Book I

to an end his building of ships by this saying: “O king,” said he, “the men of the islands are hiring a troop of ten thousand horse, and with this they mean to march to Sardis and fight against thee.” And Croesus, supposing that what he reported was true, said: “May the gods put it into the minds of the dwellers of the islands to come with horses against the sons of the Lydians!” And he answered and said: “O king, I perceive that thou dost earnestly desire to catch the men of the islands on the mainland riding upon horses; and it is not unreasonable that thou shouldest wish for this: what else however thinkest thou the men of the islands desire and have been praying for ever since the time they heard that thou wert about to build ships against them, than that they might catch the Lydians upon the sea, so as to take vengeance upon thee for the Hellenes who dwell upon the mainland, whom thou dost hold enslaved?” Croesus, they say, was greatly pleased with this conclusion, and obeying his suggestion, for he judged him to speak suitably, he stopped his building of ships; and upon that he formed a friendship with the Ionians dwelling in the