Beacon Lights of History, Volume 04 | Page 8

of age. He was probably engaged in the
conquest of various barbaric hordes before his memorable Lydian
campaign. But we are in ignorance of his most active years, when he
was exposed to the greatest dangers and hardships, and when he

became perfected in the military art, as in the case of Caesar amid the
marshes and forests of Gaul and Belgium. The fame of Caesar rests as
much on his conquests of the Celtic barbarians of Europe as on his
conflict with Pompey; but whether Cyrus obtained military fame or not
in his wars against the Turanians, he doubtless proved himself a
benefactor to humanity more in arresting the tide of Scythian invasion
than by those conquests which have given him immortality.
When Cyrus had cemented his empire by the conquest of the Turanian
nations, especially those that dwelt between the Caspian and Black seas,
his attention was drawn to Lydia, the most powerful kingdom of
western Asia, whose monarch, Croesus, reigned at Sardis in Oriental
magnificence. Lydia was not much known to distant States until the
reign of Gyges, about 716 B.C., who made war on the Dorian and
Ionian Greek colonies on the coast of Asia Minor, the chief of which
were Miletus, Smyrna, Colophon, and Ephesus. His successor Ardys
continued this warfare, but was obliged to desist because of an invasion
of the Cimmerians,--barbarians from beyond the Caucasus, driven
away from their homes by the Scythians. His grandson Alyattes,
greatest of the Lydian monarchs, succeeded in expelling the
Cimmerians from Lydia. After subduing some of the maritime cities of
Asia Minor, this monarch faced the Medes, who had advanced their
empire to the river Halys, the eastern boundary of Lydia, which flows
northwardly into the Euxine. For five years Alyattes fought the Medes
under Cyaxares with varying success, and the war ended by the
marriage of the daughter of the Lydian king with Astyages. After this,
Alyattes reigned forty-three years, and was buried in a tomb whose
magnificence was little short of the grandest of the Egyptian
monuments.
Croesus, his son, entered upon a career which reminds us of Solomon,
the inheritor of the conquests of David. Like the Jewish monarch,
Croesus was rich, luxurious, and intellectual. His wealth, obtained
chiefly from the mines of his kingdom, was a marvel to the Greeks. His
capital Sardis became the largest in western Asia, and one of the most
luxurious cities known to antiquity, whither resorted travellers from all
parts of the world, attracted by the magnificence of the court, among

whom was Solon himself, the great Athenian law-giver. Croesus
continued the warfare on the Greek cities of Asia, and forced them to
become his tributaries. He brought under his sway most of the nations
to the west of the Halys, and though never so great a warrior as his
father, he became very powerful. He was as generous in his gifts as he
was magnificent in his tastes. His offerings to the oracle at Delphi were
unprecedented in their value, when he sought advice as to the wisdom
of engaging in war with Cyrus. Of the three great Asian empires,
Croesus now saw his father's ally, Babylon, under a weak and dissolute
ruler; Media, absorbed into Persia under the power of a valiant and
successful conqueror; and his own empire, Lydia, threatened with
attack by the growing ambition of Persia. Herodotus says he "was led
to consider whether it were possible to check the growing power of that
people."
It was the misfortune of Croesus to overrate his strength,--an error
often seen in the career of fortunate men, especially those who enter
upon a great inheritance. It does not appear that Croesus desired war
with Persia, but he did not dread it, and felt confident that he could
overcome a man whose chief conquests had been made over barbarians.
Perhaps he felt the necessity of contending with Cyrus before that
warrior's victories and prestige should become overwhelming, for the
Persian monarch obviously aimed at absorbing all Asia in his empire;
at any rate, when informed by the oracle at Delphi that if he fought with
the Persians he would destroy a mighty empire, Croesus interpreted the
response in his own favor.
Croesus made great preparations for the approaching contest, which
was to settle the destiny of Asia Minor. The Greeks were on his side,
for they feared the Persians more than they did the Lydians. With the
aid of Sparta, the most warlike of the Grecian States, he advanced to
meet the Persian conqueror, not however without the expostulation of
some of his wisest counsellors. One of them, according to Herodotus,
ventured to address him with these plain words: "Thou art about, O
King, to make war against men who wear leather trousers and other
garments of leather; who