fe, as far as we can judge,
seems to have reached the longer of the two periods; and not the least
honorable part of it (the resistance to Pisistratus) occurs immediately
before his death.

There prevailed a story that his ashes were collected and scattered
around the island of Salamis, which Plutarch treats as absurd--though he
tells us at the same time that it was believed both by Aristotle and by
many other considerable men. It is at least as ancient as the poet
Cratinus, who alluded to it in one of his comedies, and I do not feel
inclined to reject it. The inscription on the statue of Solon at Athens
described him as a Salaminian; he had been the great means of acquiring
the island for his country, and it seems highly probable that among the
new Athenian citizens, who went to settle there, he may have received a
lot of land and become enrolled among the Salaminian _demots_. The
dispersion of his ashes connecting him with the island as its _oecist_,
may be construed, if not as the expression of a public vote, at least as
a piece of affectionate vanity on the part of his surviving friends.

CONQUESTS OF CYRUS THE GREAT

B.C. 538

GEORGE GROTE

On the destruction of Nineveh three great Powers still stood on
the stage of history, being bound together by the strong ties of a
mutually supporting alliance. These were Media, Lydia, and Babylon.
The capital of Lydia was Sardis. According to Herodotus, the first
king of Lydia was Manes. In the semi-mythic period of Lydian
history rose the great dynasty of the [Greek: Heraclidae], which
reigned for 505 years, numbering twenty-two kings--B.C. 1229 to
B.C. 745. The Lydians are said by Herodotus to have colonized
Tyrrhenia, in the Italic peninsula, and to have extended their
conquests into Syria, where they founded Ascalon in the territory
later known as Palestine.

In the reign of Gyges, B.C. 724, they began to attack the Greek
cities of Asia Minor: Miletus, Smyrna, and Priene. The glory of the
Lydian Empire culminated in the reign of [Greek: Croesus], the
fifth and last historic king, B.C. 568. The well-known story of
Solon's warning to [Greek: Croesus] was full of ominous import with
regard to the ultimate downfall of the Lydian Empire: "For thyself,
O Croesus," said the Greek sage in answer to the question, "Who is
the happiest man?" I see that thou art wonderfully