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After this Croesus, having resolved to propitiate the Delphic god
with a magnificent sacrifice, offered up three thousand of every kind
of sacrificial beast, and besides made a huge pile, and placed upon it
couches coated with silver and with gold, and golden goblets, and
robes and vests of purple; all which he burnt in the hope of thereby
making himself more secure of the favour of the god. Further he issued
his orders to all the people of the land to offer a sacrifice 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 in thickness. The number of
ingots was a hundred and seventeen, four being of refined gold, in
weight two talents and a half; the others of pale gold, and in weight
two talents. He also caused a statue of a lion to be made in refined
gold, the weight of which was ten talents. At the time when the
temple of Delphi was burnt to the ground, this lion fell from the
ingots on which it was placed; it now stands in the Corinthian
treasury, and weighs only six talents and a half, having lost three
talents and a half by the fire.
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