The Lydians began the attack by crossing the Halys and entering the enemy’s territory.  The first battle took place at Pteria in Cappadocia, near Sinope on the Euxine, but was indecisive.  Both parties fought bravely, and the slaughter on both sides was dreadful, the Lydians being the most numerous, and the Persians the most highly disciplined.  After the battle of Pteria, Croesus withdrew his army to his own territories and retired upon his capital, with a view of augmenting his forces; while Cyrus, with the instinct of a conqueror, ventured to cross the Halys in pursuit, and to march rapidly on Sardis before the enemy could collect another army.  Prompt decision and celerity of movement characterize all successful warriors, and here it was that Cyrus showed his military genius.  Before Croesus was fully prepared for another fight, Cyrus was at the gates of Sardis.  But the Lydian king rallied what forces he could, and led them out to battle.  The Lydians were superior in cavalry; seeing which, Cyrus, with that fertility of resource which marked his whole career, collected together the camels which transported his baggage and provisions, and placed them in the front of his array, since the horse, according to Herodotus, has a natural dread of the camel and cannot abide his sight or his smell.  The result was as Cyrus calculated; the cavalry of the Lydians turned round and galloped away.  The Lydians fought bravely, but were driven within the walls of their capital.  Cyrus vigorously prosecuted the siege, which lasted only fourteen days, since an attack was made on the side of the city which was undefended, and which was supposed to be impregnable and unassailable.  The proud city fell by assault, and was given up to plunder.  Croesus himself was taken alive, after a reign of fourteen years, and the mighty Lydia became a Persian province.

There is something unusually touching in the fate of Croesus after so great prosperity.  Saved by Cyrus from an ignominious and painful death, such as the barbarous customs of war then made common, the unhappy Lydian monarch became, it is said, the friend and admirer of the Conqueror, and was present in his future expeditions, and even proved a wise and faithful counsellor.  If some proud monarchs by the fortune of war have fallen suddenly from as lofty an eminence as that of Croesus, it is certain that few have yielded with nobler submission than he to the decrees of fate.

The fall of Sardis,—­B.C. 546, according to Grote,—­was followed by the submission of all the States that were dependent on Lydia.  Even the Grecian colonies in Asia Minor were annexed to the Persian Empire.