ing to invade_ Cyrus, _a certain
_Lydian_ called _Sandanis_ advised him, that he was preparing an expedition
against a nation who were cloathed with leathern breeches, who eat not such
victuals as they would, but such as their barren country afforded; who
drank no wine, but water only, who eat no figs nor other good meat, who had
nothing to lose, but might get much from the _Lydians__: _for the
_Persians__, saith _Herodotus_, _before they conquered the _Lydians_, had
nothing rich or valuable_: and [417] _Isaiah_ tells us, that _the _Medes_
regarded not silver, nor delighted in gold_; but the _Lydians_ and
_Phrygians_ were exceeding rich, even to a proverb: _Midas & Croesus_,
saith [418] _Pliny, infinitum possederant. Jam Cyrus devicta Asia_ [auri]
_pondo xxxiv millia invenerat, praeter vasa aurea aurumque factum, & in eo
folia ac platanum vitemque. Qua victoria argenti quingenta millia
talentorum reportavit, & craterem Semiramidis cujus pondus quindecim
talentorum colligebat. Talentum autem AEgyptium pondo octoginta capere Varro
tradit._ What the conqueror did with all this gold and silver appears by
the _Darics_. The _Lydians_, according to [419] _Herodotus_, were the first
who coined gold and silver, and _Croesus_ coined gold monies in plenty,
called _Croesei_; and it was not reasonable that the monies of the Kings of
_Lydia_ should continue current after the overthrow of their Kingdom, and
therefore _Darius_ recoined it with his own effigies, but without altering
the current weight and value: he Reigned then from before the conquest of
_Sardes_ 'till after the conquest of _Babylon_.

And since the cup of _Semiramis_ was preserved 'till the conquest of
_Croesus_ by _Darius_, it is not probable that she could be older than is
represented by _Herodotus_.

This conquest of the Kingdom of _Lydia_ put the _Greeks_ into fear of the
_Medes_: for _Theognis_, who lived at _Megara_ in the very times of these
wars, writes thus, [420]

[Greek: Pinomen, charienta met' alleloisi legontes,]
[Greek: Meden ton Medon deidiotes polemon.]

_Let us drink, talking pleasant things with one another,_
_Not fearing the war of the _Medes_._

And again, [421]

[Greek: Autos de straton hybristen Medon aperyke]
[Greek: Tesde poleus, hina soi laoi en euphrosynei]
[Greek: Eros eperchomenou kleitas pempos' hekatombas,]
[Greek: Terpomenoi kithare kai eratei thaliei,]
[Greek: Paianonte chorois, iachosi te, son peri bomo