herodotus

Milesians were, as I am told, equal in weight and similar to those atDelphi. Now those which he sent to Delphi and to the temple ofAmphiaraos he dedicated of his own goods and as first-fruits of thewealth inherited from his father; but the other offerings were made ofthe substance of a man who was his foe, who before Crœsus became kinghad been factious against him and had joined in endeavouring to makePantaleon ruler of the Lydians. Now Pantaleon was a son of Alyattesand a brother of Crœsus, but not by the same mother, for Crœsus wasborn to Alyattes of a Carian woman, but Pantaleon of an Ionian. Andwhen Crœsus had gained possession of the kingdom by the gift of hisfather, he put to death the man who opposed him, drawing him upon thecarding-comb; and his property, which even before that time he hadvowed to dedicate, he then offered in the manner mentioned to thoseshrines which have been named. About his votive offerings let itsuffice to have said so much.93. Of marvels to be recorded the land of Lydia has no great store ascompared with other lands,[104] excepting the gold-dust which iscarried down from Tmolos; but one work it has to show which is largerfar than any other except only those in Egypt and Babylon: for thereis there the sepulchral monument of Alyattes the father of Crœsus, ofwhich the base is made of larger stones and the rest of the monumentis of earth piled up. And this was built by contributions of those whopractised trade and of the artisans and the girls who plied theirtraffic there; and still there existed to my own time boundary-stonesfive in number erected upon the monument above, on which were carvedinscriptions telling how much of the work was done by each class; andupon measurement it was found that the work of the girls was thegreatest in amount. For the daughters of the common people in Lydiapractice prostitution one and all, to gather for themselves dowries,continuing this until the time when they marry; and the girls givethemselves away in marriage. Now the circuit of the monument is sixfurlongs and two hundred feet,[105] and the breadth is thirteenhundred feet.[106] And adjoining the monument is a great lake, whichthe Lydians say has a never-failing supply of water, and it is calledthe lake of Gyges.[107] Such is the nature of this monument.94. Now the Lydians have very nearly the same customs as the Hellenes,with the exception that they prostitute their female children; andthey were the first of men, so far as we know, who struck and usedcoin of gold or silver; and also they were the first retail-traders.And the Lydians themselves say that the games which are now in useamong them and among the Hellenes were also their invention. Thesethey say were invented among them at the same time as they colonisedTyrsenia,[108] and this is the account they give of them:--In thereign of Atys the son of Manes their king there came to be a grievous