne. He felt under this obligation because Astyages
was his brother-in-law; for the latter had married, many years before,
a daughter of Alyattes, who was the father of Croesus. This, as
Croesus thought, gave him a just title to interfere between the
dethroned king and the rebel who had dethroned him. Under the
influence of all these reasons combined, and encouraged by the
responses of the oracle, he determined on attempting the invasion.
The first measure which he adopted was to form an alliance with the
most powerful of the states of Greece, as he had been directed to do
by the oracle. After much inquiry and consideration, he concluded
that the Lacedaemonian state was the most powerful. Their chief city
was Sparta, in the Peloponnesus. They were a warlike, stern, and
indomitable race of men, capable of bearing every possible hardship,
and of enduring every degree of fatigue and toil, and they desired
nothing but military glory for their reward. This was a species of
wages which it was very easy to pay; much more easy to furnish than
coin, even for Croesus, notwithstanding the abundant supplies of
gold which he was accustomed to obtain from the sands of the Pactolus.
Croesus sent embassadors to Sparta to inform the people of the plans
which he contemplated, and to ask their aid. He had been instructed,
he said, by the oracle at Delphi, to seek the alliance of the most
powerful of the states of Greece, and he accordingly made application
to them. They were gratified with the compliment implied in selecting
them, and acceded readily to his proposal. Besides, they were already
on very friendly terms with Croesus; for, some years before, they
had sent to him to procure some gold for a statue which they had
occasion to erect, offering to give an equivalent for the value of it
in such productions as their country afforded. Croesus supplied them
with the gold that they needed, but generously refused to receive any
return.
In the mean time, Croesus went on, energetically, at Sardis, making
the preparations for his campaign. One of his counselors, whose name
was Sardaris, ventured, one day, strongly to dissuade him from
undertaking the expedition. "You have nothing to gain by it," said he,
"if you succeed, and every thing to lose if you fail. Consider what
sort of people these Persians are whom you are going to combat. They
live in the most rude and simple manner, without luxuries, without
pleasures, without wealth. If you conquer their country, you will find
nothing in it worth bringing away. On the other hand, if they conquer
you, they will come like a vast band of plunderers into Lydia, where
there is every thing to tempt and reward them. I counsel you to leave
them alone, and to remain on this side the Halys, thankful if Cyrus
will be contented to remain on the other."
But Croesus was not in a mood of mind to be persuaded by such
reasoning.
When all things were ready, the army commenced its march and moved
eastward, through one province of Asia Minor after another, until they
reached the Halys. This river is a considerable stream, which rises in
the interior of the country, and flows northward into the Euxine Sea.
The army encamped on the banks of it, and some plan was to be formed
for crossing the stream. In accomplishing this object, Croesus was
aided by a very celebrated engineer who accompanied his army, named
Thales. Thales was a native of Miletus, and is generally called in
history, Thales the Milesian. He was a very able mathematician and
calculator, and many accounts remain of the discoveries and
performances by which he acquired his renown.
For example, in the course of his travels, he at one time visited
Egypt, and while there, he contrived a very simple way of measuring
the height of the pyramids. He set up a pole on the plain in an
upright position, and then measured the pole and also its shadow. He
also measured the length of the shadow of the pyramid. He then
calculated the height of the pyramid by this proportion: as the
length of shadow of the pole is to that of the pole itself, so is
the length of the shadow of the pyramid to its height.
Thales was an astronomer as well as a philosopher and engineer. He
learned more exactly the true length of the year than it had been
known before; and he also made some calculations of eclipses, at least
so far as to predict the year in which they would happen. One eclipse
which he predicted happened to occur on the day of a great battle
between two contending armies. It was cloudy, so that the combatants
could not see the sun. This circumstance, however, which concealed the
eclipse itself, only made the darkness which was caused by it the more
intense. The armies were much terrified at this sudden cessation of
the light of day, and supposed it to be a warning from heaven that
they should desist from the combat.
Thales the Milesian was the author of several of the geometrical
theorems and demonstrations now included in the Elements of Euclid.
The celebrated fifth proposition of the first book, so famous among
all the modern nations of Europe as the great stumbling block in the
way of beginners in the study of geometry, was his. The discovery of
the truth expressed in this proposition, and of the complicated
demonstration which establishes it, was certainly a much greater
mathematical performance than the measuring of the altitude of the
pyramids by their shadow.
But to return to Croesus. Thales undertook the work of transporting
the army across the river. He examined the banks, and found, at
length, a spot where the land was low and level for some distance from
the stream. He caused the army to be brought up to the river at this
point, and to be encamped there, as near to the bank as possible, and
in as compact a form. He then employed a vast number of laborers to
cut a new channel for the waters, behind the army, leading out from
the river above, and rejoining it again at a little distance below.
When this channel was finished, he turned the river into its new
course, and then the army passed without difficulty over the former
bed of the stream.
The Halys being thus passed, Croesus moved on in the direction of
Media. But he soon found that he had not far to go to find his enemy.
Cyrus had heard of his plans through deserters and spies, and he had
for some time been advancing to meet him. One after the other of the
nations through whose dominions he had passed, he had subjected to
his sway, or, at least, brought under his influence by treaties and
alliances, and had received from them all re-enforcements to swell
the numbers of his army. One nation only remained--the Babylonians.
They were on the side of Croesus. They were jealous of the growing
power of the Medes and Persians, and had made a league with Croesus,
promising to aid him in the war. The other nations of the East were in
alliance with Cyrus, and he was slowly moving on, at the head of an
immense combined force, toward the Halys, at the very time when
Croesus was crossing the stream.
The scouts, therefore, that preceded the army of Croesus on its
march, soon began to fall back into the camp, with intelligence that
there was a large armed force coming on to meet them, the advancing
columns filling all the roads, and threatening to overwhelm them. The
scouts from the army of Cyrus carried back similar intelligence to
him. The two armies accordingly halted and began to prepare for
battle. The place of their meeting was called Pteria. It was in the
province of Cappadocia, and toward the eastern part of Asia Minor.
A great battle was fought at Pteria. It was continued all day, and
remained undecided when the sun went down. The combatants separated
when it became dark, and each withdrew from the field. Each king
found, it seems, that his antagonist was more formidable than he had
imagined, and on the morning after the battle they both seemed
inclined to remain in their respective encampments, without evincing
any disposition to renew the contest.
Croesus, in fact, seems to have considered that he was fortunate in
having so far repulsed the formidable invasion which Cyrus had been
intending for him. He considered Cyrus's army as repulsed, since they
had withdrawn from the field, and showed no disposition to return to
it. He had no doubt that Cyrus would now go back to Media again,
having found how well prepared Croesus had been to receive him. For
himself, he concluded that he ought to be satisfied with the advantage
which he had already gained, as the result of one campaign, and return
again to Sardis to recruit his army, the force of which had been
considerably impaired by the battle, and so postpone the grand
invasion till the next season. He accordingly set out on his return.
He dispatched messengers, at the same time, to Babylon, to Sparta, to
Egypt, and to other countries with which he was in alliance, informing
these various nations of the great battle of Pteria and its results,
and asking them to send him, early in the following spring, all the
re-enforcements that they could command, to join him in the grand
campaign which he was going to make the next season.
He continued his march homeward without any interruption, sending off,
from time to time, as he was moving through his own dominions, such
portions of his troops as desired to return to their homes, enjoining
upon them to come back to him in the spring. By this temporary
disbanding of a portion of his army, he saved the expense of
maintaining them through the winter.
Very soon after Croesus arrived at Sardis, the whole country in the
neighborhood of the capital was thrown into a state of universal alarm
by the news that Cyrus was close at hand. It seems that Cyrus had
remained in the vicinity of Pteria long enough to allow Croesus to
return, and to give him time to dismiss his troops and establish
himself securely in the city. He then suddenly resumed his march, and
came on toward Sardis with the utmost possible dispatch. Croesus,
in fact, had no announcement of his approach until he heard of his
arrival.
All was now confusion and alarm, both within and without the city.
Croesus hastily collected all the forces that he could command. He
sent immediately to the neighboring cities, summoning all the troops
in them to hasten to the capital. He enrolled all the inhabitants of
the city that were capable of bearing arms. By these means he
collected, in a very short time, quite a formidable force, which he
drew up, in battle array, on a great plain not far from the city, and
there waited, with much anxiety and solicitude, for Cyrus to come on.
The Lydian army was superior to that of Cyrus in cavalry, and as the
place where the battle was to be fought was a plain, which was the
kind of ground most favorable for the operations of that species of
force, Cyrus felt some solicitude in respect to the impression which
might be made by it on his army. Nothing is more terrible than the
onset of a squadron of horse when charging an enemy upon the field
of battle. They come in vast bodies, sometimes consisting of many
thousands, with the speed of the wind, the men flourishing their
sabers and rending the air with the most unearthly cries, those in
advance being driven irresistibly on by the weight and impetus of the
masses behind. The dreadful torrent bears down and overwhelms every
thing that attempts to resist its way. They trample one another and
their enemies together promiscuously in the dust; the foremost of the
column press on with the utmost fury, afraid quite as much of the
headlong torrent of friends coming on behind them, as of the line of
fixed and motionless enemies who stand ready to receive them before.
These enemies, stationed to withstand the charge, arrange themselves
in triple or quadruple rows, with the shafts of their spears planted
against the ground, and the points directed forward and upward to
receive the advancing horsemen. These spears transfix and kill the
foremost horses; but those that come on behind, leaping and plunging
over their fallen companions, soon break through the lines and put
their enemies to flight, in a scene of indescribable havoc and
confusion.
Croesus had large bodies of horse, while Cyrus had no efficient
troops to oppose them. He had a great number of camels in the rear of
his army, which had been employed as beasts of burden to transport
the baggage and stores of the army on their march. Cyrus concluded to
make the experiment of opposing these camels to the cavalry. It is
frequently said by the ancient historians that the horse has a natural
antipathy to the camel, and can not bear either the smell or the sight
of one, though this is not found to be the case at the present day.
However the fact might have been in this respect, Cyrus determined
to arrange the camels in his front as he advanced into battle. He
accordingly ordered the baggage to be removed, and, releasing their
ordinary drivers from the charge of them, he assigned each one to the
care of a soldier, who was to mount him, armed with a spear. Even if
the supposed antipathy of the horse for the camel did not take effect,
Cyrus thought that their large and heavy bodies, defended by the
spears of their riders, would afford the most effectual means of
resistance against the shock of the Lydian squadrons that he was now
able to command.
The battle commenced, and the squadrons of horse came on. But, as soon
as they came near the camels, it happened that, either from the
influence of the antipathy above referred to, or from alarm at the
novelty of the spectacle of such huge and misshapen beasts, or else
because of the substantial resistance which the camels and the spears
of their riders made to the shock of their charge, the horses were
soon thrown into confusion and put to flight. In fact, a general panic
seized them, and they became totally unmanageable. Some threw their
riders; others, seized with a sort of phrensy, became entirely
independent of control. They turned, and trampled the foot soldiers of
their own army under foot, and threw the whole body into disorder. The
consequence was, that the army of Croesus was wholly defeated; they
fled in confusion, and crowded in vast throngs through the gates into
the city, and fortified themselves there.
Cyrus advanced to the city, invested it closely on all sides, and
commenced a siege. But the appearances were not very encouraging. The
walls were lofty, thick, and strong, and the numbers within the city
were amply sufficient to guard them. Nor was the prospect much more
promising of being soon able to reduce the city by famine. The wealth
of Croesus had enabled him to lay up almost inexhaustible stores of
food and clothing, as well as treasures of silver and gold. He hoped,
therefore, to be able to hold out against the besiegers until help
should come from some of his allies. He had sent messengers to them,
asking them to come to his rescue without any delay, before he was
shut up in the city.
The city of Sardis was built in a position naturally strong, and one
part of the wall passed over rocky precipices which were considered
entirely impassable. There was a sort of glen or rocky gorge in this
quarter, outside of the walls, down which dead bodies were thrown on
one occasion subsequently, at a time when the city was besieged, and
beasts and birds of prey fed upon them there undisturbed, so lonely
was the place and so desolate. In fact, the walls that crowned these
precipices were considered absolutely inaccessible, and were very
slightly built and very feebly guarded. There was an ancient legend
that, a long time before, when a certain Males was king of Lydia, one
of his wives had a son in the form of a lion, whom they called Leon,
and an oracle declared that if this Leon were carried around the walls
of the city, it would be rendered impregnable, and should never be
taken. They carried Leon, therefore, around, so far as the regular
walls extended. When they came to this precipice of rocks, they
returned, considering that this part of the city was impregnable
without any such ceremony. A spur or eminence from the mountain of
Tmolus, which was behind the city, projected into it at this point,
and there was a strong citadel built upon its summit.
[Illustration: THE SIEGE OF SARDIS.]
Cyrus continued the siege fourteen days, and then he determined that
he must, in some way or other, find the means of carrying it by
assault, and to do this he must find some place to scale the walls. He
accordingly sent a party of horsemen around to explore every part,
offering them a large reward if they would find any place where an
entrance could be effected. The horsemen made the circuit, and
reported that their search had been in vain. At length a certain
soldier, named Hyraeades, after studying for some time the precipices
on the side which had been deemed inaccessible, saw a sentinel, who
was stationed on the walls above, leave his post and come climbing
down the rocks for some distance to get his helmet, which had
accidentally dropped down. Hyraeades watched him both as he descended
and as he returned. He reflected on this discovery, communicated it to
others, and the practicability of scaling the rock and the walls at
that point was discussed. In the end, the attempt was made and was
successful. Hyraeades went up first, followed by a few daring spirits
who were ambitious of the glory of the exploit. They were not at first
observed from above. The way being thus shown, great numbers followed
on, and so large a force succeeded in thus gaining an entrance that
the city was taken.
In the dreadful confusion and din of the storming of the city,
Croesus himself had a very narrow escape from death. He was saved by
the miraculous speaking of his deaf and dumb son--at least such is the
story. Cyrus had given positive orders to his soldiers, both before
the great battle on the plain and during the siege, that, though they
might slay whomever else they pleased, they must not harm Croesus,
but must take him alive. During the time of the storming of the town,
when the streets were filled with infuriated soldiers, those on the
one side wild with the excitement of triumph, and those on the other
maddened with rage and despair, a party, rushing along, overtook
Croesus and his helpless son, whom the unhappy father, it seems, was
making a desperate effort to save. The Persian soldiers were about to
transfix Croesus with their spears, when the son, who had never
spoken before, called out, "It is Croesus; do not kill him." The
soldiers were arrested by the words, and saved the monarch's life.
They made him prisoner, and bore him away to Cyrus.
Croesus had sent, a long time before, to inquire of the Delphic
oracle by what means the power of speech could be restored to his son.
The answer was, that that was a boon which he had better not ask; for
the day on which he should hear his son speak for the first time,
would be the darkest and most unhappy day of his life.
Cyrus had not ordered his soldiers to spare the life of Croesus in
battle from any sentiment of humanity toward him, but because he
wished to have his case reserved for his own decision. When Croesus
was brought to him a captive, he ordered him to be put in chains, and
carefully guarded. As soon as some degree of order was restored in the
city, a large funeral pile was erected, by his directions, in a public
square, and Croesus was brought to the spot. Fourteen Lydian young
men, the sons, probably, of the most prominent men in the state, were
with him. The pile was large enough for them all, and they were placed
upon it. They were all laid upon the wood. Croesus raised himself
and looked around, surveying with extreme consternation and horror the
preparations which were making for lighting the pile. His heart sank
within him as he thought of the dreadful fate that was before him. The
spectators stood by in solemn silence, awaiting the end. Croesus
broke this awful pause by crying out, in a tone of anguish and
despair,
"Oh Solon! Solon! Solon!"
The officers who had charge of the execution asked him what he meant.
Cyrus, too, who was himself personally superintending the scene, asked
for an explanation. Croesus was, for a time, too much agitated and
distracted to reply. There were difficulties in respect to language,
too, which embarrassed the conversation, as the two kings could speak
to each other only through an interpreter. At length Croesus gave an
account of his interview with Solon, and of the sentiment which the
philosopher had expressed, that no one could decide whether a man was
truly prosperous and happy till it was determined how his life was
to end. Cyrus was greatly interested in this narrative; but, in the
mean time, the interpreting of the conversation had been slow, a
considerable period had elapsed, and the officers had lighted the
fire. The pile had been made extremely combustible, and the fire was
rapidly making its way through the whole mass. Cyrus eagerly ordered
it to be extinguished. The efforts which the soldiers made for this
purpose seemed, at first, likely to be fruitless; but they were aided
very soon by a sudden shower of rain, which, coming down from the
mountains, began, just at this time, to fall; and thus the flames were
extinguished, and Croesus and the captives saved.
Cyrus immediately, with a fickleness very common among great monarchs
in the treatment of both enemies and favorites, began to consider
Croesus as his friend. He ordered him to be unbound, brought him
near his person, and treated him with great consideration and honor.
Croesus remained after this for a long time with Cyrus, and
accompanied him in his subsequent campaigns. He was very much incensed
at the oracle at Delphi for having deceived him by its false responses
and predictions, and thus led him into the terrible snare into which
he had fallen. He procured the fetters with which he had been chained
when placed upon the pile, and sent them to Delphi with orders that
they should be thrown down upon the threshold of the temple--the
visible symbol of his captivity and ruin--as a reproach to the oracle
for having deluded him and caused his destruction. In doing this, the
messengers were to ask the oracle whether imposition like that which
had been practiced on Croesus was the kind of gratitude it evinced
to one who had enriched it by such a profusion of offerings and gifts.
To this the priests of the oracle said in reply, that the destruction
of the Lydian dynasty had long been decreed by the Fates, in
retribution for the guilt of Gyges, the founder of the line. He had
murdered his master, and usurped the throne, without any title to it
whatever. The judgments of Heaven had been denounced upon Gyges for
this crime, to fall on himself or on some of his descendants. The
Pythian Apollo at Delphi had done all in his power to postpone the
falling of the blow until after the death of Croesus, on account of
the munificent benefactions which he had made to the oracle; but he
had been unable to effect it: the decrees of Fate were inexorable. All
that the oracle could do was to postpone--as it had done, it said, for
three years--the execution of the sentence, and to give Croesus
warning of the evil that was impending. This had been done by
announcing to him that his crossing the Halys would cause the
destruction of a mighty empire, meaning that of Lydia, and also by
informing him that when he should find a mule upon the throne of Media
he must expect to lose his own. Cyrus, who was descended, on the
father's side, from the Persian stock, and on the mother's from that
of Media, was the hybrid sovereign represented by the mule.
When this answer was reported to Croesus, it is said that he was
satisfied with the explanations, and admitted that the oracle was
right, and that he himself had been unreasonable and wrong. However
this may be, it is certain that, among mankind at large, since
Croesus's day, there has been a great disposition to overlook
whatever of criminality there may have been in the falsehood and
imposture of the oracle, through admiration of the adroitness and
dexterity which its ministers evinced in saving themselves from
exposure.