In 547 BC, King Croesus of Lydia crossed the Halys River to attack the expanding Achaemenid Empire. He met Cyrus the Great at the Battle of Pteria . The battle was indecisive but bloody, and Croesus withdrew to his capital, Sardis, to regroup for the winter.
Cyrus, defying the custom of halting warfare in winter, immediately pursued Croesus into Lydia. He caught the Lydian army by surprise on the plain of Thymbra outside Sardis.
At Thymbra, Cyrus deployed his camels to spook the famous Lydian cavalry horses. The stratagem worked, and the Lydians were routed and fled into the city.
After a short siege, Sardis fell. Croesus was captured, and Lydia was annexed into the Achaemenid Empire. The 'great empire' that was destroyed was, in fact, Croesus's own.
