Croesus

Lydian king (r. c. 560-546 b.c.e.)

• Born: c. 595 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Lydia, Asia Minor (now in Turkey)
• Died: c. 546 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Sardis, Asia Minor (now in Turkey)

The last king of Lydia, defeated by Cyrus the Great of Persia, Croesus became a legendary figure to serve as an example to the Greeks of the fate of the proud.

Early Life

Croesus (KREE-suhs), the last king of the Mermnad Dynasty, is famous more as a legendary image than a historical figure. The primary source for his life and the period is the Greek historian Herodotus, who traces a convoluted account of the Lydian kingdom as background material for the Greco-Persian Wars. In the process, he mixes together various traditions and legends to create his history. Despite the legendary additions, the basic outline of Lydian history can probably be trusted. No specific details, however, are given about Croesus’s early life, other than a mention that his mother was a Carian. The traditional date given for his assumption of the throne is 560 b.c.e.

Life’s Work

The kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor had emerged in the power vacuum created by the collapse of the kingdom of Phrygia when barbarians from Thrace known as the Cimmerians swept into northern Turkey. With its capital at Sardis, Lydia dominated the trade along the Hermus and Cayster Rivers, acting as an important conduit for the exchange of Anatolian and Greek goods. The wealth of the region was such that even its first king, Gyges, gained a legendary status of wealth in an early poem fragment of disdain by the Greek poet Archilochus.

Croesus continued the expansionist policies of his ancestors, especially those of his father, Alyattes, toward the coast. An ongoing war with Miletus had come to an end, according to the Herodotus legend, when a temple to Athena caught fire during the siege. Alyattes became ill and, after inquiring of the oracle at Delphi, received instructions to rebuild the structure. The truce that followed eventually turned into a peace treaty, which continued under Croesus’s reign. Alyattes had also established his eastern boundary along the Halys River after a border skirmish with Cyaxerxes of the Medes ended during an eclipse. The eclipse of 585 b.c.e., purportedly predicted by Thales of Miletus, unnerved the armies and ended the fighting. Eventually, a Lydian-Median alliance formed, sealed by a marriage arrangement of the young Croesus with a Median daughter. Alyattes left Croesus an economically thriving empire. Indeed, the first appearance of coinage seems to have been prompted by Alyattes as a means of facilitating trade between the Lydians and the Ionians.

Alyattes’ death initiated a brief power struggle between Croesus and Pantaleon, his half brother born to a Greek woman. Although the legal heir, Croesus supposedly removed any possible resistance by capturing Pantaleon and torturing him to death by dragging him over a carding comb, a board with points to comb cotton fibers before spinning. After coming to the throne, Croesus initiated the final stage of Lydian expansion by conquering Ephesus and then expanding north until all of the Ionian and Aeolian Greek cities fell under his control. He apparently initiated a large shipbuilding program in order to establish his dominion over Asia Minor’s coastal islands. According to Greek tradition, one of his subjects advised him of the danger of his army, dependent on its great cavalry arm, of being caught at sea in the face of those whose strength rested in their maritime prowess. Croesus discontinued the program and actually seems to have established a pact of friendship instead.

If the traditions given by Herodotus have validity, Croesus’s life was marred by tragedy. One of his sons was apparently deaf and mute. The other son, Atys, lost his life in a hunting accident. When Cyrus the Great conquered Astyges of Media in 549, Croesus appealed to the oracle at Delphi and, after receiving a favorable response, invaded Cappadocia in 547. He did so on the pretext of avenging his brother-in-law.

Tradition indicates that Thales engineered the crossing of the Halys River by diverting its bed around the army, but even Herodotus doubts the veracity of the story. After an initial campaign in the region of Pteria ended in stalemate, Croesus withdrew to Sardis with the intention of gathering reinforcements from his allies, Amasis of Egypt, Nabonidus of Babylon, and possibly the Spartans from Greece. Cyrus mounted a surprise assault on the city and conquered it and, according to the Nabonidus Chronicle from Babylon, killed Croesus.

Significance

In the Greek world, Croesus became the subject of various object lessons. The first, in connection with the death of his son, emphasized that one cannot escape a divinely decreed fate. In a dream, Croesus learned that his son Atys faced death by means of an iron spearhead. On awakening, he ordered the removal of all spears and weapons from the men’s quarters to prevent an accident. Then he removed Atys from commanding troops on the field. After some time, a group of Mysians appeared and requested help from Atys in dispatching a giant boar that terrorized the people and damaged crops. Croesus, who had just arranged a marriage for his son, excused him from going on the grounds that he was a newlywed. The ambassadors departed with other troops, but Atys complained to his father and, as no military operations would endanger him, Croesus allowed him to join the hunting expedition. A young man, Adrastus, who was a refugee from Phrygia, having murdered his brother, had found asylum in Lydia and had befriended Atys. Adrastus accompanied the hunting party. Unbeknownst to all, he carried an iron-tipped spear. In the confusion of trying to kill the boar, Adrastus missed and accidentally struck Atys, who succumbed to the wound.

The second object lesson deals with the issue of hubris, the sin of pride. According to the tradition, Solon the Idealist, of Athens, visited Sardis and stayed as a guest in the palace. In the course of the visit, he received a grand tour of the royal complex and its treasury. When asked by Croesus if he had ever met a happier man, Solon responded that he indeed had. He referred to one, Tellus of Athens, who had great wealth, fine sons, and after being killed in battle, received honors from the city. When asked about the second happiest, Solon told the tale of two athletes from Argos who, after performing amazing feats of strength, were honored by the city, and their mother requested from the goddess Hera the best thing a human could have; they died in their sleep.

In the angry dispute that followed, Solon emphasized that one should not tempt the gods with pride in wealth. Wealthy people, he said, can be struck with misfortune and loss; thus, it is better to live day by day and die well with what wealth one has intact, as opposed to seeing a day when one loses everything. Solon’s words of wisdom were lost on Croesus until the day of his own defeat. After Cyrus the Great conquered the city, he supposedly desired to sacrifice Croesus on a pyre to thank the gods for the victory. Croesus, in the midst of the flames, uttered Solon’s name three times and acknowledged the wisdom of his words. Cyrus, hearing the utterances, asked an interpreter to have Croesus explain himself. After hearing the story, and struck by a realization of his own mortality, Cyrus ordered the flames to be extinguished. When Croesus saw his would-be rescuers’ intent, as well as their inability to arrest the flames, he called on Apollo to remember the many valuable gifts that had been given to Delphi. The god then sent a storm that doused the fire. Seeing the divine favor given to honor Croesus’s humility, Cyrus appointed him as an adviser.

This story, with its obviously legendary tone, belies any historicity, first, because of chronological difficulties. Solon the Idealist was prominent in Athens as a political reformer and poet between 600 and 590, slightly earlier than Croesus. Second, the Persians did not practice any religious rites that would require the burning of a human sacrifice. The third object lesson that Croesus provides is a proof of the power of the Delphic oracle. When Cyrus the Great had first conquered the Median Empire, Croesus contemplated war, but he desired divine affirmation. As a test, he devised a plan to dispatch messengers to all of the known oracles. He told them to mark the one hundredth day after their departure from Sardis and then inquire of the oracles what Croesus was doing on that particular day. The answers were to be written down and returned to the king. On the one hundredth day, he prepared a stew of tortoise and lamb meat in a bronze pot. The only oracles that responded with the correct answer were at Delphi and Amphiaraus.

With confirmation of the fame of Delphi, he lavished expensive gifts and wealth on its temple and then made two other requests. He asked for advice about attacking Cyrus, and the oracle responded that if he did so, he would destroy a great empire. His second question was about the length of his reign. To that, the oracle responded by saying that Croesus would rule until a mule sat on the throne of Persia. Full of confidence, Croesus instigated his war with the Persians. Despite his defeat, the oracle claimed that it had given the correct answers; Croesus had merely misinterpreted them. Indeed, a great empire was destroyed (his own), and a mule (Cyrus was half Persian and half Median) did sit on the throne.

An unrelated oracle from Delphi was also said to have provided the truth. When Croesus asked about his mute son, he was told that the day he heard his son’s voice would be the day of his misfortune. According to the legend, during the sack of Sardis, Cyrus had issued orders that Croesus be taken alive. A soldier, however, did not recognize the king and prepared to kill him, but the mute boy suddenly cried out Croesus’s identity and saved his life.

Two other legends emerged about his connection to Delphi and Apollo. Another version of Croesus’s fate related that he built a funeral pyre himself and threw himself and his family into it to escape death by Cyrus’s hand. However, Zeus sent a storm, doused the flames, and had Apollo carry them off to the land of the Hyperboreans, a sort of paradise for his worshipers. The tradition of Croesus being saved by Cyrus ends with his gift of his chains to the oracle and the question as to why the gods had rewarded his many gifts in such a manner. The response, tying back to a supposed prophecy that Gyges would be punished for his crimes in the fourth generation, was used to prove the power of the oracle of Delphi. Thus, Croesus became an appropriate closing chapter to the story of the Lydian kingdom.

Bibliography

Dunstan, William. Ancient Greece. New York: Harcourt, 2000. This college-level text gives brief references to Lydia, dealing with its contacts with Greek history.

Fine, John. The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983. An excellent overview of the Lydian Dynasty, with critical commentary on the historicity of the traditions and myths.

Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Robin Waterfield. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. The relevant sections of the history of the Lydian Empire are found in book 1, sections 6-94.

Olmstead, A. T. History of the Persian Empire. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959. In this overview of the Median and Persian Empires, the foregoing events are discussed from the perspective of Cyrus the Great.