er him, despite the despotism which ruled over Athens
for the succeeding fifty years.

_THE FORTUNE OF CROESUS._

The land of the Hellenes, or Greeks, was not confined to the small
peninsula now known as Greece. Hellenic colonies spread far to the east
and the west, to Italy and Sicily on the one hand, to Asia Minor and the
shores of the Black Sea on the other. The story of the Argonauts
probably arose from colonizing expeditions to the Black Sea. That of
Croesus has to do with the colonies in Asia Minor.

These colonies clung to the coast. Inland lay other nations, to some
extent of Hellenic origin. One of these was the kingdom of Lydia, whose
history is of the highest importance to us, since the conflicts between
Lydia and the coast colonies were the first steps towards the invasion
of Greece by the Persians, that most important event in early Grecian
history.

These conflicts began in the reign of Croesus, an ambitious king of
Lydia in the sixth century before Christ. What gave rise to the war
between Lydia and the Greek settlements of Ionia and AEolia we do not
very well know. An ambitious despot does not need much pretext for war.
He wills the war, and the pretext follows. It will suffice to say that,
on one excuse or another, Croesus made war on every Ionian and AEolian
state, and conquered them one after the other.

First the great and prosperous city of Ephesus fell. Then, one by one,
others followed, till, by the year 550 B.C., Croesus had become lord
and master of every one of those formerly free and wealthy cities and
states. Then, having placed all the colonies on the mainland under
tribute, he designed to conquer the islands as well, and proposed to
build ships for that purpose. He was checked in this plan by the shrewd
answer of one of the seven wise men of Greece, either Bias or Pittacus,
who had visited Sardis, the capital of Lydia.

"What news bring you from Greece?" asked King Croesus of his wise
visitor.

"I am told that the islanders are gathering ten thousand horse, with the
purpose of attacking you and your capital," was the answer.

"What!" cried Croesus. "Have the gods given these shipmen such an idea
as to fight the Lydians with cavalry?"

"I fancy, O king," answered the Greek, "that nothing would please you
better than to catch these islanders here on horseback. But do you not
think that they would like nothing better than to catch you at sea on
shipboard? Would they not aven