BABYLON AND PERSIA

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 315one even the account of the quantity of preciousthings laid on the pyre.* If Kroisos prayed aloud,he certainly prayed that the sun-god might ac¬cept the self-offered victim and show mercy tohis people. When a heavy shower interruptedthe self-immolation in the very act of consumma¬tion, it was most natural to interpret it asa signthat the god rejected the sacrifice. Nor is it un¬reasonable to believe that the humane and sensibleKyros took occasion from it to urge his deeplybowed captive to give up his desperate intent,assuring him of treatment befitting a noble foe anda king, or that KroLsos, finding out what manner ofman this was that had conquered him, yielded hiswill to him and consented to live, henceforth hiscaptive no longer, but his friend.f Kyros, who didnot do generous things by halves, gave him a city inthe neighborhood of Agbatana, the income fromwhich was to provide for his wants, and became somuch attached to the gentle and wise quondam king,that he seldom dispensed with* his company even inhis, most distant expeditions, always asked and oftenfoilowed his advice, and before his death is saidto have commended his son Kambyses to his kindand watchful care, knowing how much the rash andheadstrong youth needed a counsellor and modera¬tor. The grandson of Kroisos, an infant at the timeof the disaster, lived to a great old age, and is men-*See above, p.309, the account of Kroisos' great sacrifice inhonor of the Delphic Apollo, and " Story of Assyria," pp. 120-139.fSee Duncker, vol. IV., pp. 330-332 I a'so Ed. Meyer, "Ges¬chichte des Alterthums," vol. L, p. 604,