herodotus

the victory for themselves, the one side saying that of them more hadremained alive, and the others declaring that these had fled away,whereas their own man had stood his ground and had stripped thecorpses of the other party: and at length by reason of this disputethey fell upon one another and began to fight; and after many hadfallen on both sides, the Lacedemonians were the victors. The Argivesthen cut their hair short, whereas formerly they were compelled by lawto wear it long, and they made a law with a curse attached to it, thatfrom that time forth no man of the Argives should grow the hair longnor their women wear ornaments of gold, until they should have wonback Thyrea. The Lacedemonians however laid down for themselves theopposite law to this, namely that they should wear long hair from thattime forward, whereas before that time they had not their hair long.And they say that the one man who was left alive of the three hundred,namely Othryades, being ashamed to return to Sparta when all hiscomrades had been slain, slew himself there in Thyrea. 83. Such wasthe condition of things at Sparta when the herald from Sardis arrivedasking them to come to the assistance of Crœsus, who was beingbesieged. And they notwithstanding their own difficulties, as soon asthey heard the news from the herald, were eager to go to hisassistance; but when they had completed their preparations and theirships were ready, there came another message reporting that thefortress of the Lydians had been taken and that Crœsus had been madeprisoner. Then (and not before) they ceased from their efforts, beinggrieved at the event as at a great calamity.84. Now the taking of Sardis came about as follows:--When thefourteenth day came after Crœsus began to be besieged, Cyrus madeproclamation to his army, sending horsemen round to the several partsof it, that he would give gifts to the man who should first scale thewall. After this the army made an attempt; and when it failed, thenafter all the rest had ceased from the attack, a certain Mardian whosename was Hyroiades made an attempt to approach on that side of thecitadel where no guard had been set; for they had no fear that itwould ever be taken from that side, seeing that here the citadel isprecipitous and unassailable. To this part of the wall alone Melesalso, who formerly was king of Sardis, did not carry round the lionwhich his concubine bore to him, the Telmessians having given decisionthat if the lion should be carried round the wall, Sardis should besafe from capture: and Meles having carried it round the rest of thewall, that is to say those parts of the citadel where the fortress wasopen to attack, passed over this part as being unassailable andprecipitous: now this is a part of the city which is turned towardsTmolos. So then this[97] Mardian Hyroiades, having seen on the daybefore how one of the Lydians had descended on that side of thecitadel to recover his helmet which had rolled down from above, and