Page "Cyrus the Great" Paragraph 22

While in Sardis, Croesus sent out requests for his allies to send aid to Lydia.

However, near the end of the winter, before the allies could unite, Cyrus the Great pushed the war into Lydian territory and besieged Croesus in his capital, Sardis.

Shortly before the final Battle of Thymbra between the two rulers, Harpagus advised Cyrus the Great to place his dromedaries in front of his warriors ; the Lydian horses, not used to the dromedaries ' smell, would be very afraid.

The strategy worked ; the Lydian cavalry was routed.

Cyrus defeated and captured Croesus.

Cyrus occupied the capital at Sardis, conquering the Lydian kingdom in 546 BC.

According to Herodotus, Cyrus the Great spared Croesus's life and kept him as an advisor, but this account conflicts with some translations of the contemporary Nabonidus Chronicle ( the King who was himself subdued by Cyrus the Great after conquest of Babylonia ), which interpret that the king of Lydia was slain.