Croesus’ Wealth

Sham S. Misri

Croesus was the king of Lydia modern Turkey around 550 BC. This last king of Lydia conquered the Greeks but was in turn defeated by the Persians. Croesus was renowned for his wealth.His palaces were full of treasures. Once the famous law giver by name Solon,  was travelling there to observe their customs. Croesus received Solon with great distinction, and showed him all his treasures.He is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardized purity for general circulation. However, they were quite crude, and were made of an alloy of gold and silver. In 546 BC, Croesus was defeated and captured by the Persians, who then adopted gold as the main metal for their coins.

Croesus was friendly to many. Once he gave refuge to a Greek prince. Herodotus tells that the prince had exiled himself to Lydia after accidentally killing his brother. King Croesus welcomed him but then the prince accidentally killed Croesus' son. The prince then committed suicide. Croesus did not have good relations with the Greeks. He began preparing a campaign against Cyrus the Great of Persia. Before setting out he met a wise man to inquire whether he should pursue this campaign. The wise man answered, with typical ambiguity, that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would destroy a great empire.

Croesus, however, launched his campaign against the Persian Empire in 547 BC. A  battle was fought. As per the custom in those days, the armies would disband for winter and Croesus did accordingly. Cyrus did not. Then Cyrus attacked Croesus in Sardis, which was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia (Modern Turkey). Cyrus captured Croesus.

            Herodotus a historian tells- Croesus was placed upon a great pyre by Cyrus' orders.  Cyrus wanted to see if any of the heavenly powers would appear to save him from being burned alive. The pile was set ablaze, and as Cyrus the Great watched he saw Croesus call out "Solon" three times. He asked the interpreters to find out why he said this word with such acquaintance and agony. The interpreters returned the answer that Solon had warned Croesus of the fickleness of good fortune: This touched Cyrus, who realized that he and Croesus were much the same man, and he bade the servants to quench the blazing fire as quickly as they could. They tried to do this, but the flames were not to be mastered. According to the story, Croesus called out to Apollo and prayed to him. The sky had been clear and the day without a breath of wind, but soon dark clouds gathered and a storm with rain of such violence that the flames were speedily extinguished. Cyrus convinced by this that Croesus was a good man, made Croesus an advisor who served Cyrus ‘well’.

            In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus is associated with a wealthy man. Croesus' wealth remained proverbial in English, expressions: The phrase "as rich as Croesus" having been a common proverb in all the modern languages of Europe for many centuries. It was to this Croesus, king of Lydia, whose story relates, the proverb. Croesus died in 546 BC.

King Candaules

Sham S. Misri

The story is based on the work from- The Histories of Herodotus, who is called the father of history.

Candaules, King of Lydia, modern Turkey, was a dishonest and a despot king. He had, a very beautiful and modest wife, whose name was Nyssia. King Candaules was very proud of the beauty of his queen, and boasted of his wife’s charming beauty to his favourite bodyguard, who was a slave, a personal favourite and boon companion of the king.

  Once, when the king was boasting of his wife's charms to the bodyguard, he said that the beauty of the queen, her form and figure, when unrobed, was even more wonderful than that of her features. The king growing more and more excited, and being under influence of wine, declared that the bodyguard should see for himself. The king would conceal the bodyguard, in the queen's bed-chamber, while she would be undressing for the night.

 “It appears you don’t believe me when I tell you how lovely and beautiful my wife is,” said King Candaules. “A man always believes his eyes better than his ears; so, do as I tell you make a scheme to see her naked.”

The body guard refused; he did not want to dishonor the Queen by seeing her nude body. “It would be doing the innocent queen a great wrong”, said the body guard, He assured the king, too, that he believed fully all that he said about queen's beauty. The body guard  begged him not to insist upon a proposal with which it would be criminal to comply. King Candaules insisted upon showing his body guard his wife when unrobed.  However, when the body guard had no choice but to obey. Candaules made a plan by which bodyguard would hide behind a door in the royal bedroom to observe the Queen disrobing before bed. Body guard would then leave the room while the Queen’s back was turned.  That night, the plan was executed. However, the Queen saw the body guard as he left the room, and recognized immediately that she had been betrayed and shamed by her own husband. She silently swore to have her revenge, and began to arrange her own plan.

The next day, the Queen summoned bodyguard to her chamber.The body guard thought that it was a routine request. He went politely to her chamber. When the Queen saw him enter her room, she was furious. She confronted him immediately with her knowledge of his misdeed and her husband’s.

 “One of you must die,” she declared. “Either my husband, the author of this wicked plot; or you, who dared seeing me naked.”  The bodyguard pleaded with the Queen not to force him to make this choice. She was harsh and persistent. He finally chose to betray and deceive the King so that he should live.

The Queen prepared the bodyguard to kill King Candaules, her own husband by the same manner in which she was shamed. The bodyguard hid behind the door of the bedroom chamber with a knife provided by the Queen, and killed him in his sleep. The bodyguard Gyges married the Queen and became King, and father to the Memnad Dynasty.

Herodotus-

Sham S. Misri 

Herodotus was a Greek historian, a philosopher and a scholar. He was born in the year 484 before Christ. He was a man of wealth and occupied a good position in society. He was energetic and led a very romantic and adventurous career in his travels. It was the custom in Greece, at that time, to give young men a good intellectual education. In other nations, more emphasis was given to the use of arms, to horsemanship, to athletic feats, and other accomplishments as would enable them to excel in public games, and fight against their enemies in the battle fields. The Greeks taught their young men to read and to write and, explained to them the philosophy of language. They trained them to study of the poets, the orators, and the historians which their country had produced. Thus, in addition to the wrestling, the races, the games, and the military spectacles, there were certain literary entertainments which constituted an essential part of the public pleasures. Tragedies were acted, poems recited, odes and lyrics sung.
 When Herodotus first went to Egypt, he spent some time in that country, and made himself minutely acquainted with its history. He studied its antiquities, and its political and social condition, at the time of his visit. He took many notes of all that he saw. From Egypt he went westward into Libya, and thence he traveled slowly along the whole southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea as far as to the Straits of Gibraltar. He noted many things with great care.
 The Straits of Gibraltar were the ends of the earth toward the westward in those ancient days. He visited Tyre, and the cities of Phœnicia, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. He then went to Assyria and Babylon. It was here that he obtained the materials for what he has written in respect to the Medes and Persians, and to the history of Cyrus. After spending some time in these countries, he went on by land still further to the eastward, into the heart of Asia. The country of Scythia was considered as at "the end of the earth" in this direction. Herodotus penetrated for some distance into the almost trackless wilds of this remote land, until he reached the shores of the Ægean Sea. He then came back into Greece. To make such a journey in those days was almost to explore the whole known world.
Some confer upon him the title of the father of history; while others call him the father of lies. After his return, Herodotus became involved in some political disturbances and difficulties in his native state. He was exiled to the island of Samos. Here he lived for some time in seclusion and started writing out his history.

The nine-volume work was written between 450BC to 420BC and records ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that were known around the Mediterranean and Western Asia at that time.  In the first volume there is the story of King Candaules* (read my next blog), who according to the tale bragged of his wife’s incredible beauty to his favourite bodyguard Gyges. After many years later, Evangelist John, wrote the Book of Revelation near the same place of the island of Samos.

When a few of the first books of his history were completed, Herodotus went with the manuscript to Olympia. That time the great celebration of the 81st Olympiad was to be performed. The Olympiads were periods recurring at intervals of about four years. By means of them the Greeks reckoned their time. The Olympiads were celebrated as they occurred, with games, shows, spectacles, and parades. They were conducted on so magnificent a scale that vast crowds assembled from every part of Greece to witness and join in them. They were held at Olympia, a city on the western side of Greece. Nothing now remains to mark the spot except some ruins.

The personal fame of Herodotus and of his travels had preceded him. When he reached Olympia he found the great curiosity among the people to listen to his narratives. He read many extracts from his accounts. He was received with applause by the generals, the philosophers, and the scholars of Greece. Herodotus was greatly gratified at the interest which his countrymen took in his narratives, and he determined thenceforth to devote his time to the continuation and completion of his work.
It was twelve years, however, before his plan was finally accomplished. He then went to Athens. That time a grand festive celebration was being held in that city, and there he appeared in public again, and read extended portions of the additional books that he had written. The admiration and applause which his work now elicited was even greater than before. Herodotus selected and read such an exciting history that aroused the interest of his Grecian hearers. Many of them were glowing accounts of Grecian exploits in former wars which had been waged in the countries which he had visited.
The Athenians were greatly pleased with the narratives which Herodotus thus read to them of their own and of their ancestors' exploits. They considered him a national benefactor for having made such a record of their deeds. They honored him much and bestowed upon him a public grant of a large sum of money. During the remainder of his life Herodotus continued to enjoy the high degree of literary renown which his writings had acquired for him.