Although the tradition of the funeral pile of Crœsus has often been attacked by modern critics, principally on the ground that it would have been contrary to the religion of the Persians, after all no valid objection has been brought against it. In condemning Crœsus to the fire the Persians were not acting on their own initiative; they were simply tolerating a usage common to Semitic religions. Death by fire was one of the characteristic traits of Lydian civilisation. A solemn festival was celebrated at Sardis every year, in which the principal divinity of the Lydians, Heracles-Sandon, was represented as perishing on a funeral pile. In delivering himself up to the flames the last king of Lydia was but making himself like a god and securing for himself a glorious end. [See the legend in Appendix A.]
Then by some means of which we are ignorant, perhaps nothing more than an ordinary tempest of rain, the consummation of the sacrifice was prevented.
Crœsus, after his escape from death, found favour with Cyrus, who treated him with great distinction, made him his adviser, and took him with him on his expeditions. The last that is known of him is that he accompanied Cambyses on his Egyptian expedition in 525 B.C.
Such was the end of the house of Gyges. This sudden fall of a powerful empire stupefied the Greeks. Crœsus had dazzled them by his power, his wealth, and his liberality, and they were sorry for him. According to Justin, his fall was considered in all Hellas as a public calamity. The cordial reception and the honours accorded to Greek merchants, soldiers, and artists at his court were not forgotten. His name became familiar, and Greek imagination took delight in embellishing his legend.[c]
Lydian Coins
(Now in the British Museum)
LYDIAN CIVILISATION
The Lydian empire may be described as the industrial power of the ancient world. The Lydians were credited with being the inventors, not only of games such as dice, huckle-bones, and ball, but also of coined money. The oldest known coins are the electrum coins of the earlier Mermnads, stamped on one side with a lion’s head or the figure of a king with bow and quiver; these were replaced by Crœsus with a coinage of pure gold and silver. To the latter monarch were probably due the earliest gold coins of Ephesus.[12] Mr. Head has shown that the electrum coins of Lydia were of two kinds, one weighing 168.4 grains for the inland trade, and another of 224 grains for the trade with Ionia. The standard was the silver “mina of Carchemish,” as the Assyrians called it, which contained 8656 grains.
Originally derived by the Hittites from Babylonia, but modified by themselves, this standard was passed on to the nations of Asia Minor during the period of Hittite conquest, but was eventually superseded by the Phœnician mina of 11,225 grains, and continued to survive only in Cyprus and Cilicia. The inns, which the Lydians were said to have been the first to establish,[13] were connected with their attention to commercial pursuits. Their literature has wholly perished, and the only specimen of their writing we possess is on a marble base found by Mr. Wood at Ephesus.[14]