nts to the men of Delphi, Croesus consulted the
Oracle the third time; for from the time when he learnt the truth of
the Oracle, he made abundant use of it. 59 And consulting the Oracle
he inquired whether his monarchy would endure for a long time. And the
Pythian prophetess answered him thus:

"But when it cometh to pass that a mule of the Medes shall be monarch
Then by the pebbly Hermos, O Lydian delicate-footed,
Flee and stay not, and be not ashamed to be called a coward."

56. By these lines when they came to him Croesus was pleased more than
by all the rest, for he supposed that a mule would never be ruler of the
Medes instead of a man, and accordingly that he himself and his heirs
would never cease from their rule. Then after this he gave thought to
inquire which people of the Hellenes he should esteem the most powerful
and gain over to himself as friends. And inquiring he found that the
Lacedemonians and the Athenians had the pre-eminence, the first of the
Dorian and the others of the Ionian race. For these were the most
eminent races in ancient time, the second being a Pelasgian and the
first a Hellenic race: and the one never migrated from its place in any
direction, while the other was very exceedingly given to wanderings; for
in the reign of Deucalion this race dwelt in Pthiotis, and in the time
of Doros the son of Hellen in the land lying below Ossa and Olympos,
which is called Histiaiotis; and when it was driven from Histiaiotis by
the sons of Cadmos, it dwelt in Pindos and was called Makednian; and
thence it moved afterwards to Dryopis, and from Dryopis it came finally
to Peloponnesus, and began to be called Dorian.

57. What language however the Pelasgians used to speak I am not able
with certainty to say. But if one must pronounce judging by those that
still remain of the Pelasgians who dwelt in the city of Creston 60 above
the Tyrsenians, and who were once neighbours of the race now called
Dorian, dwelling then in the land which is now called Thessaliotis, and
also by those that remain of the Pelasgians who settled at Plakia
and Skylake in the region of the Hellespont, who before that had been
settlers with the Athenians, 61 and of the natives of the various other
towns which are really Pelasgian, though they have lost the name,--if
one must pronounce judging by these, the Pelasgians used to speak a
Barbarian language. If therefore all the Pelasgian race was such as
these, then the Attic race,