Cresus

Cresus, the last king of Lydia, succeeded his father, Alyattes, in 560 B.C. He made the Greeks of Asia Minor his tributaries, and extended his kingdom eastward from the Ægean to the Halys. From his conquests, his mines, and the golden sand of the Pactolus, he accumulated so much treasure that his wealth has become a proverb. He gave himself up in his court at Sardis to a life of pleasure and sumptuous extravagance, deemed himself the happiest man in the world, and was displeased when Solon, on a visit to his court, told him that no man should be called happy till his death. He soon found how uncertain was a happiness such as his; for his beloved son Atys was killed while hunting, and there was left to him only one son, who was dumb; whilst in his war with Cyrus he was totally defeated, his kingdom conquered, and himself made prisoner and condemned to be burned (546). At the funeral pyre, his repeated exclamation of ‘O Solon!’ struck the conqueror, who, when told the reason of it, spared his life and treated him with great kindness. As to his death, nothing is known.