Having sent gifts and messengers to the oracle at Delphi, the king of the Lydians sent this message: "[The king] asks you again now whether he shall march against the Persians, and if so, whether he shall join with himself any army of men as allies." The oracle replied that, "if he should march against the Persians he should destroy a great empire." Little did he know which empire he was to destroy. It was to be his own, of course, as Cyrus the Great was ascendant. Quotations from Herodotus' Histories.Horodotus
About This Quote
The famous King of the Lydians (Lydia), Croesus, sent an envoy to Delphi asking for advice on whether he should go to war with the Persians. The reply that came back was that if he went to war with the Persians he would destroy a great empire. Little did Croesus know when he asked his question whether it would be his own which would be destroyed. When Cyrus was in power, he sent out his men to conquer all of the nations in this area of the world.
This included the Lydians and many other people. This quote can also be applied to World War II and how Germany wanted to conquer all of Europe and everything else in the world. They wanted a great empire so they could rule all of these countries and have a dominant position in the world.
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