Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/210

192 HISTORY OF GREECE. his army to Sardis without delay, compelling the Lydian prinos to give battle with his own unassisted subjects. The open an<S spacious plain before that town was highly favorable to the Lydian cavalry, which at that time, Herodotus tells us, was supe- rior to the Persian. But Cyrus devised a stratagem whereby this cavalry was rendered unavailable, placing in front of his line the baggage camels, which the Lydian horses could not endure either to smell or to behold. 1 The horsemen of Croesus were thus obliged to dismount ; nevertheless, they fought bravely on foot, and were not driven into the town till after a sanguinary combat. Though confined within the walls of his capital, Croesus had still good reason for hoping to hold out until the arrival of his allies, to whom he sent pressing envoys of acceleration : for Sar- dis was considered impregnable, one assault had already been repulsed, and the Persians would have been reduced to the slow process of blockade. But on the fourteenth day of the siege, accident did for the besiegers that which they could not have ac- complished either by skill or force. Sardis was situated on an outlying peak of the northern side of Tmolus ; it was well-forti- fied everywhere except towards the mountain ; and on that side, the rock, was so precipitous and inaccessible, that fortifications were thought unnecessary, nor did the inhabitants believe assault to be possible. But Hyroeades, a Persian soldier, having acci- dentally seen one of the garrison descending this precipitous rock to pick up his helmet, which had rolled down, watched his opportunity, tried to climb up, and found it not impracticable. Others followed his example, the strong-hold was thus seized first, and the whole city was speedily taken by storm. 2 Cyrus had given especial orders to spare the life of Croesus, who was accordingly made prisoner. But preparations were made for a solemn and terrible spectacle. The captive king was destined to be burnt in chains, together with fourteen Lydian youths, on a vast pile of wood: and we are even told that the pile was already kindled and the victim beyond the reach of human aid. when Apollo sent a miraculous rain to preserve him 1 The story about the successful erapkyment cf the camels appears also in Xenophon. Cyropaed. vii, ], 47. Herodot. i, 84.