The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [100]
28. Despite his cruel disadvantage, Croesus did not lack courage, nor his Lydians skill in war, for they were famous for fighting with long lances from horseback.
29. Croesus therefore led out the remainder of his army onto the great plain before Sardis, and arrayed his famed cavalry before them.
30. Seeing the cavalry, Cyrus adopted a strategy suggested to him by one Harpagus, a Mede,
31. Which was to take the camels of the baggage train and put riders on them armed as cavalrymen. These led the charge, with the foot behind and the Persian cavalry in the rear.
32. The reason for the strategy was that horses detest camels, and are fearful of the sight and smell of them.
33. By this means Cyrus negated the effect of the Lydian cavalry, otherwise so formidable; for the Lydian horses bolted as the camels came towards them, and Croesus lost his advantage.
34. The courage of the Lydians did not fail them. The cavalrymen leaped from their frightened horses and engaged the Persians on foot.
35. The combat was long and bloody, but eventually went to Cyrus. The Lydians retired behind the walls of Sardis, and the Persians laid siege.
Chapter 5
1. On the fourteenth day of the siege Cyrus proclaimed to his army that he would reward the man who first mounted the walls of Sardis. He then attempted an assault of the walls, but without success.
2. As Cyrus’ troops retired, a Mardian called Hyroeades resolved to gain entry to Sardis by a place left unguarded because the steep rock cliff below the walls was thought unassailable.
3. For Hyroeades had seen, earlier in the siege, a Lydian soldier climb down the rock to retrieve a helmet he had dropped, and then back up over the wall; and this gave him his hint.
4. Followed by a large group of Persians, Hyroeades climbed the rock and surmounted the wall, surprising the guard within;
5. And they quickly overcame the latter’s resistance, and threw open the gates to the Persian army, which entered and subjected the city to pillage.
6. An unusual event involving the unfortunate Croesus himself occurred during the sack of Sardis.
7. The younger son of Croesus was a deaf mute, and no efforts to cure him had succeeded.
8. As the Persian troops overran the city, Croesus in his grief and despair did nothing to preserve himself, but exposed himself to danger.
9. A Persian soldier, not knowing that he was the king, ran at him to kill him, and Croesus under the burden of his affliction did nothing to avoid the blow.
10. His mute son, in his agony of fear for his father’s life, suddenly burst into speech, crying out, ‘Man, do not kill Croesus!’ He thereafter retained the power of speech for the rest of his life.
11. Croesus was brought before Cyrus, who made him stand in his fetters, with a group of leading Lydians likewise fettered around him,
12. On a pile of goods that had been looted from the city, purposing to set fire to the pile and so make an end of Croesus and his leading men.
13. Standing there Croesus remembered the words of Solon, ‘Call no man happy until he is dead,’
14. And he groaned aloud, and cried out the name of Solon, whose wisdom he at last recognised.
15. Hearing him speak a name, Cyrus asked the interpreters to question Croesus as to his meaning, and who it was he called upon.
16. Croesus answered, ‘One I would give much to see converse with every monarch.’
17. Pressed by Cyrus to explain, Croesus told him how Solon had come to see him in all his royal splendour,
18. And had made light of it; and that Solon had been right in what he said, speaking words of wisdom that all should hear.
19. Cyrus, learning from the interpreters what Croesus said, relented, thinking that Croesus too was a man,
20. A fellow-man who had once been as fortunate as himself; and that he himself might one day meet the same fate of being conquered and placed on a pyre to be burned alive.
21. Full of the thought that whatever is human is insecure, Cyrus bade his men quench