It is well known that he was induced to make war upon Cyrus by an ambiguous response of the Delphic oracle, which predicted to him, “that if he made war upon the Persians, he would destroy a great empire.” The oracle was a very safe one. Crœsus understood it, that the Persian empire would be destroyed; but the credit of the god was equally supported by the event which really took place, the defeat of Crœsus and the destruction of his kingdom. Upon his defeat he took refuge in Sardis, which was besieged and ultimately stormed. “So the Persians captured Sardis and took Crœsus alive, after he had reigned fourteen years; and led him before Cyrus, who caused a mighty funeral pile to be built, upon which he set Crœsus in fetters, and with him fourteen Lydian youths; whether it were in his mind to offer them to some deity as the first–fruits of his conquest, or with intention to perform some vow, or because he had heard of Crœsus’s piety and therefore set him upon the pile, that he might know whether any god would deliver him from being burnt alive. Howbeit, he did so: but while Crœsus stood upon the pile, it struck him, even in this extremity of evil, that Solon was inspired when he said that no man ought to be called happy while he was yet alive.[95] And when this thought occurred to him, after being long silent, he thrice repeated with groans the name of Solon. Cyrus heard him, and bade the interpreters ask who this Solon, whom he invoked, might be; and they drew near, and did so. But Crœsus spoke not for some time, and replied at length, when he was compelled, ‘One whom I would rather than much wealth, were introduced to the conversation of all monarchs.’ But as he spoke unintelligibly to them, they again asked what he meant; and when they became urgent and troublesome, he related at length how Solon, an Athenian, came to him, and having beheld all his treasures, set them at nought, having spoken to such purpose, that all things had happened according to his words, which yet bore no especial reference to himself more than to the rest of mankind, particularly to those who trusted in their own good fortune. So by the time Crœsus had given this account, the pile being lighted, the outside of it was in flames. And when Cyrus heard from the interpreters what Crœsus said, he repented, and reflected that he, being but a man himself, was casting another alive into the flames who formerly had been no whit inferior to himself in prosperity: and being also in dread of divine vengeance, and considering that nothing human is unchangeable, he ordered the fire to be forthwith extinguished, and Crœsus, with his companions, to be taken down; but his officers, with all their endeavours, were unable to master it. Then Crœsus, as the Lydians say, discovering that Cyrus had changed his purpose, when he saw that all were endeavouring, and yet were unable to quench the fire, called loudly upon Apollo, entreating the god, if that he ever had