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After Solon had gone away a dreadful vengeance, sent of God, came
upon Croesus, to punish him, it is likely, for deeming himself the
happiest of men. First he had a dream in the night, which foreshowed
him truly the evils that were about to befall him in the person of his
son. For Croesus had two sons, one blasted by a natural defect,
being deaf and dumb; the other, distinguished far above all his
co-mates in every pursuit. The name of the last was Atys. It was
this son concerning whom he dreamt a dream that he would die by the blow
of an iron weapon. When he woke, he considered earnestly with
himself, and, greatly alarmed at the dream, instantly made his son
take a wife, and whereas in former years the youth had been wont to
command the Lydian forces in the field, he now would not suffer him to
accompany them. All the spears and javelins, and weapons used in the
wars, he removed out of the male apartments, and laid them in heaps in
the chambers of the women, fearing lest perhaps one of the weapons that
hung against the wall might fall and strike him.
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