Herodotus, Histories 1.88.1 · 1.88.1

Herodotus sums up the reversal in one phrase: karta en pollēi promēthiēi, "in great prometheia," forethought or careful regard, built on the same root that names the Titan who thinks ahead of trouble. A king who not long before was bound for the pyre is now seated engys heōutou, "near himself," by the very man who conquered him. The verb apethōmaze, "marveled," does not stay with Cyrus alone; the sentence folds in kai autos kai hoi peri ekeinon eontes pantes, "both he himself and all those around him," so the whole court is caught staring at the same astonishing sight.

Croesus gives the court nothing to look at but silence. Herodotus describes him with two words only, synnoiēi echomenos, "gripped by his own thoughts," and hēsychos, "quiet, still." It is the second time in this king's story that Herodotus stops the narrative to show a mind working in private, the first being the long pause before he finally understood Solon. Whatever Croesus is turning over now, it takes him until the next section to say it out loud.

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