Croesus was the king of Lydia who, according to Herodotus, reigned for 14 years: from 560 BC until his defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 546 BC .
Croesus was renowned for his wealth; Herodotus and Pausanias noted that his gifts were preserved at Delphi. The fall of Croesus had a profound effect on the Greeks, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J. A. S. Evans has remarked, "Croesus had become a figure of myth, who stood outside the conventional restraints of chronology."
Wikipedia
“In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.”
Quoted by Herodotus in The Histories, Book I http://books.google.com/books?id=QA4ZZ5gRpnkC&q="In+peace+the+sons+bury+their+fathers+but+in+war+the+fathers+bury+their+sons"&pg=PA45#v=onepage
