a itself.*

* The tradition followed by Ctesias maintained that the
submission of the eastern peoples was an accomplished fact
when the Lydian war began. That adopted by Herodotus placed
this event after the fall of Croesus; at any rate, it showed
that fear of the Bactrians and the Sakae, as well as of the
Babylonians and Egyptians was the cause that hastened Cyrus'
retreat.

The threat of the Lacedaaemonians had little effect upon him; he
inquired as to what Sparta and Greece were, and having been informed,
he ironically begged the Lacedaemonian envoy to thank his compatriots for
the good advice with which they had honoured him; "but," he added, "take
care that I do not soon cause you to babble, not of the ills of the
Ionians, but of your own." He confided the government of Sardes to one
of his officers, named Tabalos, and having entrusted Paktyas, one of the
Lydians who had embraced his cause, with the removal of the treasures
of Croesus to Persia, he hastily set out for Ecbatana. He had scarcely
accomplished half of his journey when a revolt broke out in his rear;
Paktyas, instead of obeying his instructions, intrigued with the
Ionians, and, with the mercenaries he had hired from them, besieged
Tabalos in the citadel of Sardes. If the place capitulated, the entire
conquest would have to be repeated; fortunately it held out, and
its resistance gave Cyrus time to send its governor reinforcements,
commanded by Mazares the Median. As soon as they approached the city,
Paktyas, conscious that he had lost the day, took refuge at Kyme. Its
inhabitants, on being summoned to deliver him up, refused, but helped
him to escape to Mytilene, where the inhabitants of the island attempted
to sell him to the enemy for a large sum of money. The Kymaeans saved him
a second time, and conveyed him to the temple of Athene Poliarchos
at Chios. The citizens, however, dragged him from his retreat, and
delivered him over to the Median general in exchange for Atarneus, a
district of Mysia, the possession of which they were disputing with the
Lesbians.* Paktyas being a prisoner, the Lydians were soon recalled
to order, and Mazares was able to devote his entire energies to the
reduction of the Greek cities; but he had accomplished merely the sack
of Priene,** and the devastation of the suburbs of Magnesia on the
aeander, when he died from some illness.

* A passage which has been preserved of Charon of L