easy circulation through many hands."

The same must be said of the pieces of money which have been assigned
to his successors, and, even when we find on them traces of writing, we
cannot be sure of their identification; one legend which was considered
to contain the name of Sadyattes has been made out, without producing
conviction, as involving, instead, that of Clazomenæ. There is no
certainty until after the time of Alyattes, that is, in the reign of
Croesus. It is, as a fact, to this prince that we owe the fine gold and
silver coins bearing on the obverse a demi-lion couchant confronting
a bull treated similarly.* The two creatures appear to threaten one
another, and the introduction of the lion recalls a tradition regarding
the city of Sardes; it may represent the actual animal which was alleged
to have been begotten by King Meles of one of his concubines, and which
he caused to be carried solemnly round the city walls to render them
impregnable.

Croesus did not succeed to the throne of his father without trouble. His
enemies had not laid down their arms after the Carian campaign, and they
endeavoured to rid themselves of him by all the means in use at Oriental
courts. The Ionian mother of his rival furnished the slave who kneaded
the bread with poison, telling her to mix it with the dough, but the
woman revealed the intended crime to her master, who at once took the
necessary measures to frustrate the plot; later on in life he dedicated
in the temple of Delphi a statue of gold representing the faithful
bread-maker.** The chief of the rival party seems to have been
Sadyattes, the banker from whom Croesus had endeavoured to borrow money
at the beginning of his career, but several of the Lydian nobles, whose
exercise of feudal rights had been restricted by the growing authority
of the Mermnado, either secretly or openly gave their adhesion to