the god meant his
own empire or that of Cyrus: but as he did not comprehend that which was
uttered and did not ask again, let him pronounce himself to be the cause
of that which followed. To him also 103 when he consulted the Oracle for
the last time Loxias said that which he said concerning a mule; but this
also he failed to comprehend: for Cyrus was in fact this mule, seeing
that he was born of parents who were of two different races, his mother
being of nobler descent and his father of less noble: for she was a
Median woman, daughter of Astyages and king of the Medes, but he was a
Persian, one of a race subject to the Medes, and being inferior in all
respects he was the husband of one who was his royal mistress." Thus the
Pythian prophetess replied to the Lydians, and they brought the answer
back to Sardis and repeated it to Croesus; and he, when he heard it,
acknowledged that the fault was his own and not that of the god. With
regard then to the empire of Croesus and the first conquest of Ionia, it
happened thus.

92. Now there are in Hellas many other votive offerings made by Croesus
and not only those which have been mentioned: for first at Thebes of the
Boeotians there is a tripod of gold, which he dedicated to the Ismenian
Apollo; then at Ephesos there are the golden cows and the greater number
of the pillars of the temple; and in the temple of Athene Pronaia at
Delphi a large golden shield. These were still remaining down to my own
time, but others of his votive offerings have perished: and the votive
offerings of Croesus at Branchidai of the Milesians were, as I am told,
equal in weight and similar to those at Delphi. Now those which he sent
to Delphi and to the temple of Amphiaraos he dedicated of his own goods
and as first-fruits of the wealth inherited from his father; but the
other offerings were made of the substance of a man who was his foe, who
before Croesus became king had been factious against him and had joined
in endeavouring to make Pantaleon ruler of the Lydians. Now Pantaleon
was a son of Alyattes and a brother of Croesus, but not by the same
mother, for Croesus was born to Alyattes of a Carian woman, but
Pantaleon of an Ionian. And when Croesus had gained possession of the
kingdom by the gift of his father, he put to death the man who opposed
him, drawing him upon the carding-comb; and his property, which even
before that time he had vowed to dedicate, he then offered in the manner
mentioned t