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The following is the way in which Sardis was taken. On the
fourteenth day of the siege Cyrus bade some horsemen ride about his
lines, and make proclamation to the whole army that he would give a
reward to the man who should first mount the wall. After this he made
an assault, but without success. His troops retired, but a certain
Mardian, Hyroeades by name, resolved to approach the citadel and
attempt it at a place where no guards were ever set. On this side the
rock was so precipitous, and the citadel (as it seemed) so
impregnable, that no fear was entertained of its being carried in this
place. Here was the only portion of the circuit round which their old
king Meles did not carry the lion which his leman bore to him. For
when the Telmessians had declared that if the lion were taken round the
defences, Sardis would be impregnable, and Meles, in consequence,
carried it round the rest of the fortress where the citadel seemed open
to attack, he scorned to take it round this side, which he looked on
as a sheer precipice, and therefore absolutely secure. It is on that
side of the city which faces Mount Tmolus. Hyroeades, however,
having the day before observed a Lydian soldier descend the rock after
a helmet that had rolled down from the top, and having seen him pick it
up and carry it back, thought over what he had witnessed, and formed
his plan. He climbed the rock himself, and other Persians followed
in his track, until a large number had mounted to the top. Thus was
Sardis taken, and given up entirely to pillage.
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