BABYLON AND PERSIA

"KURUSH, TIIE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 30914. The enumeration of Kroisos' gifts to theDelphic Apollo is too astounding to be passedover.And as they existed in the temple treasuriesand could be seen by visitors in the time of Herod¬otus, he cannot be taxed with exaggeration.Thisis the passage :" Kroisos, having resolved to propitiate the Delphic god with amagnificent sacrifice, offered up three thousand of every kind ofsacrificial beast, and besides made a huge pile and placed upon itcouches coated with silver and with gold, and golden goblets androbes and vests of purple ; all of which he burnt in the hope ofthereby making himself more secure of the favor of the god.Further he issued his orders to all the people of the land to offer as.acrifice according to their means. When the sacrifice was ended,the king melted down a vast quantity of gold * and ran it into ingots,making them six palms long, three palms broad, and one palm inthickness. The number of ingots was one hundred and seventeen,four being of refined gold, the others of pale gold [probably electron,see p. 216]. . . . He also caused a statue of a lion [the royal em¬blem of Lydia, see ill. 33], to be made in refined gold, the weightof which was ten talents. ... On the completion of these works,Kroisos sent them away to Delphi, and with them two bowls \craters'\,of an enormous size, one of gold, the other of silver, which used tostand, the latter upon the right, the former upon the left as one en¬tered the temple. . . . The silver one holds six hundred amphorae[over 5000 gallons]. . . . He sent also four silver casks . . .andtwo histral vases [for holy water]. . . . Besides these various offer¬ings, Kroisos sent to Delphi many others of less account, among therest a number of round silver vases. Also he dedicated a femalefigure in gold, three cubits high, . . . and further he presentedthe necklace and the girdles of his wife."15. There was nothing now to delay Kroisos inthe execution of his cleverly laid plans.If we are to1^ This gold must be understood to have been melted down in theflames of the sacrificial pyre, by way of consecration. On the cus¬tom of burning large quantities of precious things in sacrifice, see" Story of Assyria," p. 122.