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[4]

After Croesus had been taken prisoner and the pyre1 had been quenched, when he observed that the city was being plundered and that much silver and gold, besides everything else, were being carried off, he asked Cyrus, "What are the soldiers doing?" Cyrus laughingly replied, "They are making plunder of your wealth"; whereupon Croesus said, "Not so, by Zeus, but of yours; for Croesus has no longer a thing of his own." And Cyrus, impressed by his words, at once changed his purpose, and putting a stop to the plundering of the soldiers he took the possessions of the inhabitants of Sardis for the Royal Treasury.Const. Exc. 4, pp. 290-291.

1 Which had been prepared for his burning. See above, chap. 2.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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