Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Crisus came up a couple of times in
Speaker 1: our episode on the Battle of the Eclipse not too
Speaker 1: long ago, so our episode on him is Today's Saturday Classic.
Speaker 1: This originally came out September seventh, twenty twenty. Enjoy Welcome
Speaker 1: to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye
Speaker 1: and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So, Crisus is a name
Speaker 1: that is now most commonly referenced when someone wants to
Speaker 1: shorthand that a person is ridiculously wealthy. That is a
Speaker 1: thing that it happens sometimes in English language, but other
Speaker 1: languages use it all the time, and I think possibly
Speaker 1: a little bit more than English speakers. And he is
Speaker 1: one of those historical figures who was both real and
Speaker 1: has taken on a mythical status, also mythical. Aesop was
Speaker 1: a member of his court, and there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: mythical swirlings around him. But the story of the ridiculously
Speaker 1: wealthy Cresus, which was likely fictionalized in a number of ways,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that, also becomes this sort of
Speaker 1: cautionary tale about pride and hubris and what really has
Speaker 1: value in life. So Crisus was born into the royal
Speaker 1: family of Lydia. Lydia was a kingdom that occupied the
Speaker 1: western section of Anatolia. Roughly speaking in modern shorthand, we're
Speaker 1: talking about the left half of the Asia Minor peninsula,
Speaker 1: so it's part of modern day Turkey. To the west
Speaker 1: sat the Greeks, and to the east or the lands
Speaker 1: of Persia. The Lydia that Crisus was born into was
Speaker 1: very prosperous. When Phrygia, which had been the dominant power
Speaker 1: on the peninsula since around twelve hundred BCE, was attacked
Speaker 1: by Samerians and fell from power circus seven hundred BCE,
Speaker 1: Lydia became the most powerful kingdom in the region. It's
Speaker 1: kind of filled that power vacuum at that point. It
Speaker 1: was ruled by King Jaijis from the newly established Lydian
Speaker 1: capital of Sardis. This also established the Merbnad dynasty after
Speaker 1: Jaiji's came Artists in the mid seventh century BCE, followed
Speaker 1: by Sidides and then Alioities. Aliities was Criesus's father, and
Speaker 1: it's under Aliites that Lydia is said to have really
Speaker 1: hit its apex in terms of power and prosperity. The
Speaker 1: exact dates for the reigns of those kings are pretty fuzzy.
Speaker 1: The main source that's used for them is from Herodotus,
Speaker 1: but if you do the math based on the counts
Speaker 1: of the years that he uses, that math is not
Speaker 1: quite add up. Also, just in general, Herodotus sometimes would
Speaker 1: like to say this is how I heard it, Yes,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. It's one of those things where he
Speaker 1: is listed as a great historian. But as we'll discuss later,
Speaker 1: there's definitely some flexibility with the record, like what serves
Speaker 1: his purpose. But what is less fuzzy is the fact
Speaker 1: that during the years from seven hundred BCE to Creases
Speaker 1: becoming king circa five sixty BCE, Lydia had established itself
Speaker 1: as a very prosperous commercial culture. It is one of
Speaker 1: the earliest cultures known to have instituted the concept of
Speaker 1: retail shops like permanent stores, and the Lydians were minting
Speaker 1: coinage way ahead of the rest of the Western world.
Speaker 1: There is evidence of Chinese coinage that predates the Lydians,
Speaker 1: although the coins that were minted specifically under Creasus more
Speaker 1: closely resemble what we would think of today as coinage.
Speaker 1: When Aliantes died in five sixty BCE, Cresus became king
Speaker 1: and he was thirty five at the time. And Cresus was,
Speaker 1: like a lot of people in his day, very into
Speaker 1: using things like dreams and oracles to predict the future.
Speaker 1: He had two sons, one of them is described again
Speaker 1: by Herodotus as having a very minor disability, and this
Speaker 1: is treated just horribly within the text, says quote. Since
Speaker 1: he is ruined, he doesn't exist for me. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a whole side story about his son that I'm maybe
Speaker 1: gonna save for our casual Friday chat. It's a weird thing.
Speaker 1: But the other son that he had, Adis, was much
Speaker 1: beloved and was the king's pride. And when Cresus had
Speaker 1: a dream that showed Adis being killed by an iron spear,
Speaker 1: Crisus then did everything in his power to shelter his son.
Speaker 1: He arranged for a speedy marriage to give him a
Speaker 1: home life, and he stopped tasking him with going out
Speaker 1: into battle, and he basically tried to keep him safe
Speaker 1: and at home all the time. But ultimately Crisus did
Speaker 1: allow Addis to go on a hunt, and this was
Speaker 1: at his son's request and after much debate, because Adis
Speaker 1: was sort of feeling like, hey, I don't have anything
Speaker 1: to be proud of in our culture at this point
Speaker 1: because you won't let me go to war and I
Speaker 1: can't even go outside the stinks. So he allowed him
Speaker 1: to go on this hunt, and of course, an hunter's
Speaker 1: spear missed the wild board that they were hunting and
Speaker 1: killed Attis, and Creasus reportedly mourned this sun for two
Speaker 1: full years. Lydia is usually cited as the first kingdom
Speaker 1: to mint metal coinage. Under Creasus, the first silver and
Speaker 1: gold coins for Lydia were made, And this is kind
Speaker 1: of reminding us a little bit of the many episodes
Speaker 1: where we have talked about the gold standard being challenged
Speaker 1: by the silver standard in the United States and how
Speaker 1: much strife came out of all that those precious metals
Speaker 1: were part of tender going all the way back to
Speaker 1: the sixth century BCE. Yeah, and the coin type known
Speaker 1: as a cresad, featuring a face off between a lion
Speaker 1: and a bowl was developed during this time, and the
Speaker 1: representation of the lion actually served as a means to
Speaker 1: indicate the purity and the value of the coin. So
Speaker 1: a smaller piece of the lion's body would be stamped
Speaker 1: on a coin to indicate that that coin was a
Speaker 1: smaller denomination than one with a larger, more complete image
Speaker 1: of a lion. And the Lydians really made great strides
Speaker 1: under creases in the purification of gold, enabling them to
Speaker 1: ensure accuracy in these different coins. This is basically the
Speaker 1: beginning of the gold standard, and the wealth was incredible.
Speaker 1: Another name that you've almost certainly heard in connection with
Speaker 1: ridiculous levels of riches as King Midas, and Crisus's very
Speaker 1: great wealth is said to have come from Midas. In
Speaker 1: a way, the Mermnad dynasty allegedly got its extraordinary riches
Speaker 1: in part by collecting it from the river Pactulus, where
Speaker 1: Midas is said to have washed his hands. There were
Speaker 1: also some taxes plundering other kingdoms, including enslaving people from
Speaker 1: those kingdoms. Yeah, they actually gained their riches in a
Speaker 1: number of ways, but that Midas story is one that persists,
Speaker 1: and what defines much of what we know of the
Speaker 1: rule of Cresus is war. And it's said that conflict
Speaker 1: was ultimately what brought Cresus out of his mourning state
Speaker 1: over his son. Once he was refocused on military leadership,
Speaker 1: Creesus was eager to expand his power, and he could
Speaker 1: be ruthless in this quest. Herodotus wrote this of him,
Speaker 1: quote this, Crisus was the first foreigner whom we know
Speaker 1: who subjugated some Greeks and took tribute from them and
Speaker 1: won the friendship of others, the former being the Ionians,
Speaker 1: the Aeolians and the Dorians of Asia, and the latter
Speaker 1: the Lacedaemonians. Before the reign of Cresus, all Greeks were
Speaker 1: free for the Samerian host which invaded Ionia before his
Speaker 1: time did not subjugate the cities that raided and robbed them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so keep in mind as we talk about Cresus, and
Speaker 1: he's an interesting figure, but he was very big on
Speaker 1: enslavement as something new that was not a tradition, that
Speaker 1: was something he instituted in his war making. So we
Speaker 1: mentioned a moment ago that Cresus believed in oracles, but
Speaker 1: he really wanted to run a test to ensure that
Speaker 1: the oracle that he would patronize was going to be
Speaker 1: the best one. So Herodotus wrote that Crisus sent men
Speaker 1: out to various shrines, but after they left the palace
Speaker 1: at Sartis, they had to bide their time for one
Speaker 1: hundred days, so they didn't know what Crisus was doing
Speaker 1: before going to these shrines. And then on the one
Speaker 1: hundredth day, each oracle was supposed to be asked to
Speaker 1: divine what Crisus was doing at that very moment, and
Speaker 1: then all of these messengers would bring back the divinations
Speaker 1: and it would be obvious which oracle or oracles were
Speaker 1: the real deal. The men who had visited the Oracle
Speaker 1: of Delphi at the Temple of Apollo came back with
Speaker 1: the following verse quote, I know the number of the
Speaker 1: grains of sand and the extent of the sea, and
Speaker 1: understand the mute and hear the voiceless. The smell has
Speaker 1: come to my senses of a strong shelled tortoise boiling
Speaker 1: in a cauldron, together with a lamb's flesh under witch's
Speaker 1: bronze and overwitch's bronze. We don't know what any of
Speaker 1: the others divined, because this one was apparently spot on.
Speaker 1: Crisus said that the oracle of Amphiarus had also given
Speaker 1: a quote true answer, but we don't know the wording
Speaker 1: of what that answer specifically was. But in an effort
Speaker 1: to concoct a strange enough event that it would be
Speaker 1: impossible to guess what he had been doing, Crisus had
Speaker 1: cut up a tortoise and a lamb and boiled them
Speaker 1: together in a covered bronze cauldron. So let's move along
Speaker 1: from that less than pleasant image and take a quick
Speaker 1: break and have a word from some of the sponsors
Speaker 1: that keeps stuff you missed in history class going. So,
Speaker 1: Crisus was devoted to the Oracle of Delphi after it
Speaker 1: had successfully uh passed this test. He sacrificed literally thousands
Speaker 1: of animals and burned almost every valuable thing he could
Speaker 1: lay hands on. He also commanded the citizens of Lyddy
Speaker 1: to do the same, and he sent so much gold
Speaker 1: to the temple. There is a line in the translation
Speaker 1: that I read that stated quote. Moreover, he dedicated his
Speaker 1: own wife's necklaces and girdles, which I just found funny
Speaker 1: as things to sacrifice to Apollo. So the goal of
Speaker 1: all of these offerings was to ensure that Crisus got
Speaker 1: good advice from the oracle regarding his military plans, and
Speaker 1: the people he tasked with bringing his many gifts to
Speaker 1: the temple were instructed to get this advice. Two points
Speaker 1: came back. One was that if Criesus were to attack
Speaker 1: the Persians, crossing a river to do so, he would
Speaker 1: destroy a great empire, and two that he should make
Speaker 1: friends with the most powerful Greeks. So, at this point
Speaker 1: in time, the power of the Persians, led by Cyrus
Speaker 1: the Second also known as Cyrus the Great, was expanding.
Speaker 1: We actually talked at some length about Cyrus the Second
Speaker 1: in our episode on the Achemenid Empire in twenty sixteen. Crisus,
Speaker 1: of course wanted to curtail the expansion of the Persian Empire,
Speaker 1: and he started a campaign of his own to make
Speaker 1: sure that Cyrus the Second's forces did not get close
Speaker 1: to Lydia. So Crisus asked the oracle to once again
Speaker 1: tell him the future. They sent messengers to Delphi to
Speaker 1: ask if his reign would be a long one, and
Speaker 1: the reply was quote, when the medics have a mule
Speaker 1: as king, just then, tenderfooted Lydian by the stone, shrewn
Speaker 1: hermus flee and do not stay, and do not be
Speaker 1: ashamed to be a coward. Crisus took this pretty literally,
Speaker 1: and he thought, well, a mule is never going to
Speaker 1: be a king, so this must be telling me that
Speaker 1: my rule is going to be very, very long, and
Speaker 1: I have a lot of power ahead of me. So,
Speaker 1: bolstered and confident, he continued his military campaigning. Over the
Speaker 1: course of his rule, Crisus had attacked Ephesus, than Ionian cities,
Speaker 1: than the cities of Aeolia. According to Herodotus, all all
Speaker 1: of these attacks were based on some sort of reason,
Speaker 1: and in his words quote, he found graver charges where
Speaker 1: he could, but sometimes alleged very pettygrounds of offence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the justified invasions were pretty lightly justified in some cases.
Speaker 1: So next, Crisus set his sights on the islands of
Speaker 1: Greece as a target, and he knew that he was
Speaker 1: going to need to assemble a navy fleet to conquer them,
Speaker 1: so he started up a shipbuilding project. But while this
Speaker 1: was all under way, he was approached by a man
Speaker 1: from the Lesbos capital of Middelein, whose name was either
Speaker 1: Prianna or Pitcus, depending on the source that you read,
Speaker 1: and this man told Crisus that the islanders were actually
Speaker 1: amassing their own ground forces to attack Criesus at Sartis.
Speaker 1: Crisus replied, essentially that he wished they would do that
Speaker 1: because his troops would destroy the Islanders, who had no
Speaker 1: experience in ground battle warfare. In response to this, the
Speaker 1: emissary from Middelein pointed out that in starting a navy
Speaker 1: from scratch, Cresus would be similarly disadvantaged if he tried
Speaker 1: to take on the islander forces. So this put an
Speaker 1: end to Crisus's navy project, and he opted instead to
Speaker 1: form an alliance with the Ionian Islanders. This story cracks
Speaker 1: me up back. Oh yeah, come at me on land,
Speaker 1: and they're like, that's what we say about you coming
Speaker 1: at us on sea. Dude, Yeah, you are not going
Speaker 1: to manage this. During his time as king of Lydia,
Speaker 1: Creesus eventually became the ruler of most of the nations
Speaker 1: and peoples on the peninsula west of the Hallis River
Speaker 1: that was the name of what is now known as
Speaker 1: the Kaziller Mock River. Persians conquered the Median Empire in
Speaker 1: five point fifty BCE, and this was a sobering event
Speaker 1: for Creesus. It became immediately apparent that his own power
Speaker 1: could also be challenged by the Persian forces. This led
Speaker 1: him to try to fortify his own strength through an alliance,
Speaker 1: and this goes back to that advice that he got
Speaker 1: from the Oracle of Delphi, the most powerful Greek state.
Speaker 1: So Crisus had already made an alliance with Amasus, the
Speaker 1: king of Egypt, and he also got the Lacedaemonians and
Speaker 1: then the Spartans, which he believed to be the most
Speaker 1: powerful Greek state, to agree to stand with him. But
Speaker 1: Crisus was not really content with waiting to see what
Speaker 1: would happen with the Persians and getting all of these
Speaker 1: alliances arranged, and he was very impatient, so he just
Speaker 1: decided that he would go right on ahead and invade Anatolia.
Speaker 1: He decided to invade Anatolia, specifically Cappadocia in the eastern
Speaker 1: part of the territory, and that meant he had to
Speaker 1: cross the Hallas River. And the battle that ensued at
Speaker 1: Teria was not what anybody had hoped. It sort of
Speaker 1: ended in a draw. After Teria, Criesus wanted to regroup,
Speaker 1: so he had summoned all of those groups that he
Speaker 1: had allied with to join him in the springtime, five
Speaker 1: months after he sent these messages out to them, so
Speaker 1: that they would have time to assemble their armies and
Speaker 1: travel after the winter, and so then he took his
Speaker 1: own troops and headed back to Sardis. But apparently he
Speaker 1: didn't realize that Cyrus the second and his Persian troops
Speaker 1: had followed him home. When Sartis was attacked by Persia,
Speaker 1: it came just as a complete surprise to Creesus. The
Speaker 1: Lydians scrambled to meet the Persians in battle, and according
Speaker 1: to Herodotus, Cyrus was afraid of the Lydians, but on
Speaker 1: the advice of a Median who was with him, Cyrus
Speaker 1: put his cavalry on the pack camels. The camels drove
Speaker 1: back the Lydian horses because apparently the horses were afraid
Speaker 1: of the camels and their smell, and they retreated even
Speaker 1: as their riders tried to move them forward into battle.
Speaker 1: The Lydian army was forced to fight on foot, and
Speaker 1: ultimately they were defeated by the Persians. Cresus sent word
Speaker 1: to his allies to come and help, but efforts at
Speaker 1: assistants were not enough or came too late. Criesus was
Speaker 1: taken captive, and Sardis was taken by the Persians after
Speaker 1: two weeks of this conflict. So when the Oracle of
Speaker 1: Delphi had told Cries about crossing a river and destroying
Speaker 1: a kingdom, oops, that was his own kingdom that would
Speaker 1: be destroyed. And that story of the mule leading the
Speaker 1: may DAEs empire. Cyrus the Second was half may Days
Speaker 1: and half Persian, the child of two different groups of people,
Speaker 1: So the mule reference was kind of a casual like
Speaker 1: slurry representation. Cresus had in his literalism in interpreting all
Speaker 1: of these words of the oracle, failed to catch any
Speaker 1: of the actual meaning in the oracle's words. We will
Speaker 1: talk about the varied accounts of the end of Creesus's
Speaker 1: life after we pause and have a quick sponsor break.
Speaker 1: In five point forty six BCE, with his defeat by
Speaker 1: Cyrus the Second and the Persian army, the reign of
Speaker 1: Cresus ended. But what happened after this invasion is something
Speaker 1: that again is a little unclear, and that's because there
Speaker 1: are a number of different versions of the story. The Chylides,
Speaker 1: a poet from Greece, tells the story and the odes
Speaker 1: of the Epenetians that Crisus built his own funeral pyre
Speaker 1: and then tried to burn himself to death on it.
Speaker 1: And this was, according to his writing, unsuccessful, because the
Speaker 1: gods intervened before Criesus actually met his final end. Yes
Speaker 1: in that history, it's written quote when he had come
Speaker 1: to that unexpected day, Crisus had no intention of waiting
Speaker 1: any longer for the tears of slavery. He had a
Speaker 1: pyre built before his bronze walled courtyard, and he mounted
Speaker 1: the pyre with his dear wife and his daughters with
Speaker 1: beautiful hair. They were weeping inconsolably. He raised his arms
Speaker 1: to the steep sky and shouted, overweening deity, where is
Speaker 1: the gratitude of the gods? Where is Lord Apollo. So
Speaker 1: just as Criesus had gotten a trusted servant to really
Speaker 1: get the flames going, and as his wife and daughters
Speaker 1: were looking on in tears, the Dao six machina arrives quote.
Speaker 1: But when the flashing force of terrible fire began to
Speaker 1: shoot through the wood, Zeus set a dark rain cloud
Speaker 1: over it and began to quench the golden flame. Nothing
Speaker 1: is unbelievable, which is brought about by the god's ambition.
Speaker 1: Then Apollo shows up, scoops up Creasus and his family,
Speaker 1: and carries them north to Hyperborea, the land of the Giants,
Speaker 1: where they could live safely. So we know that this
Speaker 1: particular version of the story became an important part of
Speaker 1: Greek lore. This moment is represented on a piece of
Speaker 1: art in the louver decorated by Mason, a painter who
Speaker 1: decorated vases in Athens using what is known as red
Speaker 1: figure technique, and Maison's work on the vase that depicts
Speaker 1: this particular subject is dated in the five hundred to
Speaker 1: four ninety BCE range, so we're talking fifty to sixty
Speaker 1: years after Criesus's defeat would have happened. This vase shows
Speaker 1: Crisus sitting on a throne, pouring out a libation onto
Speaker 1: the servant Utamos, while Eutamos is lighting the pyre that
Speaker 1: the throne has been placed upon. There's an inscription on
Speaker 1: the vase that specifically names the king in the image
Speaker 1: as Creesus, so it's not a case of like, well,
Speaker 1: this could be Cresus. The opposite side of the vase
Speaker 1: has a totally different and unrelated scene showing theseus abducting
Speaker 1: the Amazon and Tiape. If you're ever in Paris and
Speaker 1: you want to see it, it is part of the Greek,
Speaker 1: Etruscan and Roman Antiquities collection and is on the first
Speaker 1: floor in the celly wing room six fifty two. So
Speaker 1: after this happened and Creesus was saved by the gods,
Speaker 1: the story goes that Criesus became an ally of the
Speaker 1: leader who followed Cyrus that was Kimbici's the second, and
Speaker 1: along with Cambises, the second, Creesus in this version, then
Speaker 1: traveled to Egypt. That is not the only version of
Speaker 1: this story where Creesus ends up friends with his former
Speaker 1: enemy state. The Persian doctor Cetisius, who was born in Greece,
Speaker 1: wrote an account that suggests that Creesus actually became part
Speaker 1: of Cyrus's court and eventually rose to a point of
Speaker 1: good enough standing that he was appointed governor of Burini.
Speaker 1: Part of what makes the Creasus story so tricky to
Speaker 1: unravel is the fact that he was such a big
Speaker 1: figure culturally that people essentially started writing fan fiction about him,
Speaker 1: and now when we reference it hundreds of years later,
Speaker 1: it's a little hard to know which is fan fiction versus,
Speaker 1: which is actual historical record. And we mentioned one version
Speaker 1: of his faith that was written by Herodotus just a
Speaker 1: moment ago, but that was not the only writing that
Speaker 1: Herodotus did featuring Creases as a protagonist. And another story
Speaker 1: by Herodotus Crisus met with Solon, the lawmaker of Athens,
Speaker 1: whose life ended just as Crisus's reign was starting. And
Speaker 1: this is really a parable about values and happiness. There's
Speaker 1: really no evidence that any of it actually took place
Speaker 1: in the story. Solon, like a lot of important men
Speaker 1: of the day, decided to visit Cresus when the Lydian
Speaker 1: king was at the height of his power. So there's
Speaker 1: actually sort of a fun side story here about why
Speaker 1: Solon the lawmaker would have been out and about traveling.
Speaker 1: This kind of, you know, justifies how this may have
Speaker 1: worked in the writing of Herodotus. So this travel was
Speaker 1: part of a ten year trip. The idea was that
Speaker 1: once Solon had made all of the laws that he
Speaker 1: believed Athens needed to be a fair and just society,
Speaker 1: he promised to stay away from Athens for ten years
Speaker 1: so that he would not be tempted to change or
Speaker 1: repeal any of those laws. Athens wanted to live by
Speaker 1: this set of laws that Solin had carefully penned, and
Speaker 1: so they promised to do so, and they were not
Speaker 1: themselves allowed to make any changes. An interesting governmental experiment,
Speaker 1: to be sure, And yes, Solin is certainly on my
Speaker 1: list for his own episode one day. No telling when
Speaker 1: that might happen in any case. After receiving sullen, Cresus
Speaker 1: basically spent the whole visit entertaining his visitor and then
Speaker 1: making the household staff point out all the expensive things
Speaker 1: that Cresus had just lying around the palace so that
Speaker 1: Solan would understand just how rich and successful the king was.
Speaker 1: And after this little exercise in wealth, show and tell
Speaker 1: creases at soulan quote, my Athenian guest, we have heard
Speaker 1: a lot about you because of your wisdom and of
Speaker 1: your wanderings. How As one who loves learning, you have
Speaker 1: traveled much of the world for the sake of seeing it.
Speaker 1: So now I desire to ask you who is the
Speaker 1: most fortunate man you have seen? And of course the
Speaker 1: king expected that the lawmaker was going to say, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's you, for sure, dude. You have everything like there's
Speaker 1: no reason anybody could ever be any happier than you,
Speaker 1: but he did not say that. Solan instead named an
Speaker 1: Athenian called Tellus as the most fortunate man he knew.
Speaker 1: King Criesus asked for an explanation of Solan's answer, and
Speaker 1: the lawmaker told him that Tellus had been part of
Speaker 1: a prosperous city, a good community, and that he had
Speaker 1: children who grew up to be good people and all
Speaker 1: gave him grandchildren, and that all of his progeny survived,
Speaker 1: and then once Tellas died in battle against the people
Speaker 1: of Eleusis, it was a good and honorable death, and
Speaker 1: that he was honored in his burial. So, after hearing this,
Speaker 1: apparently hoping that he would get a second place spot,
Speaker 1: then asked Solan who he thought was the next most
Speaker 1: fortunate man, and Solan gave two men's names in answer,
Speaker 1: Klebus and Biton of Argive. These two brothers had a
Speaker 1: stable home life, they were physically very strong, and they
Speaker 1: both died after pulling their mother in a wagon five
Speaker 1: miles to the festival of Hara in Argos, as the
Speaker 1: oxen that were intended to convey her were not back
Speaker 1: from the fields in time to do so. Before Klebus
Speaker 1: and Biton died. Everyone present commented that their mother had
Speaker 1: raised great children, and then she prayed to Hara to
Speaker 1: grant her sons the best thing for a man, and
Speaker 1: they both died in their sleep that night after the
Speaker 1: evening's feast. Here's how Herodotus renders the speech about this quote. Crisus,
Speaker 1: you ask me about human affairs, and I know that
Speaker 1: the divine is entirely grudging and troublesome to us. Crisus,
Speaker 1: man is entirely chance to me, you seem to be
Speaker 1: very rich and be king of many people. But I
Speaker 1: cannot answer your question before I learn that you ended
Speaker 1: your life well. He explains in the story that wealth
Speaker 1: is not what leads to happiness, and that one should
Speaker 1: focus instead on good fortune in a more expansive sense.
Speaker 1: So the advice that Solan allegedly gave to Creesus was quote,
Speaker 1: count no man happy until his death. That story actually
Speaker 1: feeds into a version of the tale of Cyrus having
Speaker 1: creases burned alive, in which Cresus has a moment of
Speaker 1: revelation related to Solan's teaching as he is being executed.
Speaker 1: In this version, as Crisus begins to call out Solan's name.
Speaker 1: While on the pyre, Cyrus asks why that was the
Speaker 1: name he invoked, and he was moved by Criesus's realization
Speaker 1: that wealth was meaningless in that moment. Cresus, then released
Speaker 1: from his execution by Cyrus, then asks Cyrus what is
Speaker 1: soldiers are doing. When Cyrus responds that they are sacking
Speaker 1: the city, Creasus tells him, well, it's your city now,
Speaker 1: they're destroying your kingdom, not mine, And then this leads
Speaker 1: to the whole Now where best friends come hang out
Speaker 1: in my court business. In this version, Cyrus the second
Speaker 1: also says he will grant Crisus a request, any request,
Speaker 1: and that the former king asked that his chains be
Speaker 1: taken to Delphi, and that the Pithia be asked why
Speaker 1: Apollo should have him sent to attack Persia since it
Speaker 1: doomed him, and the oracle replied that quote, no one
Speaker 1: may escape his lot, not even a god. Crisus has
Speaker 1: paid for the sin of his ancestor of the fifth
Speaker 1: generation before, who was led by the guile of a
Speaker 1: woman to kill his master. Yeah, things he had no
Speaker 1: part in. He was still paying for for the family dues,
Speaker 1: and that was the whole thing. Ultimately in that story,
Speaker 1: I should point out Crisus does kind of take personal
Speaker 1: responsibility and recognize like, oh, I was the one that
Speaker 1: got the information and acted on it. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: All of these stories of creases being saved at the
Speaker 1: last minute are considered these days to be simply useful
Speaker 1: didactic tale, and some versions of the story actually just
Speaker 1: say that Criesus was killed when Lydia was defeated. Those
Speaker 1: are like translations that have been done by other cultures,
Speaker 1: not not the ones that would be descendants of the Lydians.
Speaker 1: For example. The boring reality is that Crisus kind of
Speaker 1: vanishes from the historical record after the fall of Lydia,
Speaker 1: although his grandson Pytheas does show up later in the
Speaker 1: work of Herodotus. He is also very wealthy, although he
Speaker 1: gets in some very serious and ugly trouble with Xerxes,
Speaker 1: but that is a whole other thing. As for Lydia,
Speaker 1: it became a satrope under a Tabolus, but its treasury
Speaker 1: money kept being managed by a Lydian, which was Pactius.
Speaker 1: And if you play Assassin's Creed, that name may be
Speaker 1: familiar to you as a newcomer to assassin's creed. It's
Speaker 1: not in fact familiar to me. Yet with the leverage
Speaker 1: of that Satrapi's wealth, Pactius was able to hire Greek
Speaker 1: mercenaries in a move to revolt against Persian rule, and
Speaker 1: that ultimately led up to the Persian Wars Oh crisis. Fascinating,
Speaker 1: but I always got to remember, even in the stories,
Speaker 1: you know, where it's like, and then he realized that
Speaker 1: living in life is better, and I'm like, hey, we
Speaker 1: got to address this slavery problem. Well never, it never
Speaker 1: gets addressed. Also, there's a lot of stuff and a
Speaker 1: lot of historical accounts from this time period that really
Speaker 1: seemed to follow literary convention to a point that you're like,
Speaker 1: you know, that's probably a little embellished. I think this
Speaker 1: made a good yarn, but probably not. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't want to, you know, invalidate anybody's belief system, but
Speaker 1: I do not believe that Zeus made a rain cloud
Speaker 1: go just over creases as hire. Yeah. Maybe I know,
Speaker 1: only that I know nothing. Thanks so much for joining
Speaker 1: us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of
Speaker 1: the archive, if you heard an email address or a
Speaker 1: Facebook RL or something similar over the course of the
Speaker 1: show that could be obsolete now. Our current email address
Speaker 1: is History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can find
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