 Chapter 6 of Cyrus the Great by Jacob Abbott This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Dion Giants, Salt Lake City, Utah. The Oracles, B.C. 547 As soon as Cyrus had become established on his throne, as king of the Medes and Persians, his influence and power began to extend westward toward the confines of the Empire of Crosus, king of Lydia. Crosus was aroused from the dejection and stupor into which the death of his son had plunged him, as related in a former chapter by this threatening danger. He began to consider very earnestly what he could do to avert it. The River Hallus, a great river of Asia Minor, which flows northward into the Black Sea, was the eastern boundary of the Lydian Empire. Crosus began to entertain the design of raising an army and crossing the Hallus to invade the Empire of Cyrus, thinking that that would perhaps be safer policy than to wait for Cyrus to cross the Hallus and bring the war upon him. Still, the enterprise of invading Persia was a vast undertaking, and the responsibility great of being the aggressor in the contest. After carefully considering the subject in all its aspects, Crosus found himself still perplexed and undecided. The Greeks had a method of looking into futurity and of ascertaining, as they imagined by supernatural means, the course of future events, which was peculiar to that people. At least no other nation seems ever to have practiced it in the precise form which prevailed among them. It was by means of the oracles. There were four or five localities in the Grecian countries which possessed, as the people thought, the property of inspiring persons who visited them or of giving to some natural object certain supernatural powers by which future events could be foretold. The three most important of these oracles were situated respectively at Delphi, at Dodona, and at the oasis of Jupiter, Ammon. Delphi was a small town built in a sort of valley shaped like an amphitheater on the southern side of Mount Parnassus. Mount Parnassus is north of the Peloponnesus, not very far from the shores of the Gulf of Corinth. Delphi was in a picturesque and romantic situation with the mountain behind it and steep precipitous rocks descending to the level country before. These precipices answered instead of walls to defend the temple and the town. In very early times, a cavern or fissure in the rocks was discovered at Delphi, from which there issued a stream of gaseous vapor, which produced strange effects on those who inhaled it. It was supposed to inspire them, people resorted to the place to obtain the benefit of these inspirations and of the knowledge which they imagined they could obtain by means of them. Finally, a temple was built and a priestess resided constantly in it to hail the vapor and give the responses. When she gave her answers to those who came to consult the oracle, she sat upon a sort of three-legged stool which was called the sacred tripod. These stools were greatly celebrated as a very important part of the sacred apparatus of the place. This oracle became at last so renowned that the greatest potentates and even kings came from great distances to consult it, and they made very rich and costly presents at the shrine when they came. These presents, it was supposed, tended to induce the God who presided over the oracle to give to those who made them favorable and auspicious replies. The deity that dictated the predictions of this oracle was Apollo. There was another circumstance besides the existence of the cave which signalized the locality where this oracle was situated. The people believed that this spot was the exact center of the earth, which, of course, they considered as one vast plane. There was an ancient story that Jupiter, in order to determine the central point of creation, liberated two eagles at the same time in opposite quarters of the heavens that they might fly toward one another and so mark the middle point by the place of their meeting they met at Delphi. Another of the most celebrated oracles was at Dodona. Dodona was northwest of Delphi in the Epirus, which was a country in the western part of what is now Turkey in Europe and on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. The origin of the oracle at Dodona was, as the priestess there told Herodotus as follows, in very ancient times two black doves were set at liberty in Thebes, which was a very venerable and sacred city of Egypt. One flew toward the north and the other toward the west. The former crossed the Mediterranean and then continued its flight over the Peloponnesus and over all the southern provinces of Greece until it reached Dodona. There it alighted on a beech tree and said in a human voice that that spot was divinely appointed for the seat of a sacred oracle. The other dove flew to the oasis of Jupiter, Amun. There were three priestesses at Dodona in the days of Herodotus. Their names were Promenia, Temerata, and Nicondria. The answers of the oracle were for a time obtained by the priestesses from some appearances which they observed in the sacred beech on which the dove alighted when the tree was agitated by the wind. In later times, however, the responses were obtained in a still more singular manner. Then was a brazen statue of a man holding a whip in his hand. The whip had three lashes which were formed of brazen chains. At the end of each chain was an astragalus as it was called which was a row of little knots or knobs such as were commonly appended to the lashes of whips used in those days for scorching criminals. These heavy lashes hung suspended in the hand of the statue over a great brazen cauldron in such a manner that the wind would impel them from time to time against its sides causing the cauldron to ring and resound like a gong. There was, however, something in this resonance supernatural and divine. For though it was not loud it was very long continued when once the margin of the cauldron was touched, however gently, by the lashes. In fact, it was commonly said that if touched in the morning it would be night before the reverberations would have died entirely away. Such a belief could be very easily sustained among the common people for a large open-mouthed vessel like the didona cauldron with thin sides formed of sonorous metal might be kept in a state of continual vibration by the wind alone. They who wished to consult this oracle came with rich presence both for the priestesses and for the shrine, and when they had made the offerings and performed the preliminary ceremonies required they propounded their questions to the priestesses who obtained the replies by interpreting according to certain rules which have formed the sounds emitted by the mysterious gong. The second black dove which took its flight from Thebes alighted as we have already said in the oasis of Jupiter Ammon. This oasis was a small fertile spot in the midst of the deserts of Africa, west of Egypt about a hundred miles from the Nile and somewhat nearer than that to the Mediterranean Sea. It was first discovered in the following manner. A certain king was marching across the deserts and his army, having exhausted their supplies of water were on the point of perishing with thirst when Aram mysteriously appeared and took a position before them as their guide. They followed him and at length came suddenly upon a green and fertile valley many miles in length. The ram conducted them into this valley and then suddenly vanished and a copious fountain of water sprung up in the place where he had stood. The king, in gratitude for this divine interposition consecrated the spot and built a temple upon it which was called the Temple of Jupiter Ammon. The dove alighted here and ever afterward the oracles delivered by the priests of this temple were considered as divinely inspired. These three were the most important oracles. There were however many others of subordinate consequence each of which had its own peculiar ceremonies all senseless and absurd. At one there was a sort of oven-shaped cave in the rocks the spot being enclosed by an artificial wall. The cave was about six feet wide and eight feet deep. The descent into it was by a ladder. Previously to consulting this oracle certain ceremonies were necessary which it required several days to perform. The applicant was to offer sacrifices to many different deities to purify himself in various ways. He was then conducted to a stream in the neighborhood of the oracle where he was to be anointed and washed. Then he drank a certain magical water called the Water of Forgetfulness which made him forget all previous sorrows and cares. Afterward he drank of another enchanted cup which contained the water of remembrance. This was to make him remember all that should be communicated to him in the cave. He then descended the ladder and received within the cave the responses of the oracle. In another of these oracles which was situated in Attica the magic virtue was supposed to reside in a certain marble statue carved in honor of an ancient and celebrated prophet and placed in a temple. Whoever wished to consult this oracle must abstain from wine for three days and from food of every kind for 24 hours preceding the application. He was then to offer a ram as a sacrifice and afterward taking the skin of the ram from the carcass. He was to spread it out through and lie down upon it to sleep. The answers of the oracle came to him in his dreams but to return to Croesus he wished to ascertain by consulting some of these oracles what the result of his proposed invasion of the dominions of Cyrus would be in case he should undertake it and in order to determine which of the various oracles were most worthy of reliance he conceived the plan of putting them all to a preliminary test he affected this object in the following manner he dispatched a number of messengers from Sardis, his capital sending one to each of the various oracles he directed these messengers to make their several journeys with all convenient dispatch but in order to provide for any cases of accidental detention or delay he allowed them all 100 days to reach their several places of destination on the 100th day from the time of their leaving Sardis they were all to make applications to the oracles and inquire what Croesus king of Lydia was doing at that time of course he did not tell them what he should be doing and as the oracles themselves could not possibly know how he was employed by any human powers their answers would seem to test the validity of their claims to powers divine Croesus kept the reckoning of the days himself with great care and at the hour appointed on the 100th day he employed himself a turtle and of a lamb together in a brazen vessel the vessel was covered with a lid which was also of brass he then awaited the return of the messengers they came in due time one after another bringing the replies which they had several obtained the replies were all unsatisfactory except that of the oracle at Delphi this answer was adverse as in fact the responses of that oracle always were the priestess who sat upon the tripod was accustomed to give the replies in an incoherent and half intelligible manner as imposters are very apt to do in uttering prophecies and then the attendant priests and secretaries wrote them out in verse the verse which the messenger brought back from the Delphic tripod was in Greek but some idea of its style and the import of it is conveyed by the following imitation I number the sands, I measure the sea what's hidden to others is known to me the lamb and the turtle are simmering slow with brass above them and brass below of course Croesus decided that the Delphic oracle was the one that he must rely upon for guidance in respect to his projected campaign and he now began to prepare to consult it in a manner corresponding with the vast importance of the subject and with his own boundless wealth he provided the most extraordinary and sumptuous presence some of these treasures were to be deposited in the temple as sacred gifts for permanent preservation there others were to be offered as a burnt sacrifice in honor of the god among the latter besides an incredible number of living victims he caused to be prepared a great number of couches magnificently decorated with silver and gold and goblets and other vessels of gold and dresses of various kinds embroidered and numerous other articles all intended to be used in the ceremonies preliminary to his application to the oracle when the time arrived a vast concourse of people assembled to witness the spectacle the animals were sacrificed and the people feasted on the flesh and when these ceremonies were concluded the couches the goblets the utensils every kind the dresses everything in short which had been used on the occasion were heaped up into one great sacrificial pile and set on fire everything that was combustible was consumed while the gold was melted and ran into plates of great size which were afterward taken out from the ashes thus it was the workmanship only of these articles which was destroyed and lost by the fire the gold in which the chief value consisted was saved it was gold from the pectilus besides these articles there were others made far more magnificent and costly for the temple itself there was a silver cistern or tank large enough to hold 3,000 gallons of wine this tank was used by the inhabitants of Delphi in their great festivals there was also a smaller cistern or immense goblet as it might perhaps more properly be called which was made of gold there were also many other smaller presents such as basins, vases and statues all of silver and gold and of the most costly workmanship the gold too which had been taken from the fire was cast again a part of it being formed into the image of a lion and the rest into large plates of metal for the lion to stand upon the image was then set up upon the plates within the precincts of the temple there was one piece of statuary which Croesus presented to the oracle at Delphi which was in some respects more extraordinary than any of the rest it was called the bread maker it was an image representing a woman a servant in the household of Croesus whose business it was to bake the bread the reason that induced Croesus to honor this bread maker with a statue of gold was that on one occasion during his childhood she had saved his life the mother of Croesus died when he was young and his father married a second time the second wife wished to have some one of her children instead of Croesus succeed to her husband's throne in order therefore to remove Croesus out of the way she prepared some poison and gave it to the bread maker instructing her to put it into the bread which Croesus was to eat the bread maker received the poison and promised to obey but instead of doing so she revealed the intended murder to Croesus and gave the poison to the queen's own children in gratitude for this fidelity to him Croesus when he came to the throne caused this statue to be made and now he placed it at Delphi where he supposed it would forever remain the memory of his faithful servant was indeed immortalized by the measure though the statue itself as well as all these other treasures in process of time disappeared in fact statues of brass or of marble generally make far more durable monuments than statues of gold and no structure or object of art is likely to be very permanent among mankind unless the workmanship is worth more than the material Croesus did not proceed himself to Delphi with these presents but sent them by the hands of trusty messengers who were instructed to perform the ceremonies required to offer the gifts and then to make inquiries of the oracle in the following terms Croesus the sovereign of Lydia and of various other kingdoms in return for the wisdom which has marked your former declarations has sent you these gifts he now furthermore desires to know whether it is safe for him to proceed against the Persians and if so whether it is best for him to seek the assistance of any allies the answer was as follows if Croesus crosses the Halus and prosecutes a war with Persia a mighty empire will be overthrown it will be best for him to form an alliance with the most powerful states of Greece Croesus was extremely pleased with this response he immediately resolved on undertaking the expedition against Cyrus and to express his gratitude for so favorable an answer to his questions he sent to Delphi to inquire what was the number of inhabitants in the city and when the answer was reported to him he sent a present of a sum of money to every one the Delphians in their turn conferred special privileges and honors upon the Lydians and upon Croesus in respect to their oracle giving them the precedence in all future consultations and conferring upon them other marks of distinction and honor at the time when Croesus sent his present to the inhabitants of Delphi he took the opportunity to address another inquiry to the oracle which was whether his power would ever decline the oracle replied in a couplet of Greek verse similar in its style to the one recorded on the previous occasion it was as follows when ere a mule shall mount upon the median throne then and not till then shall great Croesus fear to lose his own this answer pleased the king quite as much as the former one had done the allusion to the contingency of a mule's reigning in media he very naturally regarded as only a rhetorical mystical mode of expressing and utter impossibility Croesus considered himself and the continuance of his power as perfectly secure he was fully confirmed in his determination to organize his expedition without any delay and to proceed immediately to the proper measures for obtaining the Grecian alliance and aid which the oracle had recommended the plans which he formed and the events which resulted will be described in subsequent chapters in respect to these Grecian oracles it is proper here to state that there has been much discussion among scholars on the question how they were enabled to maintain for so long a period so extended a credit among a people as intellectual and well informed as the Greeks it was doubtless by means of a variety of contrivances and influences that this end was attained there is a natural love of the marvelous among the humbler classes in all countries which leads them to be very ready to believe in what is mystic and supernatural and they accordingly exaggerate and color such real incidents as occur under any change or remarkable circumstances and invest any unusual phenomena which they witness with a miraculous or supernatural interest the cave at Delphi might really have emitted gases which would produce quite striking effects upon those who inhaled them and how easy it would be for those who witnessed these effects to imagine that some divine and miraculous powers must exist in the aerial current which produced them the priests and priestesses who inhabited the temples in which these oracles were contained had of course a strong interest in keeping up the belief of their reality in the minds of the community so were in fact all the inhabitants of the cities which sprung up around them they derived their support from the visitors who frequented these places and they contrived various ways for drawing contributions both of money and gifts from all who came in one case there was a sacred stream near an oracle where persons on permission from the priests were allowed to bathe after the bathing they were expected to throw pieces of money what afterward in such cases became of the money it is not difficult to imagine nor is it necessary to suppose that all these priests and priestesses were imposters having been trained up from infancy to believe that the inspirations were real they would continue to look upon them as such all their lives even at the present day we shall all if we recognize our mental habits find ourselves continuing to take for granted in our mature years what we inconsiderately imbibed or were erroneously taught in infancy and that often in cases where the most obvious dictates of reason or even the plain testimony of our senses might show us that our notions are false the priests and priestesses or who imposed on the rest of mankind may have been as honestly and as deep in the delusion themselves as any of their dupes the answers of the oracles were generally vague and indefinite and susceptible of almost any interpretation according to the result whenever the event corresponded with the prediction or could be made to correspond with it by the ingenuity of the commentators the story of the coincidence would of course be everywhere spread abroad becoming more striking and more exact at each repetition where there was a failure it would not be direct and absolute on account of the vagueness and indefiniteness of the response and there would therefore be no interest felt in hearing or in circulating the story the cases thus which would tend to establish the truth of the oracle would be universally known and remembered while those of a contrary bearing would be speedily forgotten there is no doubt however that in many cases the responses were given in collusion with the one who consulted the oracle for the purpose of deceiving others for example let us propose that Croesus wished to establish strongly the credibility of the Delphic oracle in the minds of his countrymen in order to encourage them to enlist in his armies and to engage in the enterprise which he was contemplating against Cyrus with resolution and confidence it would have been easy for him to have let the priestess at Delphi know what he was doing on the day when he sent to inquire and thus himself to have directed her answer then when his messengers returned he would appeal to the answer as proof of the reality of the inspiration which seemed to furnish it. Alexander the great certainly did in this way act in collusion with the priests at the temple of Jupiter Ammon the fact that there have been so many and such successful cases of falsehood and imposter among mankind in respect to revelations from heaven is no indication as some superficially suppose that no revelation is true but is on the other hand strong evidence to the contrary the author of human existence has given no instincts in vain and the universal tendency of mankind to believe in the supernatural to look into an unseen world to seek and to imagine that they find revelations from heaven and to expect a continuance of existence after this earthly life is over is the strongest possible natural evidence that there is an unseen world that man may have true communications with it that a personal deity reigns who approves and disapproves of human conduct and that there is a future state of being in this point of view the absurd oracles of Greece and the universal credence which they obtained constitute strong evidence that there is somewhere to be found inspiration and prophecy really divine chapter 6 chapter 7 of Cyrus the Great by Jacob Abbott this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Dion Giants Salt Lake City, Utah the conquest of Lydia BC 546 there were in fact three inducements which combined their influence on the mind of Cyrus in leading him to cross the Hellas 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 Hellas and attack him and thirdly he felt under some obligation to consider himself the ally of Estiges 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 Estiges was his brother-in-law for the latter had married many years before a daughter of Alietis was the father of Crosus this as Crosus 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 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 war-like stern and indomitable man 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 them coin even for Crosus not withstanding the abundant supplies of gold which he was accustomed to obtain from the sands of the Pactolus Crosus sent ambassadors 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 Crosus for some years before they had sent to him to procure some gold for a statue which they had occasioned to erect offering to give an equivalent for the value of it in such productions as their country afforded Crosus supplied them with the gold that they needed but generously refused to receive any return in the meantime Crosus 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 he said if you succeed and everything 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 in 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 everything to tempt and reward them I counsel you to leave them alone and to remain on this side the hellas on the other but Crosus 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 hellas this river is a considerable stream which rises in the interior of the country and flows northward into the Yuxin Sea the army encamped on the banks of it and some plan was to be formed for crossing the stream in accomplishing this object Crosus 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 the Malaysian 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 on the plane 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 as 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 to 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 to resist from the combat fails the malesian 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 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 crosses fails 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 hellas being thus passed crosses 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 then 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 reinforcements to swell the numbers of his army one nation only remained the Babylonians they were on the side of crosses they were jealous of the growing power of the Medes and Persians and had made a league with crosses promising to aid him in the war the other nations of the east were in alliance with Cyrus and he was slowly moving on ahead of an immense combined force toward the hellas at the very time when crosses was crossing the stream the scouts therefore that preceded the army of crosses 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 the 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 even seeing 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 postponed 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 Bateria and its results and asking them to send him early in the following spring all the reinforcements 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 and joining 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 Bateria 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 plane 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 Calvary and as the place where the battle was to be fought was a plane 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 man 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 everything 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 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 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 cannot 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 he was 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 through their riders others seized with a sort of frenzy 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 they invaded 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 out 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 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 impossible there was a sort of glen or rocky gorge in this quarter outside of the walls 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 Timolus which was behind the city projected into it at this point and there was a strong citadel built upon its summit 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 affected the horsemen made the circuit and reported that their surge had been in vain at length a certain soldier named Hieraitus 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 Hieraitus 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 Hieraitus 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 then 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 plane 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 whome the unhappy father made 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 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 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 14 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 which 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 Salon Salon the officers who had charge then 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 Salon 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 meantime 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 events 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 Gaijus 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 Gaijus 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 affect 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 Hellas 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 from his father's side from the Persian stock and on his 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 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 imposter of the oracle through admiration of the adroitness and dexterity which its ministers evinced in saving themselves from exposure end of chapter 7 chapter 8 of Cyrus the Great by Jacob Abbott this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Dion Giants, Salt Lake City, Utah the conquest of Babylon BC 544 to 538 in his advance toward the dominions of Croesus in Asia Minor Cyrus had passed to the northward of the great and celebrated city of Babylon Babylon was on the Euphrates toward the southern part of Asia it was the capital of a large and very fertile region which extended on both sides of the Euphrates toward the Persian Gulf the limits of the country however which was subject to Babylon it varied very much at different times as they were extended or contracted by revolutions and wars the river Euphrates was the great source of fertility for the whole region through which it flowed the country watered by this river was very densely populated and the inhabitants were industrious and peaceable cultivating their land living quietly and happily on its fruits the surface was intersected with canals which the people had made for conveying the water of the river over the land for the purpose of irrigating it some of these canals were navigable there was one great trunk which passed from the Euphrates to the Tigris supplying many minor canals in a way that was navigable for vessels of considerable burden the traffic of the country was however mainly conducted by means of boats of moderate size the construction of which seemed to Herodotus very curious and remarkable the city was enormously large and required immense supplies of food which were brought down by these boats from the agricultural country above the boats were made in the following manner first a frame was built of the shape of the intended boat broad and shallow and with the stem and stern of the same form this frame was made of willows like a basket and when finished was covered with a sheathing of skins the pressure of reeds was then spread over the bottom of the boat to protect the frame and to distribute evenly the pressure of the cargo the boat thus finished was laden with the produce of the country and was then floated down the river to Babylon in this navigation the boatmen were careful to protect the leather sheathing from injury by avoiding contact with rocks or even with the gravel of the shores they kept their craft in the middle of the stream by means of two oars or rather an ore and a paddle which were worked the first at the boughs and the second at the stern the advance of the boat was in some measure accelerated by these boatmen though their main function was to steer their vessel by keeping it out of eddies and away from projecting points of land and directing its course to those parts of the stream where the current was swiftest and where it would consequently be borne forward most rapidly to its destination these boats were generally of very considerable size and they carried in addition to their cargo and crew one or more beasts of burden generally asses or mules these animals were allowed the pleasure, if any pleasure it was to them of sailing thus idly down the stream for the sake of having them at hand at the end of the voyage to carry back again up the country the skins which constituted the most valuable portion of the craft they sailed in it was found that these skins if carefully preserved could be easily transported up the river and would answer the purpose of a second voyage accordingly when the boats arrived at Babylon the cargo was sold the boats were broken up the skins were folded into packs and in this form the mules carried them up the river again the boat men driving the mules as they walked by their side Babylon was a city of immense extent and magnitude in fact the accounts given of the space which it covered have often been considered incredible these accounts make the space which was included within the walls four or five times as large as London this space was however occupied by parks and gardens connected with the royal palaces and by open squares then besides the houses occupied by the common people in the ancient cities were of fewer stories in height and consequently more extended on the ground than those built in modern times in fact it is probable that in many instances they were mere ranges of huts and hovels as is the case indeed to a considerable extent in Oriental cities at the present day so that it is not at all impossible that even so large an area as four or five times the size of London may have been included within the fortifications in fact to the walls of the city very extraordinary and apparently contradictory accounts are given by the various ancient authors who described them some make them 75 and others two or 300 feet high there have been many discussions in respect to the comparative credibility of these several statements and some ingenious attempts have been made to reconcile them it is not however at all surprising that there should be such a diversity in the dimensions given for the walling of an ancient city was seldom of the same height in all places the structure necessarily varied according to the nature of the ground being high wherever the ground without was such to give the enemy an advantage in an attack and lower in other situations where the conformation of the surface was such as to afford of itself a partial protection it is not perhaps impossible that at some particular points as for example across glens and ravines or along steep declivities the walls of Babylon may have been raised even to the very extraordinary height which Herodotus ascribes to them the walls were made of bricks and the bricks were formed of clay and earth which was dug from a trench made outside of the lines this trench served the purpose of a ditch to strengthen the fortification when the wall was completed the water from the river from streams flowing toward the river was admitted to these ditches on every side and kept them always full the sides of these ditches were lined with bricks too which were made like those of the walls from the earth obtained from the excavations they used for all this masonry a cement made from a species of bitumen with great quantities floating down one of the rivers which flowed into the Euphrates in the neighborhood of Babylon the river Euphrates itself flowed through the city there was a breast work or a low wall along the banks of it on either side with openings at the terminations of the streets leading to the water and flights of steps to go down these openings were secured by gates of brass which when closed would prevent an enemy from gaining access to the city from the river the great streets which terminated thus at the river on one side extended to the walls of the city on the other and they were crossed by other streets at right angles to them in the outer walls of the city the extremities of all these streets were massive gates of brass with hinges and frames of this same metal there were a hundred of these gates in all they were guarded by watchtowers on the walls above the watchtowers were built on both the inner and outer faces of the wall and the wall itself was so broad that there was room for the watchtowers for a chariot and four to drive and turn the river of course divided the city into two parts the king's palace was in the center of one of these divisions within a vast circular enclosure which contained the palace buildings together with the spacious courts and parks and gardens pertaining to them another division was a corresponding enclosure which contained the great temple of Bellas here there was a very lofty tower divided into eight separate towers one above another with a winding staircase to ascend to the summit in the upper story was a sort of chapel with a couch and a table and other furniture and the sacred ceremonies all of gold above this on the highest platform of all was a grand observatory where the Babylonian astrologers made their celestial observations there was a bridge across the river connecting one section of the city with the other and it is said that there was a subterranean passage under the river also used as a private communication between two public edifices palaces or citadels which were situated near the extremities of the bridge all these constructions were of the most grand and imposing character in addition to the architectural magnificence of the buildings the gates and walls were embellished with a great variety of sculptures of animals of every form and in every attitude and men single and in groups models of great sovereigns and representations of hunting scenes battle scenes and great events in the Babylonian history the most remarkable however of all the wonders of Babylon though perhaps not built till after Cyrus's time were what were called hanging gardens although called the hanging gardens they were not suspended in any manner as the name might denote but were supported upon arches and walls the arches and walls sustained a succession of terraces rising one above another with broad flights of steps for ascending to them and on these terraces the gardens were made upper terrace or platform was several hundred feet from the ground so high that it was necessary to build arches upon arches within in order to attain the requisite elevation the lateral thrust of these arches was sustained by a wall 25 feet in thickness which surrounded the garden on all sides and rose as high as the lower most tier of arches upon which would of course be concentrated the pressure and weight of all the pile the whole structure thus formed a sort of artificial hill square in form and rising in a succession of terraces to a broad and level area upon the top the extent of this grand square upon the summit was 200 feet upon each side the surface which served as the foundation for the gardens that adorned these successive terraces and the area above was formed in the following manner over the masonry of the arches there was laid a pavement of broad flat stones 16 feet long and 4 feet wide over these there was placed of reeds laid in by two men and above them another flooring of bricks cemented closely together so as to be impervious to water to make the security complete in this respect the upper surface of this brick flooring was covered with sheets of lead overlapping each other in such a manner as to convey all the water which might percolate through the mold away to the sides of the garden the earth and mold were placed upon this surface thus prepared and the stratum was so deep as to allow large trees to take root and grow in it there was an engine constructed in the middle of the upper terrace by which water could be drawn up from the river and distributed over every part of the vast pile the gardens thus completed were filled to profusion with every species of tree and plant and vine which could produce fruit or flowers to enrich or adorn such a scene every country in communication with Babylon was made to contribute something to increase the endless variety of floral beauty which was here fully enthroned gardeners of great experience and skill were constantly employed in cultivating the parteris pruning the fruit trees and the vines preserving the walks and introducing new varieties of vegetation in a word the hanging gardens of Babylon became one of the wonders of the world the country in the neighborhood of Babylon extending from the river on either hand was in general level and low and subject to inundations one of the sovereigns of the country a queen named Nidocris had formed the grand design of constructing an immense lake to take off the superfluous water in case of a flood and thus prevent an overflow she also opened a great number of lateral and winding channels for the river wherever the natural disposition of the surface afforded facilities for doing so and the earth which was taken out in the course of these excavations was employed in raising the banks by artificial terraces such as are made to confine the Mississippi at New Orleans and are there called levies the object of Nidocris in these measures was twofold she wished in the first place to open all practicable channels for the flow of the water and then to confine the current within the channels thus made she also wished to make the navigation of the stream as intricate and complicated as possible so that while the natives of the country might easily find their way in boats to the capital of foreign enemy if he should make the attempt might be confused and lost these were the rivers of Babylon on the banks of which the captive Jews sat down and wept when they remembered Zion this queen Nidocris seems to have been quite distinguished for her engineering and architectural plans it was she that built the bridge across the Euphrates within the city and as there was a feeling of jealousy and ill will as usual in such a case between the two divisions of the town which the river formed she caused the bridge to be constructed with a movable platform or draw by means of which the communication might be cut off at pleasure this draw was generally up at night and down by day Herodotus relates a curious anecdote of this queen which if true evinces in another way the peculiar originality of mind and the ingenuity which characterized all her operations she caused her tomb to be built before her death over one of the principal gates of the city upon the facade of this monument was a very conspicuous inscription to this effect if any one of the sovereigns my successors shall be in extreme want of money let him open my tomb and take what he may think proper but let him not resort to this resource unless the urgency is extreme the tomb remained for some time after the queen's death quite undisturbed in fact the people of the city avoided this gate altogether on account of the dead body deposited above it and the spot became well nigh deserted at length in process of time a subsequent sovereign being in want of money ventured to open the tomb he found however no money within the gloomy vault contained nothing but the dead body of the queen and a label with this inscription if your avarice were not as insatiable as it is base you would not have intruded on the repose of the dead it was not surprising that Cyrus having been so successful in his enterprises thus far should now begin to turn his thoughts toward this great Babylonian empire and to feel a desire to bring it under his sway the first thing however was to confirm and secure his Lydian conquests he spent some time therefore in organizing and arranging at Sardis the affairs of the new government which he was to substitute for that of Croesus there he designated certain portions of his army to be left for garrisons in the conquered cities he appointed Persian officers of course to command these forces but as he wished to conciliate the Lydians he appointed many of the municipal and civil officers of the country from among them there would appear to be no danger in doing this as by giving the command of the army to Persians he retained all the real power directly in his own hands one of these civil officers the most important in fact of all was the grand treasurer to him Cyrus committed the charge of the stores of gold and silver which came into his possession at Sardis and of the revenues which were afterward to accrue Cyrus appointed a Lydian named Pactius to this trust hoping by such measures to conciliate the people of the country and to make them more ready to submit to his sway things being thus arranged Cyrus taking Croesus with him set out with the main army to return toward the east as soon as he had left Lydia Pactius excited the Lydians to revolt the name of the commander in chief of the military forces which Cyrus had left was Tabulus Pactius abandoned the city and retired toward the coast where he contrived to raise a large army formed partly of Lydians and partly of bodies of troops which he was enabled to hire by means of the treasures which Cyrus had put under his charge he then advanced to Sardis took possession of the town and shut up Tabulus with his Persian troops in the citadel when the tidings of these events came to Cyrus he was very much incensed and determined to destroy the city however interceded very earnestly in its behalf he recommended that Cyrus instead of burning Sardis should send a sufficient force to disarm the population and that he should then enact such laws and make such arrangements as should turn the minds of the people to habits of luxury and pleasure by doing this said Croesus that the people will in a short time become so innervated and so effeminate that you will have nothing to fear from them Cyrus decided on adopting this plan he dispatched a median named Mazarus an officer of his army at the head of a strong force with orders to go back to Sardis to deliver Tabulus from his danger and put to death all the leaders in the Lydian rebellion accepting Pactius Pactius was to be saved alive and sent a prisoner to Cyrus in Persia Pactius did not wait for the arrival of Mazarus as soon as he heard of his approach he abandoned the ground and fled northwardly to the city of Syme without refuge there when Mazarus had reached Sardis and re-established the government of Cyrus there he sent messengers to Syme demanding the surrender of the fugitive the people of Syme were uncertain whether they ought to comply they said that they must first consult an oracle there was a very ancient and celebrated oracle Miletus they sent messengers to this oracle demanding to know whether it were according to the will of the gods or not that the fugitive should be surrendered the answer brought back was that they might surrender him they were accordingly making arrangements for doing this when one of the citizens a very prominent and influential man named Aristoticus expressed himself not satisfied with the reply he did not think it possible he said that the oracle could really counsel them to deliver up a helpless fugitive to his enemies the messengers must have misunderstood or misreported the answer which they had received he finally persuaded his countrymen to send a second embassy he himself was placed at the head of it on their arrival Aristoticus addressed the oracle as follows to avoid a cruel death from the Persians Pactius, a Lydian fled to us for refuge the Persians demanded that we should surrender him much as we are afraid of their power we are still more afraid to deliver up a helpless suppliant for protection without clear and decided directions from you the embassy received to this demand the same reply as before still, Aristoticus was not satisfied and as if by way of bringing home to the oracle somewhat more forcibly a sense of the true character of such an action as it seemed to recommend he began to make a circuit in the grove which was around the temple in which the oracle resided and to rob and destroy the nests which the birds had built there allured apparently by the sacred repose and quietude of the scene this had the desired effect a solemn voice was heard from the interior of the temple saying in a warning tone impious man how dost thou dare to molest those who have placed themselves under my protection to this, Aristoticus replied by asking the oracle how it was that it watched over and guarded those who sought its own protection while it directed the people of Sime to abandon and betray suppliance for theirs to this the oracle answered I direct them to do it in order that such impious men may the sooner bring down upon their heads the judgments of heaven for having dared to entertain even the thought of delivering up a helpless fugitive when this answer was reported to the people of Sime they did not dare to give Pactius up nor on the other hand did they dare to incur the enmity of the Persians by retaining and protecting him they accordingly sent him secretly away the emissaries of Maseris however, followed him they kept constantly on his track demanding him successively in every city where the helpless fugitive sought refuge until at length partly by threats and partly by a reward they induced a certain city to surrender him Maseris sent him a prisoner to Cyrus soon after this Maseris himself died and herpages was appointed Governor of Lydia went on with his conquest in the heart of Asia and at length in the course of a few years he had completed his arrangements and preparations for the attack on Babylon he advanced at the head of a large force to the vicinity of the city the king of Babylon whose name was Belchazar withdrew within the walls shut the gates perfectly secure a simple wall was in those days a very effectual protection against any armed force whatsoever if it was only high enough not to be scaled and thick enough to resist the blows of a battering ram the artillery of modern times would have speedily made a fatal breach in such structures but there was nothing but the simple force of man applied through brazen headed beams of wood in those days and Belchazar knew well that his walls would bid all such modes of demolition a complete defiance he stationed his soldiers therefore on the walls and his sentinels in the watchtowers while he himself and all the nobles of his court perfectly secure in their impregnable condition and being abundantly supplied with all the means that the whole empire could furnish both for sustenance and enjoyment gave themselves up in their spacious palaces and gardens to gaiety festivity and pleasure Cyrus advanced to the city he stationed one large detachment of his troops at the opening in the main walls where the river entered into the city and another one below where it issued from it these detachments were ordered to march into the city by the bed of the river as soon as they should observe the water subsiding he then employed a vast force of laborers to open new channels and to widen and deepen those that existed before for the purpose of drawing off the waters from their usual bed when these passages were thus prepared the water was let into them one night at a time previously designated and it soon ceased to flow through the city the detachments of soldiers marched in over the bed of the stream carrying with them vast numbers with these they easily scaled the low walls which lined the banks of the river and Belchazar was thunderstruck with the announcement made to him in the midst of one of his feasts that the Persians were in complete and full possession of the city End of chapter 8