CROESUS, last king of Lydia, of the Mermnad dynasty B.e.), succeeded his father Alyattes after a war with his half-brother. He completed the conquest of Ionia by cap turing Ephesus, Miletus and other places, but lack of sea-power forced him to give up his project of subduing the islands, whom he enlisted as allies. He also allied himself with Sparta, and ex tended the Lydian empire as far as the Halys. His wealth, due to trade, was proverbial. He was also a client of the oracle at Delphi, where a number of rich gifts of his dedication were seen by Herodotus. Various legends were told about him by the Greeks, one of the most famous being that of Solon's visit to him with the lesson it conveyed of the divine nemesis which waits upon overmuch prosperity (Hdt. i. 29, seq.: but see SoLON). After the overthrow of the Median empire ( 549 B.C.) Croesus found himself confronted by the rising power of Cyrus, and along with Nabonidus of Babylon took measures to resist it. A coali tion was formed between the Lydian and Babylonian kings, Egypt promised troops and Sparta its fleet, and Croesus took the initia tive by invading Cappadocia. After an indecisive battle at Pteria he returned to Sardis to' gather the forces of the confederacy. Cyrus followed him, took him completely by surprise, and stormed Sardis. We may gather from Bacchylides (iii., 23-62) that he hoped to escape his conqueror by burning himself on a funeral pyre, but that he fell into the hands of Cyrus. A different version of the story is given (from Lydian sources) by Herodotus (followed by Xenophon), who makes Cyrus condemn his prisoner to be burnt alive. Apollo, however, came to the rescue of his worshipper with a rainstorm, and the name of Solon uttered by Croesus resulted in his deliverance. According to Ctesias, who uses Persian sources, and says nothing of the attempt to burn Croesus, he subsequently became attached to the court of Cyrus and received the governorship of Barene in Media. Fragments of columns from the temple of Artemis now in the British Museum have upon them a dedication by Croesus in Greek.
See R. Schubert, De Croeso et Solone f abula (1868) ; M. G. Radet, La Lydie et le monde gree au temps des Mermnades (1892 1893) ; A. S. Murray, Journ. Hell. Studies, x. pp. I-10 (1889) ; Cambridge Ancient History, vol. iii. (1925) ; for the supposition that Croesus did actually perish on his own pyre see G. B. Grundy, Great Persian War, p. 28; Grote, Hist. of Greece (ed. 2907), P. 104. Cf.