[2] When day broke Cyrus marched straight for Sardis, and when he came before the citadel he set up his engines as though for the assault and got out his ladders.

But the following night he sent a scaling party of Persians and Chaldaeans to climb the fortifications at the steepest point.

The guide was a Persian who had served as a slave to one of the garrison in the citadel, and who knew a way down to the river by which one could get up.

[4] As soon as it became clear that the heights had been taken, all the Lydians without exception fled from the walls and hid wherever they could.

At daybreak Cyrus entered the city and gave orders that not a man was to leave the ranks.