sent to consult arrived there and learnt from the Telmessians what the
portent meant to signify, but they did not succeed in reporting the
answer to Croesus, for before they sailed back to Sardis Croesus had
been taken prisoner. The Telmessians however gave decision thus: that an
army speaking a foreign tongue was to be looked for by Croesus to
invade his land, and that this when it came would subdue the native
inhabitants; for they said that the serpent was born of the soil, while
the horse was an enemy and a stranger. The men of Telmessos thus made
answer to Croesus after he was already taken prisoner, not knowing as
yet anything of the things which had happened to Sardis and to Croesus
himself.

79. Cyrus, however, so soon as Croesus marched away after the battle
which had been fought in Pteria, having learnt that Croesus meant after
he had marched away to disband his army, took counsel with himself and
concluded that it was good for him to march as quickly as possible
to Sardis, before the power of the Lydians should be again gathered
together. So when he had resolved upon this, he did it without delay:
for he marched his army into Lydia with such speed that he was himself
the first to announce his coming to Croesus. Then Croesus, although he
had come to a great strait, since his affairs had fallen out altogether
contrary to his own expectation, yet proceeded to lead forth the
Lydians into battle. Now there was at this time no nation in Asia more
courageous or more stout in battle than the Lydian; and they fought on
horseback carrying long spears, the men being excellent in horsemanship.

80. So when the armies had met in that plain which is in front of the
city of Sardis,--a plain wide and open, through which flow rivers (and
especially the river Hyllos) all rushing down to join the largest called
Hermos, which flows from the mountain sacred to the Mother surnamed
"of Dindymos" 95 and runs out into the sea by the city of Phocaia,--then
Cyrus, when he saw the Lydians being arrayed for battle, fearing their
horsemen, did on the suggestion of Harpagos a Mede as follows:--all
the camels which were in the train of his army carrying provisions and
baggage he gathered together, and he took off their burdens and set
men upon them provided with the equipment of cavalry: and having thus
furnished them forth he appointed them to go in front of the rest of
the army towards the horsemen of Croesus; and after the camel-troop he