...and: for the snake, they said, was the offspring of the land, but the horse was an enemy and a foreigner. This was the answer which the Telmessians gave Croesus, knowing as yet nothing of the fate of Sardis and of the king himself; but when they gave it, Croesus was already taken. When Croesus marched away after the battle in the Pterian country, Cyrus, learning that Croesus had gone intending to d...