pyre, and that the stories of him as a wise advisor to the courts of Cyrus and Cambyses are purely legendary, showing similarities to the sayings of Ahiqar. A similar conclusion is drawn in a recent article that makes a case for the proposal that the Lydian word Qλdãnś, both meaning 'king' and the name of a god, and pronounced /kʷɾʲ'ðãns/ with four consecutive Lydian sounds unfamiliar to ancient Greeks, could correspond to Greek , or . If the identification is correct it might have the interesting historical consequence that king Croesus chose suicide at the stake and was subsequently deified. Legacy After defeating Croesus, Cyrus adopted the use of gold coinage as the main currency of his kingdom. The use of croesid coins under the Persian Empire would continue under Cyrus, and would end only after Darius the Great replaced them by the Persian daric. These late croesid coins bearing "bull and lion" images used under Cyrus differed from previous Mermnad croesids in that they were lighter and their weight was closer to those of the early golden darics and silver sigloi. In popular culture According to the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi (c. 410–490s AD), who wrote a monumental History of Armenia, the Armenian king Artaxias I accomplished many military deeds, which include the capture of Croesus and the conquest of the Lydian kingdom (2.12–13) References to Croesus' legendary power and wealth, often as a symbol of human vanity, are numerous in literature. The following, by Isaac Watts, is from the poem titled "False Greatness": Another literary example is "Croesus and Fate", a short story by Leo Tolstoy that is a retelling of the account of Croesus as told by Herodotus and Plutarch. Crœsus, King of Lydia, is a tragedy in five parts by Alfred Bate Richards, first published in 1845. On The Simpsons, the wealthy Montgomery Burns lives at the corner of Croesus and Mammon Streets. In “The Sopranos” season 4 episode 6, Ralph Cifaretto tells Artie Bucco “With what you take out of that bar, you must be sitting on money like King Croesus.” In Squidbillies season 6 episode 8, Dan Halen remarks that he paid Early Cuyler, who he said "left with cash in hand, rich as Croesus". See also Croesus (opera) Karun Treasure ("Croesus treasure") References Works cited External links "L'alliance lydo-spartiate", in Ktèma, 39, 2014, pp. 271–288 by Kevin Leloux "Les alliances lydo-égyptienne et