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| Battle of Pteria |
|
|
| Combatants |
| Lydian kingdom |
Persia |
| Commanders |
| Croesus |
Cyrus the Great |
| Strength |
| Unknown1 |
Unknown1 |
| Casualties |
| Heavy2 |
Heavy2 |
1 Herodotus states that the Lydian forces "fell very short of the enemy."
2 "[...] upon both sides the number of the slain was great; nor had victory declared in favour of either party, [...]" |
At the Battle of Pteria (547 or 546 BC), the Persian forces of Cyrus the Great fought a drawn battle with the invading Lydian forces of Croesus, forcing Croesus to withdraw back west into his own kingdom. Formerly, the Lydians and Medes had arranged that the natural boundary between the two empires would be the Halys River. As King Croesus learned of the sudden Persian uprising and defeat of his long time rivals, the Medes. He attempted to opportunistically use these set of events to expand his borders upon the eastern frontier of Lydia.
However, prior to invading Pteria, Croesus asked the Oracle of Delphi for advice. The Oracle suggested vaguely that, "if King Croesus should cross the Halys River, a great empire would be destroyed." Croesus took these words with delight, instigating a war that would ironically and eventually end not the Persian Empire but terminate his own.
