hands upon those who dwelt in the islands; and when all was prepared
for his building of ships, they say that Bias of Priene (or, according
to another account, Pittacos of Mytilene) came to Sardis, and being
asked by Crœsus whether there was any new thing doing in Hellas,
brought to an end his building of ships by this saying: "O king," said
he, "the men of the islands are hiring a troop of ten thousand horse,
and with this they mean to march to Sardis and fight against thee."
And Crœsus, supposing that what he reported was true, said: "May the
gods put it into the minds of the dwellers of the islands to come with
horses against the sons of the Lydians!" And he answered and said: "O
king, I perceive that thou dost earnestly desire to catch the men of
the islands on the mainland riding upon horses; and it is not
unreasonable that thou shouldest wish for this: what else however
thinkest thou the men of the islands desire and have been praying for
ever since the time they heard that thou wert about to build ships
against them, than that they might catch the Lydians upon the sea, so
as to take vengeance upon thee for the Hellenes who dwell upon the
mainland, whom thou dost hold enslaved?" Crœsus, they say, was greatly
pleased with this conclusion,[23] and obeying his suggestion, for he
judged him to speak suitably, he stopped his building of ships; and
upon that he formed a friendship with the Ionians dwelling in the
islands.

28. As time went on, when nearly all those dwelling on this side the
river Halys had been subdued, (for except the Kilikians and Lykians
Crœsus subdued and kept under his rule all the nations, that is to say
Lydians, Phrygians, Mysians, Mariandynoi, Chalybians, Paphlagonians,
Thracians both Thynian and Bithynian, Carians, Ionians, Dorians,
Aiolians, and Pamphylians),[24] 29, when these, I say, had been
subdued, and while he was still adding to his Lydian dominions, there