before the temple, where the Delphians administer the great precinct of Phoebus beside the Castalian stream. A man should honor the god, for that is the greatest prosperity. For indeed, once the ruler of horse-taming Lydia , Croesus—when Zeus was bringing about the decreed fate, and Sardis was being sacked by the Persian army—Croesus was protected by the god of the golden lyre,