Not long afterwards,
led away by the ambiguous answers of the oracles, he conducted a large
army into the field against Cyrus, the future conqueror of Babylon, but
was defeated, and obliged to return to his capital, where he shut
himself up. Hither he was soon followed and besieged by Cyrus, with a
far inferior force; but, at the expiration of fourteen days, the
citadel, which had been deemed impregnable, was taken by a stratagem,
and Croesus was condemned to the flames. When the sentence was about to
be executed, he was heard to invoke the name of Solon, and the curiosity
of Cyrus being excited, he asked the cause; and, having heard his
narrative, ordered him to be set free, and subsequently received him
into his confidence.
[Illustration: SARDIS.]
Under the Romans, Sardis declined in importance, and, being destroyed by
an earthquake, for some time lay desolate, until it was rebuilt by the
Roman Emperor Tiberius.
The situation of Sardis is very beautiful, but the country over which it
looks is almost deserted, and the valley is become a swamp. The hill of
the citadel, when seen from the opposite bank of the Hermus, appears of
a triangular form; and at the back of it rise ridge after ridge of
mountains, the highest covered with snow, and many of them bearing
evident marks of having been jagged and distorted by earthquakes.
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