Croesus, but they authorised Lakrines, one of their principal citizens,
to demand of the great king that he should respect the Hellenic cities,
under pain of incurring their enmity.

[Illustration: 080.jpg THE PRESENT SITE OF MILETUS]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.

Cyrus was fully occupied with the events then taking place in the
eastern regions of Iran; Babylon had not ventured upon any move after
having learned the news of the fall of Sardes, but the Bactrians and the
Sakæ had been in open revolt during the whole of the year that he had
been detained in the extreme west, and a still longer absence might risk
the loss of his prestige in Media, and even in Persia itself.*

* The tradition followed by Ctesias maintained that the
submission of the eastern peoples was an accomplished fact
when the Lydian war began. That adopted by Herodotus placed
this event after the fall of Croesus; at any rate, it showed
that fear of the Bactrians and the Sakæ, as well as of the
Babylonians and Egyptians was the cause that hastened Cyrus'
retreat.

The threat of the Lacedaæmonians had little effect upon him; he
inquired as to what Sparta and Greece were, and having been informed,
he ironically begged the Lacedæmonian envoy to thank his compatriots for
the good advice with which they had honoured him; "but," he added, "take
care that I do not soon cause you to babble, not of the ills of the
Ionians, but of your own." He confided the government of Sardes to one
of his officers, named Tabalos, and having entrusted Paktyas, one of the