The Washington times., 1922-04-23
Armed R.dng Party Of Old King Who "Sh
and Treasures.

VHE popular phrase AS r1cn %
Croesus" has come down through
ages-but nobody knows how rich
old Croesus really was.
Croesus was king in Asia Minor; he
ruled over a country called Lydia, aud
died about four hundred years before
Christ. He inherited fine lot of gold and
jewels from his royal father, who raided
the sneighboring nations and took away
from them most of their valuables.
Croesus himself added to this wealth by
raids of his own and continuing the levy
ing of tribute on his neighbors. Resides
that, Croesus had many gold mines and
the Lydan merchants sold their goods
over all the world.
But how much wealth did old Croesus
really have? He has been the synonym
for thousands of years of enormous wealth
but what would it all figure up to in
good. American dollars of the present day?
This is what Professor John Howard
Crosby, of Princeton University, and his
expedition of explorers hope to find out.
The tomb OF old King Croesus has been
pretty definitely located in a big mound
just outside Of Sardis, which was the cap
ital of Lydia, where Croesus lived, and is
nople and about fifty miles northeast Of
Smyrna
Already some work was done In this di-
rection before the war. The tomb of
Alyattes, the father Of Croesus, was un.
covered and many treasures recovered.
But now that the war is over and :he
world is at peace sTA the Greek Govern
ment has given permission to go on with
the work, there will be no time lost In dig.
cir int bo lov ha ho
tomb Of the Rockefeller of ancient times.
DR.. Leslie T. Shear and his wife are al
ready on the ground and when Professor
Crosby arrives the work Of excavation will
be pushed rapidly.
In his tomb there is, most probably, the
bank book Of Croesus-that is, lists OF the
treasures that were his in life. It was GUS
tomary in ancient times to bury with the
kings detailed statement Of their posses
sions, so that no one could make any mis-
take about how really important and rich
they had been.
While We have no records as yet to
show just what was the yearly in
come of Croesus, we can form some
idea of his means by what he was
able to give away. After living nigh
for about fourteen years, the ancient multi
millionaire began to get worried about
the future. He had good reason to. For
whole Of Asia Minor, as we'll as the Greek
provinces had been forced to pay him
heavy tribute. But Cyrus, King Of the
Persians, was getting stronger steadily.
He had already conquered Astyages, King
of the Medes, to whom Croesus had mar.
red his beautiful daughter, Aryenis. The
nation of Astyages was later to be united
with the Persians into the conQuering
hosts of Philip, the father OF Alexander
the Great
So worried old Croesus thought he would
try the oracles to see what fate had in
store for him. The oracles were shrines
of pagan gods and goddesses. where, for a
price, alleged information about what was
going to happen was handed out, and as
the various oracles had agents everywhere
taking note of conditions, sometimes the
information was mighty good
Croesus was canny person, as his
ability to pile up his millions shows. so
he did not pick out any one oracle In
stead he wisely decided to try them all,
and after he had found the best to con-
centrate upon that one.
So he sent out ambassadors with gifts
to all the temples Of the gods from which
the gods and goddesses were supposed 10
pass out prophecies and advice. His test
question was, What is Croesus dong?"
The oracle of Apollo at Delphi replied
II know the number OF the sands and the
measure of the sea- | understand the dumb
and hear him that does not speak; the
SAVIOR Of the hard-shelled tortoises boiled
in brass with the flesh of lambs strikes
on my senses, brasses laid beneath IL and
brasses laid over it,
Now the fact was that Croesus had
thought out what he deemed II impossible
for any one to guess, and had gotten to-
gether a tortoise and lamb and had
boiled them in brazen cadron covered
with brasses.
All the other oracles gave wrong an
swers. Whether this was because Apollo
was the only god awake at the time or
whether the Delphic oracle had better
sources of information at the palace OF
Sardis cannot at this late day be told. We
do know, however, that the cult OF Apollo
was an immensely powerful one, with spies
and agents everywhere.
Croesus was convinced that the divine
fortune teller at Delphi was the only one