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it.[59] And consulting the Oracle he inquired whether his monarchy
would endure for a long time. And the Pythian prophetess answered him
thus:

"But when it cometh to pass that a mule of the Medes shall be monarch
Then by the pebbly Hermos, O Lydian delicate-footed,
Flee and stay not, and be not ashamed to be callèd a coward."

56. By these lines when they came to him Crœsus was pleased more than
by all the rest, for he supposed that a mule would never be ruler of
the Medes instead of a man, and accordingly that he himself and his
heirs would never cease from their rule. Then after this he gave
thought to inquire which people of the Hellenes he should esteem the
most powerful and gain over to himself as friends. And inquiring he
found that the Lacedemonians and the Athenians had the pre-eminence,
the first of the Dorian and the others of the Ionian race. For these


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