WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Croesus 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:05.160 Happy Saturday. Crisus came up a couple of times in 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:07.600 our episode on the Battle of the Eclipse not too 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:11.680 long ago, so our episode on him is Today's Saturday Classic. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:19.279 This originally came out September seventh, twenty twenty. Enjoy Welcome 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.040 to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:32.080 iHeartRadio Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.560 and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So, Crisus is a name 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.159 that is now most commonly referenced when someone wants to 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.879 shorthand that a person is ridiculously wealthy. That is a 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.960 thing that it happens sometimes in English language, but other 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:47.919 languages use it all the time, and I think possibly 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.800 a little bit more than English speakers. And he is 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.600 one of those historical figures who was both real and 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.600 has taken on a mythical status, also mythical. Aesop was 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.040 a member of his court, and there's all kinds of 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.720 mythical swirlings around him. But the story of the ridiculously 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.920 wealthy Cresus, which was likely fictionalized in a number of ways, 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.800 and we'll talk about that, also becomes this sort of 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:17.240 cautionary tale about pride and hubris and what really has 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.680 value in life. So Crisus was born into the royal 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:24.320 family of Lydia. Lydia was a kingdom that occupied the 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.800 western section of Anatolia. Roughly speaking in modern shorthand, we're 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.240 talking about the left half of the Asia Minor peninsula, 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.400 so it's part of modern day Turkey. To the west 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.640 sat the Greeks, and to the east or the lands 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:41.480 of Persia. The Lydia that Crisus was born into was 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.319 very prosperous. When Phrygia, which had been the dominant power 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:49.280 on the peninsula since around twelve hundred BCE, was attacked 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:53.000 by Samerians and fell from power circus seven hundred BCE, 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.240 Lydia became the most powerful kingdom in the region. It's 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.600 kind of filled that power vacuum at that point. It 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.840 was ruled by King Jaijis from the newly established Lydian 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:09.400 capital of Sardis. This also established the Merbnad dynasty after 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.880 Jaiji's came Artists in the mid seventh century BCE, followed 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:19.920 by Sidides and then Alioities. Aliities was Criesus's father, and 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.200 it's under Aliites that Lydia is said to have really 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.040 hit its apex in terms of power and prosperity. The 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.320 exact dates for the reigns of those kings are pretty fuzzy. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.200 The main source that's used for them is from Herodotus, 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.560 but if you do the math based on the counts 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:38.800 of the years that he uses, that math is not 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.080 quite add up. Also, just in general, Herodotus sometimes would 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:45.520 like to say this is how I heard it, Yes, 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:47.840 one hundred percent. It's one of those things where he 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.240 is listed as a great historian. But as we'll discuss later, 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:58.760 there's definitely some flexibility with the record, like what serves 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.280 his purpose. But what is less fuzzy is the fact 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.639 that during the years from seven hundred BCE to Creases 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:10.440 becoming king circa five sixty BCE, Lydia had established itself 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:14.519 as a very prosperous commercial culture. It is one of 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.560 the earliest cultures known to have instituted the concept of 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.480 retail shops like permanent stores, and the Lydians were minting 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.480 coinage way ahead of the rest of the Western world. 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.000 There is evidence of Chinese coinage that predates the Lydians, 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.560 although the coins that were minted specifically under Creasus more 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.160 closely resemble what we would think of today as coinage. 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:39.720 When Aliantes died in five sixty BCE, Cresus became king 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.040 and he was thirty five at the time. And Cresus was, 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.120 like a lot of people in his day, very into 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.320 using things like dreams and oracles to predict the future. 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.480 He had two sons, one of them is described again 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.160 by Herodotus as having a very minor disability, and this 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:00.920 is treated just horribly within the text, says quote. Since 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.800 he is ruined, he doesn't exist for me. Yeah, there's 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.360 a whole side story about his son that I'm maybe 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.720 gonna save for our casual Friday chat. It's a weird thing. 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.120 But the other son that he had, Adis, was much 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.920 beloved and was the king's pride. And when Cresus had 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.080 a dream that showed Adis being killed by an iron spear, 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.800 Crisus then did everything in his power to shelter his son. 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.400 He arranged for a speedy marriage to give him a 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.280 home life, and he stopped tasking him with going out 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.320 into battle, and he basically tried to keep him safe 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.480 and at home all the time. But ultimately Crisus did 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.800 allow Addis to go on a hunt, and this was 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.359 at his son's request and after much debate, because Adis 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:49.800 was sort of feeling like, hey, I don't have anything 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:51.760 to be proud of in our culture at this point 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:53.640 because you won't let me go to war and I 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.880 can't even go outside the stinks. So he allowed him 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.640 to go on this hunt, and of course, an hunter's 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.640 spear missed the wild board that they were hunting and 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.799 killed Attis, and Creasus reportedly mourned this sun for two 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.160 full years. Lydia is usually cited as the first kingdom 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.440 to mint metal coinage. Under Creasus, the first silver and 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:20.120 gold coins for Lydia were made, And this is kind 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.400 of reminding us a little bit of the many episodes 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.320 where we have talked about the gold standard being challenged 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.760 by the silver standard in the United States and how 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.120 much strife came out of all that those precious metals 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:33.880 were part of tender going all the way back to 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.400 the sixth century BCE. Yeah, and the coin type known 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.159 as a cresad, featuring a face off between a lion 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.320 and a bowl was developed during this time, and the 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.200 representation of the lion actually served as a means to 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.520 indicate the purity and the value of the coin. So 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.159 a smaller piece of the lion's body would be stamped 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.640 on a coin to indicate that that coin was a 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.960 smaller denomination than one with a larger, more complete image 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.960 of a lion. And the Lydians really made great strides 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.080 under creases in the purification of gold, enabling them to 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.000 ensure accuracy in these different coins. This is basically the 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:15.799 beginning of the gold standard, and the wealth was incredible. 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.080 Another name that you've almost certainly heard in connection with 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.880 ridiculous levels of riches as King Midas, and Crisus's very 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.400 great wealth is said to have come from Midas. In 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:31.520 a way, the Mermnad dynasty allegedly got its extraordinary riches 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.000 in part by collecting it from the river Pactulus, where 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.200 Midas is said to have washed his hands. There were 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:43.120 also some taxes plundering other kingdoms, including enslaving people from 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.120 those kingdoms. Yeah, they actually gained their riches in a 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.400 number of ways, but that Midas story is one that persists, 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:51.919 and what defines much of what we know of the 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:55.919 rule of Cresus is war. And it's said that conflict 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.039 was ultimately what brought Cresus out of his mourning state 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.480 over his son. Once he was refocused on military leadership, 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.560 Creesus was eager to expand his power, and he could 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.600 be ruthless in this quest. Herodotus wrote this of him, 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.240 quote this, Crisus was the first foreigner whom we know 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.480 who subjugated some Greeks and took tribute from them and 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.320 won the friendship of others, the former being the Ionians, 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:25.160 the Aeolians and the Dorians of Asia, and the latter 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:29.160 the Lacedaemonians. Before the reign of Cresus, all Greeks were 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.120 free for the Samerian host which invaded Ionia before his 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:37.720 time did not subjugate the cities that raided and robbed them. Yeah, 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.760 so keep in mind as we talk about Cresus, and 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.120 he's an interesting figure, but he was very big on 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.400 enslavement as something new that was not a tradition, that 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:52.680 was something he instituted in his war making. So we 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.160 mentioned a moment ago that Cresus believed in oracles, but 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.480 he really wanted to run a test to ensure that 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.200 the oracle that he would patronize was going to be 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:06.120 the best one. So Herodotus wrote that Crisus sent men 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.760 out to various shrines, but after they left the palace 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.040 at Sartis, they had to bide their time for one 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.160 hundred days, so they didn't know what Crisus was doing 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.880 before going to these shrines. And then on the one 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.720 hundredth day, each oracle was supposed to be asked to 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:24.840 divine what Crisus was doing at that very moment, and 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.080 then all of these messengers would bring back the divinations 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.600 and it would be obvious which oracle or oracles were 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.760 the real deal. The men who had visited the Oracle 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.480 of Delphi at the Temple of Apollo came back with 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.160 the following verse quote, I know the number of the 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.040 grains of sand and the extent of the sea, and 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.520 understand the mute and hear the voiceless. The smell has 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.960 come to my senses of a strong shelled tortoise boiling 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.240 in a cauldron, together with a lamb's flesh under witch's 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:57.560 bronze and overwitch's bronze. We don't know what any of 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.920 the others divined, because this one was apparently spot on. 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.959 Crisus said that the oracle of Amphiarus had also given 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.440 a quote true answer, but we don't know the wording 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.040 of what that answer specifically was. But in an effort 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.600 to concoct a strange enough event that it would be 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.960 impossible to guess what he had been doing, Crisus had 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:19.679 cut up a tortoise and a lamb and boiled them 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:24.240 together in a covered bronze cauldron. So let's move along 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.720 from that less than pleasant image and take a quick 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.640 break and have a word from some of the sponsors 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:41.520 that keeps stuff you missed in history class going. So, 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:46.600 Crisus was devoted to the Oracle of Delphi after it 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:53.360 had successfully uh passed this test. He sacrificed literally thousands 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.480 of animals and burned almost every valuable thing he could 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:00.079 lay hands on. He also commanded the citizens of Lyddy 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.320 to do the same, and he sent so much gold 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:10.239 to the temple. There is a line in the translation 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.720 that I read that stated quote. Moreover, he dedicated his 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.160 own wife's necklaces and girdles, which I just found funny 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:23.040 as things to sacrifice to Apollo. So the goal of 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.360 all of these offerings was to ensure that Crisus got 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.080 good advice from the oracle regarding his military plans, and 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:32.800 the people he tasked with bringing his many gifts to 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.640 the temple were instructed to get this advice. Two points 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.480 came back. One was that if Criesus were to attack 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.040 the Persians, crossing a river to do so, he would 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:46.000 destroy a great empire, and two that he should make 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.960 friends with the most powerful Greeks. So, at this point 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.679 in time, the power of the Persians, led by Cyrus 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.600 the Second also known as Cyrus the Great, was expanding. 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:57.880 We actually talked at some length about Cyrus the Second 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.400 in our episode on the Achemenid Empire in twenty sixteen. Crisus, 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.760 of course wanted to curtail the expansion of the Persian Empire, 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.520 and he started a campaign of his own to make 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.720 sure that Cyrus the Second's forces did not get close 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.160 to Lydia. So Crisus asked the oracle to once again 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.560 tell him the future. They sent messengers to Delphi to 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.760 ask if his reign would be a long one, and 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.880 the reply was quote, when the medics have a mule 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:29.079 as king, just then, tenderfooted Lydian by the stone, shrewn 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.160 hermus flee and do not stay, and do not be 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:36.920 ashamed to be a coward. Crisus took this pretty literally, 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:39.000 and he thought, well, a mule is never going to 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.600 be a king, so this must be telling me that 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.000 my rule is going to be very, very long, and 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.920 I have a lot of power ahead of me. So, 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:51.800 bolstered and confident, he continued his military campaigning. Over the 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.400 course of his rule, Crisus had attacked Ephesus, than Ionian cities, 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.120 than the cities of Aeolia. According to Herodotus, all all 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.480 of these attacks were based on some sort of reason, 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.960 and in his words quote, he found graver charges where 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:11.679 he could, but sometimes alleged very pettygrounds of offence. Yeah, 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.920 the justified invasions were pretty lightly justified in some cases. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.440 So next, Crisus set his sights on the islands of 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.680 Greece as a target, and he knew that he was 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.160 going to need to assemble a navy fleet to conquer them, 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.280 so he started up a shipbuilding project. But while this 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:31.560 was all under way, he was approached by a man 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.720 from the Lesbos capital of Middelein, whose name was either 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.920 Prianna or Pitcus, depending on the source that you read, 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.280 and this man told Crisus that the islanders were actually 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.040 amassing their own ground forces to attack Criesus at Sartis. 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.840 Crisus replied, essentially that he wished they would do that 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.520 because his troops would destroy the Islanders, who had no 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:57.240 experience in ground battle warfare. In response to this, the 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.120 emissary from Middelein pointed out that in starting a navy 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:05.160 from scratch, Cresus would be similarly disadvantaged if he tried 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.040 to take on the islander forces. So this put an 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.480 end to Crisus's navy project, and he opted instead to 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.920 form an alliance with the Ionian Islanders. This story cracks 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.000 me up back. Oh yeah, come at me on land, 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.320 and they're like, that's what we say about you coming 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.560 at us on sea. Dude, Yeah, you are not going 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.200 to manage this. During his time as king of Lydia, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.360 Creesus eventually became the ruler of most of the nations 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.000 and peoples on the peninsula west of the Hallis River 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:36.480 that was the name of what is now known as 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:41.600 the Kaziller Mock River. Persians conquered the Median Empire in 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.400 five point fifty BCE, and this was a sobering event 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.240 for Creesus. It became immediately apparent that his own power 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.120 could also be challenged by the Persian forces. This led 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.359 him to try to fortify his own strength through an alliance, 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.680 and this goes back to that advice that he got 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:02.240 from the Oracle of Delphi, the most powerful Greek state. 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.719 So Crisus had already made an alliance with Amasus, the 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.600 king of Egypt, and he also got the Lacedaemonians and 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.200 then the Spartans, which he believed to be the most 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.800 powerful Greek state, to agree to stand with him. But 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.720 Crisus was not really content with waiting to see what 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.160 would happen with the Persians and getting all of these 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.520 alliances arranged, and he was very impatient, so he just 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.600 decided that he would go right on ahead and invade Anatolia. 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:32.640 He decided to invade Anatolia, specifically Cappadocia in the eastern 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:35.080 part of the territory, and that meant he had to 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.600 cross the Hallas River. And the battle that ensued at 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.680 Teria was not what anybody had hoped. It sort of 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.920 ended in a draw. After Teria, Criesus wanted to regroup, 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.360 so he had summoned all of those groups that he 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.440 had allied with to join him in the springtime, five 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.280 months after he sent these messages out to them, so 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.480 that they would have time to assemble their armies and 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:58.840 travel after the winter, and so then he took his 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.600 own troops and headed back to Sardis. But apparently he 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.320 didn't realize that Cyrus the second and his Persian troops 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:10.160 had followed him home. When Sartis was attacked by Persia, 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.520 it came just as a complete surprise to Creesus. The 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.880 Lydians scrambled to meet the Persians in battle, and according 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:21.480 to Herodotus, Cyrus was afraid of the Lydians, but on 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:25.080 the advice of a Median who was with him, Cyrus 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.840 put his cavalry on the pack camels. The camels drove 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.280 back the Lydian horses because apparently the horses were afraid 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.280 of the camels and their smell, and they retreated even 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.960 as their riders tried to move them forward into battle. 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.400 The Lydian army was forced to fight on foot, and 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.040 ultimately they were defeated by the Persians. Cresus sent word 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.680 to his allies to come and help, but efforts at 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:51.240 assistants were not enough or came too late. Criesus was 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.600 taken captive, and Sardis was taken by the Persians after 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.720 two weeks of this conflict. So when the Oracle of 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.200 Delphi had told Cries about crossing a river and destroying 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.480 a kingdom, oops, that was his own kingdom that would 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.800 be destroyed. And that story of the mule leading the 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.520 may DAEs empire. Cyrus the Second was half may Days 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.640 and half Persian, the child of two different groups of people, 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:18.080 So the mule reference was kind of a casual like 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:24.440 slurry representation. Cresus had in his literalism in interpreting all 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.040 of these words of the oracle, failed to catch any 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:31.200 of the actual meaning in the oracle's words. We will 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.000 talk about the varied accounts of the end of Creesus's 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.800 life after we pause and have a quick sponsor break. 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.600 In five point forty six BCE, with his defeat by 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.280 Cyrus the Second and the Persian army, the reign of 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.280 Cresus ended. But what happened after this invasion is something 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.080 that again is a little unclear, and that's because there 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:02.000 are a number of different versions of the story. The Chylides, 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.240 a poet from Greece, tells the story and the odes 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.040 of the Epenetians that Crisus built his own funeral pyre 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:10.959 and then tried to burn himself to death on it. 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.760 And this was, according to his writing, unsuccessful, because the 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:20.200 gods intervened before Criesus actually met his final end. Yes 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.800 in that history, it's written quote when he had come 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.399 to that unexpected day, Crisus had no intention of waiting 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.439 any longer for the tears of slavery. He had a 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.080 pyre built before his bronze walled courtyard, and he mounted 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.280 the pyre with his dear wife and his daughters with 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:40.119 beautiful hair. They were weeping inconsolably. He raised his arms 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:43.840 to the steep sky and shouted, overweening deity, where is 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.520 the gratitude of the gods? Where is Lord Apollo. So 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.879 just as Criesus had gotten a trusted servant to really 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.160 get the flames going, and as his wife and daughters 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.840 were looking on in tears, the Dao six machina arrives quote. 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.280 But when the flashing force of terrible fire began to 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.359 shoot through the wood, Zeus set a dark rain cloud 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.520 over it and began to quench the golden flame. Nothing 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:11.440 is unbelievable, which is brought about by the god's ambition. 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.359 Then Apollo shows up, scoops up Creasus and his family, 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.960 and carries them north to Hyperborea, the land of the Giants, 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:21.840 where they could live safely. So we know that this 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.560 particular version of the story became an important part of 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.679 Greek lore. This moment is represented on a piece of 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.680 art in the louver decorated by Mason, a painter who 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.640 decorated vases in Athens using what is known as red 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:37.200 figure technique, and Maison's work on the vase that depicts 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.159 this particular subject is dated in the five hundred to 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.600 four ninety BCE range, so we're talking fifty to sixty 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.600 years after Criesus's defeat would have happened. This vase shows 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.240 Crisus sitting on a throne, pouring out a libation onto 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.600 the servant Utamos, while Eutamos is lighting the pyre that 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.840 the throne has been placed upon. There's an inscription on 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.080 the vase that specifically names the king in the image 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:03.560 as Creesus, so it's not a case of like, well, 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.920 this could be Cresus. The opposite side of the vase 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.520 has a totally different and unrelated scene showing theseus abducting 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.000 the Amazon and Tiape. If you're ever in Paris and 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:16.840 you want to see it, it is part of the Greek, 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.080 Etruscan and Roman Antiquities collection and is on the first 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.119 floor in the celly wing room six fifty two. So 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.960 after this happened and Creesus was saved by the gods, 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.119 the story goes that Criesus became an ally of the 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.560 leader who followed Cyrus that was Kimbici's the second, and 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:37.000 along with Cambises, the second, Creesus in this version, then 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.399 traveled to Egypt. That is not the only version of 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:43.280 this story where Creesus ends up friends with his former 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.919 enemy state. The Persian doctor Cetisius, who was born in Greece, 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:51.160 wrote an account that suggests that Creesus actually became part 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.560 of Cyrus's court and eventually rose to a point of 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:58.280 good enough standing that he was appointed governor of Burini. 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.919 Part of what makes the Creasus story so tricky to 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.520 unravel is the fact that he was such a big 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.800 figure culturally that people essentially started writing fan fiction about him, 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:10.520 and now when we reference it hundreds of years later, 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.080 it's a little hard to know which is fan fiction versus, 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.320 which is actual historical record. And we mentioned one version 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.480 of his faith that was written by Herodotus just a 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:21.919 moment ago, but that was not the only writing that 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:27.080 Herodotus did featuring Creases as a protagonist. And another story 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:31.560 by Herodotus Crisus met with Solon, the lawmaker of Athens, 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.560 whose life ended just as Crisus's reign was starting. And 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:39.040 this is really a parable about values and happiness. There's 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:41.639 really no evidence that any of it actually took place 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.800 in the story. Solon, like a lot of important men 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:47.679 of the day, decided to visit Cresus when the Lydian 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.240 king was at the height of his power. So there's 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.920 actually sort of a fun side story here about why 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.840 Solon the lawmaker would have been out and about traveling. 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.199 This kind of, you know, justifies how this may have 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:03.440 worked in the writing of Herodotus. So this travel was 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.439 part of a ten year trip. The idea was that 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.720 once Solon had made all of the laws that he 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.679 believed Athens needed to be a fair and just society, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.800 he promised to stay away from Athens for ten years 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:16.840 so that he would not be tempted to change or 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:21.160 repeal any of those laws. Athens wanted to live by 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:23.760 this set of laws that Solin had carefully penned, and 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.159 so they promised to do so, and they were not 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:30.800 themselves allowed to make any changes. An interesting governmental experiment, 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:33.240 to be sure, And yes, Solin is certainly on my 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.160 list for his own episode one day. No telling when 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:41.280 that might happen in any case. After receiving sullen, Cresus 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:45.120 basically spent the whole visit entertaining his visitor and then 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.520 making the household staff point out all the expensive things 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.560 that Cresus had just lying around the palace so that 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:55.359 Solan would understand just how rich and successful the king was. 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.080 And after this little exercise in wealth, show and tell 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.960 creases at soulan quote, my Athenian guest, we have heard 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.159 a lot about you because of your wisdom and of 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.600 your wanderings. How As one who loves learning, you have 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:11.000 traveled much of the world for the sake of seeing it. 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.159 So now I desire to ask you who is the 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.879 most fortunate man you have seen? And of course the 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:20.320 king expected that the lawmaker was going to say, Oh, 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.399 it's you, for sure, dude. You have everything like there's 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:25.679 no reason anybody could ever be any happier than you, 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:29.800 but he did not say that. Solan instead named an 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.280 Athenian called Tellus as the most fortunate man he knew. 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:37.560 King Criesus asked for an explanation of Solan's answer, and 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:40.040 the lawmaker told him that Tellus had been part of 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:43.199 a prosperous city, a good community, and that he had 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:46.120 children who grew up to be good people and all 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:49.440 gave him grandchildren, and that all of his progeny survived, 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.679 and then once Tellas died in battle against the people 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:56.280 of Eleusis, it was a good and honorable death, and 0:22:56.320 --> 0:23:00.080 that he was honored in his burial. So, after hearing this, 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.320 apparently hoping that he would get a second place spot, 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.359 then asked Solan who he thought was the next most 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:10.520 fortunate man, and Solan gave two men's names in answer, 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.600 Klebus and Biton of Argive. These two brothers had a 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:17.959 stable home life, they were physically very strong, and they 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:20.879 both died after pulling their mother in a wagon five 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:23.760 miles to the festival of Hara in Argos, as the 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:26.640 oxen that were intended to convey her were not back 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:30.280