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[[File:Hoecke_Croesus_showing_his_treasures.jpg|360px560px|thumbnail|left|Early Seventeenth Century Painting by Frans Francken the Younger of the Lydian King Croesus Showing His Wealth]]__NOTOC__
According the fifth century BC Greek historian Herodotus, who has often been called the “father of history,” the Lydian King Croesus (ruled ca. 560-540s BC) was the world’s wealthiest king who ruled the world’s wealthiest kingdom. When Salon, the legendary Athenian law giver, came to Lydia see the king’s wealth personally, Croesus immediately had his servants “take him on a tour of the royal treasuries” in order to “point out the richness and magnificence of everything.”<ref> Herodotus. <i> The Histories.</i> Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. (London: Penguin Books, 2003), p. 13-14</ref> Because of Herodotus’ writings, Croesus became known as one of the wealthiest men of his time, which an examination of the historiographical and archaeological sources certainly confirms.
