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Isa_44:23 to Isa_45:3
After a long march, Cyrus, as already hinted, came in front of the confederated army at Thybarra in Lydia, not far from Sardis, the capital of that country. His army was 196,000 strong, horse and foot, besides which he had three hundred of those “iron chariots” of war, so often mentioned in Scripture, and which were very formidable in those times. They were armed with projecting scythes, which cut the adverse soldiers to pieces in a most cruel manner wherever the chariots were driven. The only effectual way of dealing with them was to render them useless for the time by slaying the horses by which they were drawn. But to prevent this, the horses of the Persian chariots, four abreast in each, were covered with trappings that were proof against all missile weapons. The Persian army had also a large number of other chariots, or rather wains of large size, each drawn by sixteen oxen, upon each of which was a kind of tower, eighteen or twenty feet high; and in each tower were lodged twenty archers. These towers, which must have been of wood, could not but give a most curious appearance to an advancing army. As they went with the army, they were designed for service in action, rather than in sieges, for which a different and more substantial kind of tower was required; and their use seems to have been to enable the marksmen, from their elevated station, to “pick off” the most distinguished of the enemy, as well as to furnish a center of resistance around which the troops might form or rally, if momentarily broken or driven back. There was, moreover, in the Persian army a considerable number of camels, each mounted by two Arabian archers, the one looking towards the head and the other towards the tail of the animal.
The army of Croesus was twice as numerous as that of Cyrus, consisting of no fewer than 420,000 men. Both armies were drawn up in an immense plain, which gave room for extending their wings to the right and left. The design of Croesus, upon which he placed his chief reliance, was to avail himself of his larger numbers by surrounding or hemming in the Persian army. The main strength of his army lay in the Egyptian auxiliaries, who alone numbered 120,000 men of tried valor; and these were wisely placed in the center. When the two armies were in sight of each other, Croesus, perceiving how much his front exceeded that of the Persians, made his center halt and the wings to advance, with the design to enclose the enemy, and begin the attack on three sides at the same time. When the two wings were sufficiently extended, Croesus gave the signal for the main body to advance, on which it marched up to the front of the Persian host, the attack upon which was thus commenced on the front and both flanks at once. This great maneuver, which seems to have been pretty well executed, certainly presented a very threatening aspect to the Persians, considering the great disparity of numbers. But Cyrus was by no means alarmed. He signaled his troops to face about, and was thus enabled to take in flank the enemy’s forces that were marching to fall upon his rear, and soon put them into great disorder. At the same moment a squadron of camels was made to march against the other wing of the enemy, which consisted almost wholly of cavalry; their horses were, as the experience of Cyrus had taught him to reckon upon, so much alarmed at the advance of so large a body of camels, that they became unmanageable, threw their riders, and trod them under foot, thus occasioning great confusion in that quarter; and while they were in this disorder, a Persian officer of great experience, named Artagersas, at the head of a small body of horse, charged them so vigorously, that they could never afterwards rally; and the chariots armed with scythes being at the same time driven furiously among them, the rout was on that side complete. Both the wings of the enemy being thus broken and dispersed, Cyrus gave orders to Abradatas, his chief favorite, to fall upon the centre with the chariots. The first ranks consisted mostly of Lydians, and gave way before the violence of the charge; but the Egyptians, being covered with their bucklers, and marching so close that the chariots Note: This account, from the Greek authorities, of the conduct of the Egyptians at the battle of Thybarra, tallies exactly with some of the modes of Egyptian military action represented in the sculptures and paintings of ancient Egypt. The Egyptian shield was of an oblong square figure; which shape seems to have been given them for the very purpose of enabling the soldiers by their junction to form a roof overhead (testudo.) or, as on this occasion, a wall in front. had not room to penetrate their ranks, stood their ground. A great slaughter of the Persians ensued. Abradatas himself was killed, his chariot overturned, and most of his men cut in pieces. Upon this, the Egyptians boldly advanced, and compelled the Persian infantry to give way, driving them back quite to their engines. Here they were met by a shower of arrows and javelins discharged from the towers; and at the same time, the Persian rear, advancing sword in hand, compelled the retreating archers and spearmen to return to the charge.
By this time Cyrus having put to route both the horse and foot on the left of the Egyptians, pushed on the center, where he had the mortification of seeing his Persians again giving ground. Judging that the only way of arresting the Egyptians from pressing their advantage was to attach them in the rear he did so; and the Persian cavalry at the same time coming up to his assistance, the fight was renewed with great slaughter “on both sides, for the Egyptians finding themselves thus attached in the rear, faced about, and defended themselves with incredible bravery. Cyrus himself was in great danger; for his horse being killed under him, he fell into the midst of his enemies. But his appointed work, as the punisher of Babylon and the deliverer of the Jews, was not yet accomplished, and, although he knew it not, his life was safe until that work was done. He was saved by his Persians, who, alarmed at his danger, threw themselves headlong upon those that surrounded their fallen king, and succeeded in preserving him from their hands. The battle then became more bloody than ever. But at length Cyrus, admiring the valor of the Egyptians, and concerned to see so many brave men perish, offered them honorable conditions, at the same time letting them know that they were entirely unsupported, all their allies having abandoned the field. On this they accepted the terms offered; and having stipulated that they should not be employed against Croesus, in whose service they had been engaged, they surrendered to the conqueror, and from that time served him with great fidelity and zeal.
This engagement lasted till night. The allies dispersed from the field of battle to their several countries; and Croesus with his native Lydians withdrew into Sardis. Cyrus made no attempt to pursue the fugitives, but the next day he marched with all his forces against the city. Croesus, who wanted not for valor, thought himself still able to meet the Persians in battle; and he therefore marched out to encounter them at the head of his native troops. As this force consisted mostly of cavalry, Cyrus confronted them with his camels, and the horses being unable to endure the sight and smell of so huge a body of these animals, were thrown into disorder. But the Lydians dismounting, fought on foot. They kept their ground very obstinately for some time; but at last, finding themselves overmatched, were forced to make their retreat into Sardis, which was immediately invested by the Persians. To reduce a place so strong, so well provisioned, and so bravely garrisoned, threatened to be a work of time; indeed, as Croesus trusted, of so much time, as would enable him to obtain assistance from Greece. Yet the place was almost immediately taken, and that almost without the exchange of blows, by the operation of two stratagems of war, one of which seems very odd, and the other we should call not humane or moral, did we not remember that humanity or morality are things not much belonging to the trade of war in any age or country, and certainly not to such wars as the ancients waged.
The first stratagem is thus related—“At the siege of Sardis, Cyrus constructed machines of wood that were as high as the walls, and placed upon them images dressed up like Persians, with beards on their faces, quivers on their shoulders, and bows in their hands. These were advanced during the night close to the walls, so that the figures rose above the fort. Early in the morning Cyrus caused an attach to be made in a different quarter, to the defence of which the whole force of the town was immediately directed. The images in the opposite quarter rising above the wall, and seething in the distance to be actually upon it, being then accidentally discovered, a great cry arose, and there was a general panic, in the belief that the besiegers had got possession of the place. Throwing open the gates, every one trade his escape in the best manner he could; and Cyrus became master of Sardis at discretion.”
The other is this: After Cyrus had made himself master of Sardis, and Croesus still held out in the fort in expectation of assistance from Greece, he ordered the Sardian prisoners, the friends and relations of the besieged, to be bound and displayed before them. A herald, at the same time, proclaimed that if the fort were surrendered to Cyrus, they should receive their relations safe and without ransom; but if they persisted in fielding it out against him, he would hang up every one of them before their eyes. To save their friends, therefore, they chose rather to give up the fort than await the issue of those precarious hopes, with which Croesus had flattered himself, of assistance from the states of Greece.
In this connection, we must not overlook the lines—
“I will give thee the treasures of darkness,
And hidden riches of secret places.”
This is certainly a distinct allusion to the immense wealth which Cyrus was to derive from his conquests, and which were such as no other conqueror ever realized. Not only did he acquire the immense riches of Babylon, as distinctly promised by Jeremiah (Jer_50:37); but the treasure which Croesus delivered up to him is reckoned to have been equal to the enormous sum of £126,224,000 sterling. The highest calculation of the wealth which Nadir Shah derived from the spoils of India scarcely exceeded half this amount, while some accounts reduce it to a quarter.
The second of these lines clearly alludes to the Oriental practice of hiding treasure in secret places, in the absence of such means of secure deposit or investment as we possess, which custom we shall hereafter find an opportunity of fully elucidating.