ubi cognitum est, Croesus cum rege Babyloniae[1] societatem iniit, veritus ne et ipse a Cyro vinceretur nisi auxilio sociorum confirmatus esset. Idem oratores Delphos[2] ad oraculum misit sciscitatum num bellum Cyro indici oporteret. Cui cum ambigue responsum esset, Croesus Persis obviam ivit. Cum incerto eventu pugnatum esset Croesus Sardes[3] se contulit, ibidem cum Cyro iterum pugnaturus. Is autem nulla interposita mora Sardes recta pergit Croesumque commisso proelio vicit. Quibus rebus gestis Iones dimicare constituerunt, minime ignari Cyrum recens[4] parta victoria non fore contentum, neque multum abesse quin[5] et ipsi eadem pericula quae Croesus subirent.
107.—Neque unquam Iones tantis se periculis quanta tantum non[6] insistere videbant, se opposuere, quamvis tam atrociter adversus Croesum nuper dimicatum esset. Neque eventus spem fefellit: nam brevi bellum indictum est. Aliquamdiu Persis resistebatur donec Persae coactis undique copiis totam Ioniam populati singulas urbes aut vi expugnant, aut obsidione in deditionem venire cogunt. Inde multi ex Ionibus actum esse[7] rati cum domo cessissent novasque sibi sedes quaerere constituissent, naves conscendunt: alii in Italiam transvecti, alii in Thraciam[8] urbes condiderunt. Multi autem domo cedere nolebant rati sibi a Cyro, qua esset humanitate,[9] parsum iri. Itaque Cyrus obsidibus imperatis, praesidioque satis firmo in Ionia relicto, Babylona contendit, eandemque dolo[10] cepit. Mortuo Cyro Cambyses successit: idem Aegypto potitus est.
108.—Mortuo Cambyse, cum nullam masculam stirpem reliquisset, in eius locum Darius dux sapientissimus bellique [xxxx]
- ↑ Babyloniae—the country of which Babylon was the capital. Under Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian empire reached its height and extended from the Euphrates as far as Egypt, embracing also Armenia and Arabia.
- ↑ Delphos—the oracle of Apollo at Delphi in Phocia, in N. Greece.
- ↑ Sardes—the capital of Lydia.
- ↑ recens—adverb, ‘newly.’
- ↑ neque—quin—‘and that not much was wanting but that’ = ‘and that they were near to, etc.;’ multum abesse is impersonal.
- ↑ tantum non—‘all but.’
- ↑ actum esse—49, note.
- ↑ Thraciam—a country to the north of Greece, adjoining Macedonia.
- ↑ qua esset humanitate—‘such was his merciful nature,’ abl. of quality.
- ↑ dolo—by diverting the course of the Euphrates, and entering the city along its bed. Labynetus, the Belshazzar of Scripture, was king at the time.
