Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/112

84 securing the seaboard of Asia Minor. When he had been reigning about ten years he had pushed on his conquest to the west as far as Cappadocia, and there only remained between him and the shore of the Mediterranean, the kingdom of Lydia. Croesus, conscious of his danger, doubted for some time whether it would be best to await the attack at home or to cross the Halys into Cappadocia and, securing that district against the encroaching Cyrus, meet and defeat him there. He tried to strengthen himself with alliances with Labynetus of Babylon and Amasis, King of Egypt, whose interest it was that Cyrus should be weakened. He also turned his eyes to European Greece, and showed his knowledge of Greek feeling by beginning at Delphi. Having, it is said, convinced himself by a strange test that the oracle of Delphi was the one most to be depended upon, he sent presents of extraordinary magnificence to the temple. Other seats of Greek oracles were propitiated by his gifts, but those sent to Delphi surpassed all others in splendour. His envoys consulted the Pythia, and received in answer to their question, the enigmatic response that if Croesus attacked the Persians he would destroy a great empire. She added the advice that he should seek an alliance with the most powerful state in Greece. There was at this time no doubt of Sparta occupying that position as a military power, though it seems probable that for the king's purposes the absence of naval strength made their alliance of little value. But the Pythia had reasons for supporting the prestige of Sparta, and the king's choice of that