Plutarch's Lives
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ARTAXERXES
The first Artaxerxes, among all the kings of Persia the most
remarkable for a gentle and noble spirit, was surnamed the
Long-handed, his right hand being longer than his left, and was
the son of Xerxes. The second, whose story I am now writing,
who had the surname of the Mindful, was the grandson of the
former, by his daughter Parysatis, who brought Darius four sons,
the eldest Artaxerxes, the next Cyrus, and two younger than
these, Ostanes and Oxathres. Cyrus took his name of the ancient
Cyrus, as he, they say, had his from the sun, which, in the
Persian language, is called Cyrus. Artaxerxes was at first
called Arsicas; Dinon says Oarses; but it is utterly improbable
that Ctesias (however otherwise he may have filled his books
with a perfect farrago of incredible and senseless fables)
should be ignorant of the name of the king with whom he lived as
his physician, attending upon himself, his wife, his mother, and
his children.
Cyrus, from his earliest youth, showed something of a headstrong
and vehement character; Artaxerxes, on the other side, was
gentler in everything, and of a nature more yielding and soft
in its action. He married a beautiful and virtuous wife, at the
desire of his parents, but kept her as expressly against their
wishes. For king Darius, having put her brother to death, was
purposing likewise to destroy her. But Arsicas, throwing
himself at his mother's feet, by many tears, at last, with much
ado, persuaded her that they should neither put her to death nor
divorce her from him. However, Cyrus was his mother's favorite,
and the son whom she most desired to settle in the throne. And
therefore, his father Darius now lying ill, he, being sent for
from the sea to the court, set out thence with full hopes that
by her means he was to be declared the successor to the kingdom.
For Parysatis had the specious plea in his behalf, which Xerxes
on the advice of Demaratus had of old made use of, that she had
borne him Arsicas when he was a subject, but Cyrus when a king.
Notwithstanding, she prevailed not with Darius, but the eldest
son Arsicas was proclaimed king, his name being changed into
Artaxerxes; and Cyrus remained satrap of Lydia, and commander in
the maritime provinces.
It was not long after the decease of Darius that the king, his
successor, went to Pasargadae, to have the ceremony of his
inauguration consummated by the Persian priests. There is a
temple dedicated to a warlike goddess, whom one might liken to
Minerva; into which when the royal person to be initiated has
passed, he must strip himself of his own robe, and put on that
which Cyrus the first wore before he was king; then, having
devoured a frail of figs, he must eat turpentine, and drink a
cup of sour milk. To which if they superadd any other rites, it
is unknown to any but those that are present at them. Now
Artaxerxes being about to address himself to this solemnity,
Tisaphernes came to him, bringing a certain priest, who, having
trained up Cyrus in his youth in the established discipline of
Persia, and having taught him the Magian philosophy, was likely
to be as much disappointed as any man that his pupil did not
succeed to the throne. And for that reason his veracity was the
less questioned when he charged Cyrus as though he had been
about to lie in wait for the king in the temple, and to assault
and assassinate him as he was putting off his garment. Some
affirm that he was apprehended upon this impeachment, others
that he had entered the temple and was pointed out there, as he
lay lurking, by the priest. But as he was on the point of being
put to death, his mother clasped him in her arms, and, entwining
him with the tresses of her hair, joined his neck close to her
own, and by her bitter lamentation and intercession to
Artaxerxes for him, succeeded in saving his life; and sent him
away again to the sea and to his former province. This,
however, could no longer content him; nor did he so well
remember his delivery as his arrest, his resentment for which
made him more eagerly desirous of the kingdom than before.
Some say that he revolted from his brother, because he had not a
revenue allowed him sufficient for his daily meals; but this is
on the face of it absurd. For had he had nothing else, yet he
had a mother ready to supply him with whatever he could desire
out of her own means. But the great number of soldiers who were
hired from all quarters and maintained, as Xenophon informs us,
for his service, by his friends and connections, is in itself a
sufficient proof of his riches. He did not assemble them
together in a body, desiring as yet to conceal his enterprise;
but he had agents everywhere, enlisting foreign soldiers upon
various pretenses; and, in the meantime, Parysatis, who was
with the king, did her best to put aside all suspicions, and
Cyrus himself always wrote in a humble and dutiful manner to
him, sometimes soliciting favor, sometimes making countercharges
against Tisaphernes, as if his jealousy and contest had been
wholly with him. Moreover, there was a certain natural
dilatoriness in the king, which was taken by many for clemency.
And, indeed, in the beginning of his reign, he did seem really
to emulate the gentleness of the first Artaxerxes, being very
accessible in his person, and liberal to a fault in the
distribution of honors and favors. Even in his punishments, no
contumely or vindictive pleasure could be seen; and those who
offered him presents were as much pleased with his manner of
accepting, as were those who received gifts from him with his
graciousness and amiability in giving them. Nor truly was there
anything, however inconsiderable, given him, which he did not
deign kindly to accept of; insomuch that when one Omises had
presented him with a very large pomegranate, "By Mithras," said
he, "this man, were he entrusted with it, would turn a small
city into a great one."
Once when some were offering him one thing, some another, as he
was on a progress, a certain poor laborer, having got nothing at
hand to bring him, ran to the river side, and, taking up water
in his hands, offered it to him; with which Artaxerxes was so
well pleased that he sent him a goblet of gold and a thousand
darics. To Euclidas, the Lacedaemonian, who had made a number
of bold and arrogant speeches to him, he sent word by one of his
officers, "You have leave to say what you please to me, and I,
you should remember, may both say and do what I please to you."
Teribazus once, when they were hunting, came up and pointed out
to the king that his royal robe was torn; the king asked him
what he wished him to do; and when Teribazus replied "May it
please you to put on another and give me that," the king did so,
saying withal, "I give it you, Teribazus, but I charge you not
to wear it." He, little regarding the injunction, being not a
bad, but a light-headed, thoughtless man, immediately the king
took it off, put it on, and bedecked himself further with royal
golden necklaces and women's ornaments, to the great scandal of
everybody, the thing being quite unlawful. But the king laughed
and told him, "You have my leave to wear the trinkets as a
woman, and the robe of state as a fool." And whereas none
usually sat down to eat with the king besides his mother and his
wedded wife, the former being placed above, the other below him,
Artaxerxes invited also to his table his two younger brothers,
Ostanes and Oxathres. But what was the most popular thing of
all among the Persians was the sight of his wife Statira's
chariot, which always appeared with its curtains down, allowing
her countrywomen to salute and approach her, which made the
queen a great favorite with the people.
Yet busy, factious men, that delighted in change, professed it
to be their opinion that the times needed Cyrus, a man of a
great spirit, an excellent warrior, and a lover of his friends,
and that the largeness of their empire absolutely required a
bold and enterprising prince. Cyrus, then; not only relying
upon those of his own province near the sea, but upon many of
those in the upper countries near the king, commenced the war
against him. He wrote to the Lacedaemonians, bidding them come
to his assistance and supply him with men, assuring them that to
those who came to him on foot he would give horses, and to the
horsemen chariots; that upon those who had farms he would bestow
villages, and those who were lords of villages he would make so
of cities; and that those who would be his soldiers should
receive their pay, not by count, but by weight. And among many
other high praises of himself, he said he had the stronger soul;
was more a philosopher and a better Magian; and could drink and
bear more wine than his brother, who, as he averred, was such a
coward and so little like a man, that he could neither sit his
horse in hunting nor his throne in time of danger. The
Lacedaemonians, his letter being read, sent a staff to
Clearchus, commanding him to obey Cyrus in all things. So Cyrus
marched towards the king, having under his conduct a numerous
host of barbarians, and but little less than thirteen thousand
stipendiary Grecians; alleging first one cause, then another,
for his expedition. Yet the true reason lay not long concealed,
but Tisaphernes went to the king in person to declare it.
Thereupon, the court was all in an uproar and tumult, the
queen-mother bearing almost the whole blame of the enterprise,
and her retainers being suspected and accused. Above all,
Statira angered her by bewailing the war and passionately
demanding where were now the pledges and the intercessions which
saved the life of him that conspired against his brother; "to
the end," she said, "that he might plunge us all into war and
trouble." For which words Parysatis hating Statira, and being
naturally implacable and savage in her anger and revenge,
consulted how she might destroy her. But since Dinon tells us
that her purpose took effect in the time of the war, and Ctesias
says it was after it, I shall keep the story for the place to
which the latter assigns it, as it is very unlikely that he, who
was actually present, should not know the time when it happened,
and there was no motive to induce him designedly to misplace its
date in his narrative of it, though it is not infrequent with
him in his history to make excursions from truth into mere
fiction and romance.
As Cyrus was upon the march, rumors and reports were brought
him, as though the king still deliberated, and were not minded
to fight and presently to join battle with him; but to wait in
the heart of his kingdom until his forces should have come in
thither from all parts of his dominions. He had cut a trench
through the plain ten fathoms in breadth, and as many in depth,
the length of it being no less than four hundred furlongs. Yet
he allowed Cyrus to pass across it, and to advance almost to the
city of Babylon. Then Teribazus, as the report goes, was the
first that had the boldness to tell the king that he ought not
to avoid the conflict, nor to abandon Media, Babylon, and even
Susa, and hide himself in Persis, when all the while he had an
army many times over more numerous than his enemies, and an
infinite company of governors and captains that were better
soldiers and politicians than Cyrus. So at last he resolved to
fight, as soon as it was possible for him. Making, therefore,
his first appearance, all on a sudden, at the head of nine
hundred thousand well-marshaled men, he so startled and
surprised the enemy, who with the confidence of contempt were
marching on their way in no order, and with their arms not ready
for use, that Cyrus, in the midst of much noise and tumult, was
scarce able to form them for battle. Moreover, the very manner
in which he led on his men, silently and slowly, made the
Grecians stand amazed at his good discipline; who had expected
irregular shouting and leaping, much confusion and separation
between one body of men and another, in so vast a multitude of
troops. He also placed the choicest of his armed chariots in
the front of his own phalanx over against the Grecian troops,
that a violent charge with these might cut open their ranks
before they closed with them.
But as this battle is described by many historians, and Xenophon
in particular as good as shows it us by eyesight, not as a past
event, but as a present action, and by his vivid account makes
his hearers feel all the passions and join in all the dangers of
it, it would be folly in me to give any larger account of it
than barely to mention any things omitted by him which yet
deserve to be recorded. The place, then, in which the two
armies were drawn out is called Cunaxa, being about five hundred
furlongs distant from Babylon. And here Clearchus beseeching
Cyrus before the fight to retire behind the combatants, and not
expose himself to hazard, they say he replied, "What is this,
Clearchus? Would you have me, who aspire to empire, show myself
unworthy of it?" But if Cyrus committed a great fault in
entering headlong into the midst of danger, and not paying any
regard to his own safety, Clearchus was as much to blame, if not
more, in refusing to lead the Greeks against the main body of
the enemy, where the king stood, and in keeping his right wing
close to the river, for fear of being surrounded. For if he
wanted, above all other things, to be safe, and considered it
his first object to sleep in whole skin, it had been his best
way not to have stirred from home. But, after marching in arms
ten thousand furlongs from the sea-coast, simply on his own
choosing, for the purpose of placing Cyrus on the throne, to
look about and select a position which would enable him, not to
preserve him under whose pay and conduct he was, but himself to
engage with more ease and security seemed much like one that
through fear of present dangers had abandoned the purpose of his
actions, and been false to the design of his expedition. For it
is evident from the very event of the battle that none of those
who were in array around the king's person could have stood the
shock of the Grecian charge; and had they been beaten out of the
field, and Artaxerxes either fled or fallen, Cyrus would have
gained by the victory, not only safety, but a crown. And,
therefore, Clearchus, by his caution, must be considered more
to blame for the result in the destruction of the life and
fortune of Cyrus, than he by his heat and rashness. For had the
king made it his business to discover a place, where having
posted the Grecians, he might encounter them with the least
hazard, he would never have found out any other but that which
was most remote from himself and those near him; of his defeat
in which he was insensible, and, though Clearchus had the
victory, yet Cyrus could not know of it, and could take no
advantage of it before his fall. Cyrus knew well enough what
was expedient to be done, and commanded Clearchus with his men
to take their place in the center. Clearchus replied that he
would take care to have all arranged as was best, and then
spoiled all.
For the Grecians, where they were, defeated the barbarians till
they were weary, and chased them successfully a very great way.
But Cyrus being mounted upon a noble but a headstrong and
hard-mouthed horse, bearing the name, as Ctesias tells us, of
Pasacas, Artagerses, the leader of the Cadusians, galloped up to
him, crying aloud, "O most unjust and senseless of men, who are
the disgrace of the honored name of Cyrus, are you come here
leading the wicked Greeks on a wicked journey, to plunder the
good things of the Persians, and this with the intent of slaying
your lord and brother, the master of ten thousand times ten
thousand servants that are better men than you? as you shall
see this instant; for you shall lose your head here, before you
look upon the face of the king." Which when he had said, he
cast his javelin at him. But the coat of mail stoutly repelled
it, and Cyrus was not wounded; yet the stroke falling heavy upon
him, he reeled under it. Then Artagerses turning his horse,
Cyrus threw his weapon, and sent the head of it through his neck
near the shoulder bone. So that it is almost universally agreed
to by all the author that Artagerses was slain by him. But as
to the death of Cyrus, since Xenophon, as being himself no
eye-witness of it, has stated it simply and in few words, it may
not be amiss perhaps to run over on the one hand what Dinon, and
on the other, what Ctesias has said of it.
Dinon then affirms, that, after the death of Artagerses, Cyrus,
furiously attacking the guard of Artaxerxes, wounded the king's
horse, and so dismounted him, and when Teribazus had quickly
lifted him up upon another, and said to him, "O king, remember
this day, which is not one to be forgotten," Cyrus, again
spurring up his horse, struck down Artaxerxes. But at the third
assault the king being enraged, and saying to those near him
that death was more eligible, made up to Cyrus, who furiously
and blindly rushed in the face of the weapons opposed to him.
So the king struck him with a javelin, as likewise did those
that were about him. And thus Cyrus falls, as some say, by the
hand of the king; as others, by the dart of a Carian, to whom
Artaxerxes, for a reward of his achievement, gave the privilege
of carrying ever after a golden cock upon his spear before the
first ranks of the army in all expeditions. For the Persians
call the men of Caria cocks, because of the crests with which
they adorn their helmets.
But the account of Ctesias, to put it shortly, omitting many
details, is as follows: Cyrus, after the death of Artagerses,
rode up against the king, as he did against him, neither
exchanging a word with the other. But Ariaeus, Cyrus's friend,
was beforehand with him, and darted first at the king, yet
wounded him not. Then the king cast his lance at his brother,
but missed him, though he both hit and slew Satiphernes, a noble
man and a faithful friend to Cyrus. Then Cyrus directed his
lance against the king, and pierced his breast with it quite
through his armor, two inches deep, so that he fell from his
horse with the stroke. At which those that attended him being
put to flight and disorder, he, rising with a few, among whom
was Ctesias, and making his way to a little hill not far off,
rested himself. But Cyrus, who was in the thick of the enemy,
was carried off a great way by the wildness of his horse, the
darkness which was now coming on making it hard for them to know
him, and for his followers to find him. However, being made
elate with victory, and full of confidence and force, he passed
through them, crying out, and that more than once, in the
Persian language, "Clear the way, villains, clear the way;"
which they indeed did, throwing themselves down at his feet.
But his tiara dropped off his head, and a young Persian, by name
Mithridates, running by, struck a dart into one of his temples
near his eye, not knowing who he was, out of which wound much
blood gushed, so that Cyrus, swooning and senseless, fell off
his horse. The horse escaped, and ran about the field; but the
companion of Mithridates took the trappings, which fell off,
soaked with blood. And as Cyrus slowly began to come to
himself, some eunuchs who were there tried to put him on another
horse, and so convey him safe away. And when he was not able to
ride, and desired to walk on his feet, they led and supported
him, being indeed dizzy in the head and reeling, but convinced
of his being victorious, hearing, as he went, the fugitives
saluting Cyrus as king, and praying for grace and mercy. In the
meantime, some wretched, poverty-stricken Caunians, who in some
pitiful employment as camp-followers had accompanied the king's
army, by chance joined these attendants of Cyrus, supposing them
to be of their own party. But when, after a while, they made
out that their coats over their breastplates were red, whereas
all the king's people wore white ones, they knew that they were
enemies. One of them, therefore, not dreaming that it was
Cyrus, ventured to strike him behind with a dart. The vein
under the knee was cut open, and Cyrus fell, and at the same
time struck his wounded temple against a stone, and so died.
Thus runs Ctesias's account, tardily, with the slowness of a
blunt weapon, effecting the victim's death.
When he was now dead, Artasyras, the king's eye, passed by on
horseback, and, having observed the eunuchs lamenting, he asked
the most trusty of them, "Who is this, Pariscas, whom you sit
here deploring?" He replied, "Do not you see, O Artasyras, that
it is my master, Cyrus?" Then Artasyras wondering, bade the
eunuch be of good cheer, and keep the dead body safe. And going
in all haste to Artaxerxes, who had now given up all hope of his
affairs, and was in great suffering also with his thirst and his
wound, he with much joy assured him that he had seen Cyrus dead.
Upon this, at first, he set out to go in person to the place,
and commanded Artasyras to conduct him where he lay. But when
there was a great noise made about the Greeks, who were said to
be in full pursuit, conquering and carrying all before them, he
thought it best to send a number of persons to see; and
accordingly thirty men went with torches in their hands.
Meantime, as he seemed to be almost at the point of dying from
thirst, his eunuch Satibarzanes ran about seeking drink for him;
for the place had no water in it, and he was at a good distance
from his camp. After a long search he at last luckily met with
one of those poor Caunian camp-followers, who had in a wretched
skin about four pints of foul and stinking water, which he took
and gave to the king; and when he had drunk all off, he asked
him if he did not dislike the water; but he declared by all the
gods, that he never so much relished either wine, or water out
of the lightest or purest stream. "And therefore," said he, "if
I fail myself to discover and reward him who gave it to you, I
beg of heaven to make him rich and prosperous."
Just after this, came back the thirty messengers, with joy and
triumph in their looks, bringing him the tidings of his
unexpected fortune. And now he was also encouraged by the
number of soldiers that again began to flock in and gather about
him; so that he presently descended into the plain with many
lights and flambeaus round about him. And when he had come near
the dead body, and, according to a certain law of the Persians,
the right hand and head had been lopped off from the trunk, he
gave orders that the latter should be brought to him, and,
grasping the hair of it, which was long and bushy, he showed it
to those who were still uncertain and disposed to fly. They
were amazed at it, and did him homage; so that there were
presently seventy thousand of them got about him, and entered
the camp again with him. He had led out to the fight, as
Ctesias affirms, four hundred thousand men. But Dinon and
Xenophon aver that there were many more than forty myriads
actually engaged. As to the number of the slain, as the
catalogue of them was given up to Artaxerxes, Ctesias says, they
were nine thousand, but that they appeared to him no fewer than
twenty thousand. Thus far there is something to be said on both
sides. But it is a flagrant untruth on the part of Ctesias to
say that he was sent along with Phalinus the Zacynthian and some
others to the Grecians. For Xenophon knew well enough that
Ctesias was resident at court; for he makes mention of him, and
had evidently met with his writings. And, therefore, had he
come, and been deputed the interpreter of such momentous words,
Xenophon surely would not have struck his name out of the
embassy to mention only Phalinus. But Ctesias, as is evident,
being excessively vain-glorious, and no less a favorer of the
Lacedaemonians and Clearchus, never fails to assume to himself
some province in his narrative, taking opportunity, in these
situations, to introduce abundant high praise of Clearchus and
Sparta.
When the battle was over, Artaxerxes sent goodly and magnificent
gifts to the son of Artagerses, whom Cyrus slew. He conferred
likewise high honors upon Ctesias and others, and, having found
out the Caunian who gave him the bottle of water, he made him,
of a poor, obscure man, a rich and an honorable person. As for
the punishments he indicted upon delinquents, there was a kind
of harmony betwixt them and the crimes. He gave order that one
Arbaces, a Mede, that had fled in the fight to Cyrus, and again
at his fall had come back, should, as a mark that he was
considered a dastardly and effeminate, not a dangerous or
treasonable man, have a common harlot set upon his back, and
carry her about for a whole day in the marketplace. Another,
besides that he had deserted to them, having falsely vaunted
that he had killed two of the rebels, he decreed that three
needles should be struck through his tongue. And both supposing
that with his own hand he had cut off Cyrus, and being willing
that all men should think and say so, he sent rich presents to
Mithridates, who first wounded him, and charged those by whom he
conveyed the gifts to him to tell him, that "the king has
honored you with these his favors, because you found and brought
him the horse-trappings of Cyrus." The Carian, also, from whose
wound in the ham Cyrus died, suing for his reward, he commanded
those that brought it him to say that "the king presents you
with this as a second remuneration for the good news told him;
for first Artasyras, and, next to him, you assured him of the
decease of Cyrus." Mithridates retired without complaint,
though not without resentment. But the unfortunate Carian was
fool enough to give way to a natural infirmity. For being
ravished with the sight of the princely gifts that were before
him, and being tempted thereupon to challenge and aspire to
things above him, he deigned not to accept the king's present as
a reward for good news, but indignantly crying out and appealing
to witnesses, he protested that he, and none but he, had killed
Cyrus, and that he was unjustly deprived of the glory. These
words, when they came to his ear, much offended the king, so
that forthwith he sentenced him to be beheaded. But the queen
mother, being in the king's presence, said, "Let not the king so
lightly discharge this pernicious Carian; let him receive from
me the fitting punishment of what he dares to say." So when the
king had consigned him over to Parysatis, she charged the
executioners to take up the man, and stretch him upon the rack
for ten days, then, tearing out his eyes, to drop molten brass
into his ears till he expired.
Mithridates, also, within a short time after, miserably perished
by the like folly; for being invited to a feast where were the
eunuchs both of the king and of the queen mother, he came
arrayed in the dress and the golden ornaments which he had
received from the king. After they began to drink, the eunuch
that was the greatest in power with Parysatis thus speaks to
him: A magnificent dress, indeed, O Mithridates, is this which
the king has given you; the chains and bracelets are glorious,
and your scimitar of invaluable worth; how happy has he made
you, the object of every eye!" To whom he, being a little
overcome with the wine replied, "What are these things,
Sparamizes? Sure I am, I showed myself to the king in that day
of trial to be one deserving greater and costlier gifts than
these." At which Sparamizes smiling, said, "I do not grudge
them to you, Mithridates; but since the Grecians tell us that
wine and truth go together, let me hear now, my friend, what
glorious or mighty matter was it to find some trappings that had
slipped off a horse, and to bring them to the king?" And this
he spoke, not as ignorant of the truth, but desiring to unbosom
him to the company, irritating the vanity of the man, whom drink
had now made eager to talk and incapable of controlling himself.
So he forbore nothing, but said out, "Talk you what you please
of horse-trappings, and such trifles; I tell you plainly, that
this hand was the death of Cyrus. For I threw not my dart as
Artagerses did, in vain and to no purpose, but only just missing
his eye, and hitting him right on the temple, and piercing him
through, I brought him to the ground; and of that wound he
died." The rest of the company, who saw the end and the hapless
fate of Mithridates as if it were already completed, bowed their
heads to the ground; and he who entertained them said,
"Mithridates, my friend, let us eat and drink now, revering the
fortune of our prince, and let us waive discourse which is too
weighty for us."
Presently after, Sparamizes told Parysatis what he said, and she
told the king, who was greatly enraged at it, as having the lie
given him, and being in danger to forfeit the most glorious and
most pleasant circumstance of his victory. For it was his
desire that everyone, whether Greek or barbarian, should
believe that in the mutual assaults and conflicts between him
and his brother, he, giving and receiving a blow, was himself
indeed wounded, but that the other lost his life. And,
therefore, he decreed that Mithridates should be put to death in
boats; which execution is after the following manner: Taking two
boats framed exactly to fit and answer each other, they lay down
in one of them the malefactor that suffers, upon his back; then,
covering it with the other, and so setting them together that
the head, hands, and feet of him are left outside, and the rest
of his body lies shut up within, they offer him food, and if he
refuse to eat it, they force him to do it by pricking his eyes;
then, after he has eaten, they drench him with a mixture of
milk and honey, pouring it not only into his mouth, but all over
his face. They then keep his face continually turned towards
the sun; and it becomes completely covered up and hidden by the
multitude of flies that settle on it. And as within the boats
he does what those that eat and drink must needs do, creeping
things and vermin spring out of the corruption and rottenness of
the excrement, and these entering into the bowels of him, his
body is consumed. When the man is manifestly dead, the
uppermost boat being taken off, they find his flesh devoured,
and swarms of such noisome creatures preying upon and, as it
were, growing to his inwards. In this way Mithridates, after
suffering for seventeen days, at last expired.
Masabates, the king's eunuch, who had cut off the hand and head
of Cyrus, remained still as a mark for Parysatis's vengeance.
Whereas, therefore, he was so circumspect, that he gave her no
advantage against him, she framed this kind of snare for him.
She was a very ingenious woman in other ways, and was an
excellent player at dice, and, before the war, had often played
with the king. After the war, too, when she had been reconciled
to him, she joined readily in all amusements with him, played
at dice with him, was his confidant in his love matters, and in
every way did her best to leave him as little as possible in the
company of Statira, both because she hated her more than any
other person, and because she wished to have no one so powerful
as herself. And so once when Artaxerxes was at leisure, and
inclined to divert himself, she challenged him to play at dice
with her for a thousand Darics, and purposely let him win them,
and paid him down in gold. Yet, pretending to be concerned for
her loss, and that she would gladly have her revenge for it, she
pressed him to begin a new game for a eunuch; to which he
consented. But first they agreed that each of them might except
five of their most trusty eunuchs, and that out of the rest of
them the loser should yield up any the winner should make choice
of. Upon these conditions they played. Thus being bent upon
her design, and thoroughly in earnest with her game, and the
dice also running luckily for her, when she had got the game,
she demanded Masabates, who was not in the number of the five
excepted. And before the king could suspect the matter, having
delivered him up to the tormentors, she enjoined them to flay
him alive, to set his body upon three stakes, and to stretch his
skin upon stakes separately from it.
These things being done, and the king taking them ill, and being
incensed against her, she with raillery and laughter told him,
"You are a comfortable and happy man indeed, if you are so much
disturbed for the sake of an old rascally eunuch, when I, though
I have thrown away a thousand Darics, hold my peace and
acquiesce in my fortune." So the king, vexed with himself for
having been thus deluded, hushed up all. But Statira both in
other matters openly opposed her, and was angry with her for
thus, against all law and humanity, sacrificing to the memory of
Cyrus the king's faithful friends and eunuchs.
Now after that Tisaphernes had circumvented and by a false oath
had betrayed Clearchus and the other commanders, and, taking
them, had sent them bound in chains to the king, Ctesias says
that he was asked by Clearchus to supply him with a comb; and
that when he had it, and had combed his head with it, he was
much pleased with this good office, and gave him a ring, which
might be a token of the obligation to his relatives and friends
in Sparta; and that the engraving upon this signet was a set of
Caryatides dancing. He tells us that the soldiers, his fellow
captives, used to purloin a part of the allowance of food sent
to Clearchus, giving him but little of it; which thing Ctesias
says he rectified, causing a better allowance to be conveyed to
him, and that a separate share should be distributed to the
soldiers by themselves; adding that he ministered to and
supplied him thus by the interest and at the instance of
Parysatis. And there being a portion of ham sent daily with his
other food to Clearchus, she, he says, advised and instructed
him, that he ought to bury a small knife in the meat, and thus
send it to his friend, and not leave his fate to be determined
by the king's cruelty; which he, however, he says, was afraid to
do. However, Artaxerxes consented to the entreaties of his
mother, and promised her with an oath that he would spare
Clearchus; but afterwards, at the instigation of Statira, he put
every one of them to death except Menon. And thenceforward, he
says, Parysatis watched her advantage against Statira, and made
up poison for her; not a very probable story, or a very likely
motive to account for her conduct, if indeed he means that out
of respect to Clearchus she dared to attempt the life of the
lawful queen, that was mother of those who were heirs of the
empire. But it is evident enough, that this part of his history
is a sort of funeral exhibition in honor of Clearchus. For he
would have us believe, that, when the generals were executed,
the rest of them were torn in pieces by dogs and birds; but as
for the remains of Clearchus, that a violent gust of wind,
bearing before it a vast heap of earth, raised a mound to cover
his body, upon which, after a short time, some dates having
fallen there, a beautiful grove of trees grew up and
overshadowed the place, so that the king himself declared his
sorrow, concluding that in Clearchus he put to death a man
beloved of the gods.
Parysatis, therefore, having from the first entertained a secret
hatred and jealousy against Statira, seeing that the power she
herself had with Artaxerxes was founded upon feelings of honor
and respect for her, but that Statira's influence was firmly and
strongly based upon love and confidence, was resolved to
contrive her ruin, playing at hazard, as she thought, for the
greatest stake in the world. Among her attendant women there
was one that was trusty and in the highest esteem with her,
whose name was Gigis; who, as Dinon avers, assisted in making up
the poison. Ctesias allows her only to have been conscious of
it, and that against her will; charging Belitaras with actually
giving the drug, whereas Dinon says it was Melantas. The two
women had begun again to visit each other and to eat together;
but though they had thus far relaxed their former habits of
jealousy and variance, still, out of fear and as a matter of
caution, they always ate of the same dishes and of the same
parts of them. Now there is a small Persian bird, in the inside
of which no excrement is found, only a mass of fat, so that they
suppose the little creature lives upon air and dew. It is
called rhyntaces. Ctesias affirms, that Parysatis, cutting a
bird of this kind into two pieces with a knife, one side of
which had been smeared with the drug, the other side being clear
of it, ate the untouched and wholesome part herself, and gave
Statira that which was thus infected; but Dinon will not have it
to be Parysatis, but Melantas, that cut up the bird and
presented the envenomed part of it to Statira; who, dying with
dreadful agonies and convulsions, was herself sensible of what
had happened to her, and aroused in the king's mind suspicion of
his mother, whose savage and implacable temper he knew. And
therefore proceeding instantly to an inquest, he seized upon his
mother's domestic servants that attended at her table, and put
them upon the rack. Parysatis kept Gigis at home with her a
long time, and, though the king commanded her, she would not
produce her. But she, at last, herself desiring that she might
be dismissed to her own home by night, Artaxerxes had intimation
of it, and, lying in wait for her, hurried her away, and
adjudged her to death. Now poisoners in Persia suffer thus by
law. There is a broad stone, on which they place the head of
the culprit, and then with another stone beat and press it,
until the face and the head itself are all pounded to pieces;
which was the punishment Gigis lost her life by. But to his
mother, Artaxerxes neither said nor did any other hurt, save
that he banished and confined her, not much against her will, to
Babylon, protesting that while she lived he would not come near
that city. Such was the condition of the king's affairs in his
own house.
But when all his attempts to capture the Greeks that had come up
with Cyrus, though he desired to do so no less than he had
desired to overcome Cyrus and maintain his throne, proved
unsuccessful, and they, though they had lost both Cyrus and
their own generals, nevertheless escaped, as it were, out of his
very palace, making it plain to all men that the Persian king
and his empire were mighty indeed in gold and luxury and women,
but otherwise were a mere show and vain display, upon this, all
Greece took courage, and despised the barbarians; and
especially the Lacedaemonians thought it strange if they should
not now deliver their countrymen that dwelt in Asia from their
subjection to the Persians, nor put an end to the contumelious
usage of them. And first having an army under the conduct of
Thimbron, then under Dercyllidas, but doing nothing memorable,
they at last committed the war to the management of their king
Agesilaus, who, when he had arrived with his men in Asia, as
soon as he had landed them, fell actively to work, and got
himself great renown. He defeated Tisaphernes in a pitched
battle, and set many cities in revolt. Upon this, Artaxerxes,
perceiving what was his wisest way of waging the war, sent
Timocrates the Rhodian into Greece, with large sums of gold,
commanding him by a free distribution of it to corrupt the
leading men in the cities, and to excite a Greek war against
Sparta. So Timocrates following his instructions, the most
considerable cities conspiring together, and Peloponnesus being
in disorder, the ephors remanded Agesilaus from Asia. At which
time, they say, as he was upon his return, he told his friends
that Artaxerxes had driven him out of Asia with thirty thousand
archers; the Persian coin having an archer stamped upon it.
Artaxerxes scoured the seas, too, of the Lacedaemonians, Conon
the Athenian and Pharnabazus being his admirals. For Conon,
after the battle of Aegospotami, resided in Cyprus; not that he
consulted his own mere security, but looking for a vicissitude
of affairs with no less hope than men wait for a change of wind
at sea. And perceiving that his skill wanted power, and that
the king's power wanted a wise man to guide it, he sent him an
account by letter of his projects, and charged the bearer to
hand it to the king, if possible, by the mediation of Zeno the
Cretan or Polycritus the Mendaean (the former being a
dancing-master, the latter a physician), or, in the absence of
them both, by Ctesias; who is said to have taken Conon's letter,
and foisted into the contents of it a request; that the king
would also be pleased to send over Ctesias to him, who was
likely to be of use on the sea-coast. Ctesias, however,
declares that the king, of his own accord, deputed him to this
service. Artaxerxes, however, defeating the Lacedaemonians in a
sea-fight at Cnidos, under the conduct of Pharnabazus and Conon,
after he had stripped them of their sovereignty by sea, at the
same time, brought, so to say, the whole of Greece over to him,
so that upon his own terms he dictated the celebrated peace
among them, styled the peace of Antalcidas. This Antalcidas was
a Spartan, the son of one Leon, who, acting for the king's
interest, induced the Lacedaemonians to covenant to let all the
Greek cities in Asia and the islands adjacent to it become
subject and tributary to him, peace being upon these conditions
established among the Greeks, if indeed the honorable name of
peace can fairly be given to what was in fact the disgrace and
betrayal of Greece, a treaty more inglorious than had ever been
the result of any war to those defeated in it.
And therefore Artaxerxes, though always abominating other
Spartans, and looking upon them, as Dinon says, to be the most
impudent men living, gave wonderful honor to Antalcidas when he
came to him into Persia; so much so that one day, taking a
garland of flowers and dipping it in the most precious ointment,
he sent it to him after supper, a favor which all were amazed
at. Indeed he was a person fit to be thus delicately treated,
and to have such a crown, who had among the Persians thus made
fools of Leonidas and Callicratidas. Agesilaus, it seems, on
someone having said, "O the deplorable fate of Greece, now that
the Spartans turn Medes!" replied, "Nay, rather it is the Medes
who become Spartans." But the subtlety of the repartee did not
wipe off the infamy of the action. The Lacedaemonians soon
after lost their sovereignty in Greece by their defeat at
Leuctra; but they had already lost their honor by this treaty.
So long then as Sparta continued to be the first state in
Greece, Artaxerxes continued to Antalcidas the honor of being
called his friend and his guest; but when, routed and humbled at
the battle of Leuctra, being under great distress for money,
they had dispatched Agesilaus into Egypt, and Antalcidas went up
to Artaxerxes, beseeching him to supply their necessities, he so
despised, slighted, and rejected him, that finding himself, on
his return, mocked and insulted by his enemies, and fearing also
the ephors, he starved himself to death. Ismenias, also, the
Theban, and Pelopidas, who had already gained the victory at
Leuctra, arrived at the Persian court; where the latter did
nothing unworthy of himself. But Ismenias, being commanded to
do obeisance to the king, dropped his ring before him upon the
ground, and so, stooping to take it up, made a show of doing him
homage. He was so gratified with some secret intelligence which
Timagoras the Athenian sent in to him by the hand of his
secretary, Beluris, that he bestowed upon him ten thousand
darics, and because he was ordered, on account of some sickness,
to drink cow's milk, there were fourscore milch kine driven
after him; also, he sent him a bed, furniture, and servants for
it, the Grecians not having skill enough to make it, as also
chairmen to carry him, being infirm in body, to the seaside.
Not to mention the feast made for him at court, which was so
princely and splendid that Ostanes, the king's brother, said to
him, "O, Timagoras, do not forget the sumptuous table you have
sat at here; it was not put before you for nothing;" which was
indeed rather a reflection upon his treason than to remind him
of the king's bounty. And indeed the Athenians condemned
Timagoras to death for taking bribes.
But Artaxerxes gratified the Grecians in one thing in lieu of
the many wherewith he plagued them, and that was by taking off
Tisaphernes, their most hated and malicious enemy, whom he put
to death; Parysatis adding her influence to the charges made
against him. For the king did not persist long in his wrath
with his mother, but was reconciled to her, and sent for her,
being assured that she had wisdom and courage fit for royal
power, and there being now no cause discernible but that they
might converse together without suspicion or offense. And from
thenceforward humoring the king in all things according to his
heart's desire, and finding fault with nothing that he did, she
obtained great power with him, and was gratified in all her
requests. She perceived he was desperately in love with Atossa,
one of his own two daughters, and that he concealed and checked
his passion chiefly for fear of herself, though, if we may
believe some writers, he had privately given way to it with the
young girl already. As soon as Parysatis suspected it, she
displayed a greater fondness for the young girl than before, and
extolled both her virtue and beauty to him, as being truly
imperial and majestic. In fine, she persuaded him to marry her
and declare her to be his lawful wife, overriding all the
principles and the laws by which the Greeks hold themselves
bound, and regarding himself as divinely appointed for a law to
the Persians, and the supreme arbitrator of good and evil. Some
historians further affirm, in which number is Heraclides of
Cuma, that Artaxerxes married not only this one, but a second
daughter also, Amestris, of whom we shall speak by and by. But
he so loved Atossa when she became his consort, that when
leprosy had run through her whole body, he was not in the least
offended at it; but putting up his prayers to Juno for her, to
this one alone of all the deities he made obeisance, by laying
his hands upon the earth; and his satraps and favorites made
such offerings to the goddess by his direction, that all along
for sixteen furlongs, betwixt the court and her temple, the road
was filled up with gold and silver, purple and horses, devoted
to her.
He waged war out of his own kingdom with the Egyptians, under
the conduct of Pharnabazus and Iphicrates, but was unsuccessful
by reason of their dissensions. In his expedition against the
Cadusians, he went himself in person with three hundred thousand
footmen and ten thousand horse. And making an incursion into
their country, which was so mountainous as scarcely to be
passable, and withal very misty, producing no sort of harvest of
corn or the like, but with pears, apples, and other tree-fruits
feeding a warlike and valiant breed of men, he unawares fell
into great distresses and dangers. For there was nothing to be
got fit for his men to eat, of the growth of that place, nor
could anything be imported from any other. All they could do
was to kill their beasts of burden, and thus an ass's head could
scarcely be bought for sixty drachmas. In short, the king's own
table failed; and there were but few horses left; the rest they
had spent for food. Then Teribazus, a man often in great favor
with his prince for his valor, and as often out of it for his
buffoonery, and particularly at that time in humble estate and
neglected, was the deliverer of the king and his army. There
being two kings amongst the Cadusians, and each of them
encamping separately, Teribazus, after he had made his
application to Artaxerxes and imparted his design to him, went
to one of the princes, and sent away his son privately to the
other. So each of them deceived his man, assuring him that the
other prince had deputed an ambassador to Artaxerxes, suing for
friendship and alliance for himself alone; and, therefore, if he
were wise, he told him, he must apply himself to his master
before he had decreed anything, and he, he said, would lend him
his assistance in all things. Both of them gave credit to these
words, and because they supposed they were each intrigued
against by the other, they both sent their envoys, one along
with Teribazus, and the other with his son. All this taking
some time to transact, fresh surmises and suspicions of
Teribazus were expressed to the king, who began to be out of
heart, sorry that he had confided in him, and ready to give ear
to his rivals who impeached him. But at last he came, and so
did his son, bringing the Cadusian agents along with them, and
so there was a cessation of arms and a peace signed with both
the princes. And Teribazus, in great honor and distinction, set
out homewards in the company of the king; who, indeed, upon this
journey made it appear plainly that cowardice and effeminacy are
the effects, not of delicate and sumptuous living, as many
suppose, but of a base and vicious nature, actuated by false and
bad opinions. For notwithstanding his golden ornaments, his
robe of state, and the rest of that costly attire, worth no less
than twelve thousand talents, with which the royal person was
constantly clad, his labors and toils were not a whit inferior
to those of the meanest persons in his army. With his quiver by
his side and his shield on his arm, he led them on foot,
quitting his horse, through craggy and steep ways, insomuch that
the sight of his cheerfulness and unwearied strength gave wings
to the soldiers, and so lightened the journey, that they made
daily marches of above two hundred furlongs.
After they had arrived at one of his own mansions, which had
beautiful ornamented parks in the midst of a region naked and
without trees, the weather being very cold, he gave full
commission to his soldiers to provide themselves with wood by
cutting down any, without exception, even the pine and cypress.
And when they hesitated and were for sparing them, being large
and goodly trees, he, taking up an ax himself, felled the
greatest and most beautiful of them. After which his men used
their hatchets, and piling up many fires, passed away the night
at their ease. Nevertheless, he returned not without the loss
of many and valiant subjects, and of almost all his horses. And
supposing that his misfortunes and the ill success of his
expedition made him despised in the eyes of his people, he
looked jealously on his nobles, many of whom he slew in anger,
and yet more out of fear. As, indeed, fear is the bloodiest
passion in princes; confidence, on the other hand, being
merciful, gentle, and unsuspicious. So we see among wild
beasts, the intractable and least tamable are the most timorous
and most easily startled; the nobler creatures, whose courage
makes them trustful, are ready to respond to the advances of
men.
Artaxerxes, now being an old man, perceived that his sons were
in controversy about his kingdom, and that they made parties
among his favorites and peers. Those that were equitable among
them thought it fit, that as he had received it, so he should
bequeath it, by right of age, to Darius. The younger brother,
Ochus, who was hot and violent, had indeed a considerable number
of the courtiers that espoused his interest, but his chief hope
was that by Atossa's means he should win his father. For he
flattered her with the thoughts of being his wife and partner in
the kingdom after the death of Artaxerxes. And truly it was
rumored that already Ochus maintained a too intimate
correspondence with her. This, however, was quite unknown to
the king; who, being willing to put down in good time his son
Ochus's hopes, lest, by his attempting the same things his uncle
Cyrus did, wars and contentions might again afflict his kingdom,
proclaimed Darius, then twenty-five years old, his successor,
and gave him leave to wear the upright hat, as they call it. It
was a rule and usage of Persia, that the heir apparent to the
crown should beg a boon, and that he that declared him so should
give whatever he asked, provided it were within the sphere of
his power. Darius therefore requested Aspasia, in former time
the most prized of the concubines of Cyrus, and now belonging to
the king. She was by birth a Phocaean, of Ionia, born of free
parents, and well educated. Once when Cyrus was at supper, she
was led in to him with other women, who, when they were sat down
by him, and he began to sport and dally and talk jestingly with
them, gave way freely to his advances. But she stood by in
silence, refusing to come when Cyrus called her, and when his
chamberlains were going to force her towards him, said,
"Whosoever lays hands on me shall rue it;" so that she seemed to
the company a sullen and rude-mannered person. However, Cyrus
was well pleased, and laughed, saying to the man that brought
the women, "Do you not see of a certainty that this woman alone
of all that came with you is truly noble and pure in character?"
After which time he began to regard her, and loved her above all
of her sex, and called her the Wise. But Cyrus being slain in
the fight, she was taken among the spoils of his camp.
Darius, in demanding her, no doubt much offended his father, for
the barbarian people keep a very jealous and watchful eye over
their carnal pleasures, so that it is death for a man not only
to come near and touch any concubine of his prince, but likewise
on a journey to ride forward and pass by the carriages in which
they are conveyed. And though, to gratify his passion, he had
against all law married his daughter Atossa, and had besides her
no less than three hundred and sixty concubines selected for
their beauty, yet being importuned for that one by Darius, he
urged that she was a free-woman, and allowed him to take her, if
she had an inclination to go with him, but by no means to force
her away against it. Aspasia, therefore, being sent for, and,
contrary to the king's expectation, making choice of Darius, he
gave him her indeed, being constrained by law, but when he had
done so, a little after he took her from him. For he
consecrated her priestess to Diana of Ecbatana, whom they name
Anaitis, that she might spend the remainder of her days in
strict chastity, thinking thus to punish his son, not
rigorously, but with moderation, by a revenge checkered with
jest and earnest. But he took it heinously, either that he was
passionately fond of Aspasia, or because he looked upon himself
as affronted and scorned by his father. Teribazus, perceiving
him thus minded, did his best to exasperate him yet further,
seeing in his injuries a representation of his own, of which the
following is the account: Artaxerxes, having many daughters,
promised to give Apama to Pharnabazus to wife, Rhodogune to
Orontes, and Amestris to Teribazus; whom alone of the three he
disappointed, by marrying Amestris himself. However, to make
him amends, he betrothed his youngest daughter Atossa to him.
But after he had, being enamored of her too, as has been said,
married her, Teribazus entertained an irreconcilable enmity
against him. As indeed he was seldom at any other time steady
in his temper, but uneven and inconsiderate; so that whether he
were in the number of the choicest favorites of his prince, or
whether he were offensive and odious to him, he demeaned himself
in neither condition with moderation; but if he was advanced he
was intolerably insolent, and in his degradation not submissive
and peaceable in his deportment, but fierce and haughty.
And therefore Teribazus was to the young prince flame added upon
flame, ever urging him, and saying, that in vain those wear
their hats upright who consult not the real success of their
affairs, and that he was ill befriended of reason if he
imagined, whilst he had a brother, who, through the women's
apartments, was seeking a way to the supremacy, and a father of
so rash and fickle a humor, that he should by succession
infallibly step up into the throne. For he that out of fondness
to an Ionian girl has eluded a law sacred and inviolable among
the Persians is not likely to be faithful in the performance of
the most important promises. He added, too, that it was not all
one for Ochus not to attain to, and for him to be put by his
crown; since Ochus as a subject might live happily, and nobody
could hinder him; but he, being proclaimed king, must either
take up his scepter or lay down his life. These words presently
inflamed Darius: what Sophocles says being indeed generally
true: --
Quick travels the persuasion to what's wrong.
For the path is smooth, and upon an easy descent, that leads us
to our own will; and the most part of us desire what is evil
through our strangeness to and ignorance of good. And in this
case, no doubt, the greatness of the empire and the jealousy
Darius had of Ochus furnished Teribazus with material for his
persuasions. Nor was Venus wholly unconcerned in the matter, in
regard, namely, of his loss of Aspasia.
Darius, therefore, resigned himself up to the dictates of
Teribazus; and many now conspiring with them, a eunuch gave
information to the king of their plot and the way how it was to
be managed, having discovered the certainty of it, that they had
resolved to break into his bed-chamber by night, and there to
kill him as he lay. After Artaxerxes had been thus advertised,
he did not think fit, by disregarding the discovery, to despise
so great a danger, nor to believe it when there was little or no
proof of it. Thus then he did: he charged the eunuch constantly
to attend and accompany the conspirators wherever they were; in
the meanwhile, he broke down the party-wall of the chamber
behind his bed, and placed a door in it to open and shut, which
covered up with tapestry; so the hour approaching, and the
eunuch having told him the precise time in which the traitors
designed to assassinate him, he waited for them in his bed, and
rose not up till he had seen the faces of his assailants and
recognized every man of them. But as soon as he saw them with
their swords drawn and coming up to him, throwing up the
hanging, he made his retreat into the inner chamber, and,
bolting to the door, raised a cry. Thus when the murderers had
been seen by him, and had attempted him in vain, they with speed
went back through the same doors they came in by, enjoining
Teribazus and his friends to fly, as their plot had been
certainly detected. They, therefore, made their escape
different ways; but Teribazus was seized by the king's guards,
and after slaying many, while they were laying hold on him, at
length being struck through with a dart at a distance, fell. As
for Darius, who was brought to trial with his children, the king
appointed the royal judges to sit over him, and because he was
not himself present, but accused Darius by proxy, he commanded
his scribes to write down the opinion of every one of the
judges, and show it to him. And after they had given their
sentences, all as one man, and condemned Darius to death, the
officers seized on him and hurried him to a chamber not far off.
To which place the executioner, when summoned, came with a razor
in his hand, with which men of his employment cut off' the heads
of offenders. But when he saw that Darius was the person thus
to be punished, he was appalled and started back, offering to go
out, as one that had neither power nor courage enough to behead
a king; yet at the threats and commands of the judges, who stood
at the prison door, he returned, and grasping the hair of his
head and bringing his face to the ground with one hand, he cut
through his neck with the razor he had in the other. Some
affirm that sentence was passed in the presence of Artaxerxes;
that Darius, after he had been convicted by clear evidence,
falling prostrate before him, did humbly beg his pardon; that
instead of giving it, he, rising up in rage and drawing his
scimitar, smote him till he had killed him; that then, going
forth into the court, he worshipped the sun, and said, "Depart
in peace, ye Persians, and declare to your fellow-subjects how
the mighty Oromasdes hath dealt out vengeance to the contrivers
of unjust and unlawful things."
Such, then, was the issue of this conspiracy. And now Ochus was
high in his hopes, being confident in the influence of Atossa;
but yet was afraid of Ariaspes, the only male surviving, besides
himself, of the legitimate off-spring of his father, and of
Arsames, one of his natural sons. For indeed Ariaspes was
already claimed as their prince by the wishes of the Persians,
not because he was the elder brother, but because he excelled
Ochus in gentleness, plain-dealing, and good-nature; and on the
other hand Arsames appeared, by his wisdom, fitted for the
throne, and that he was dear to his father, Ochus well knew. So
he laid snares for them both, and being no less treacherous than
bloody, he made use of the cruelty of his nature against
Arsames, and of his craft and wiliness against Ariaspes. For he
suborned the king's eunuchs and favorites to convey to him
menacing and harsh expressions from his father, as though he had
decreed to put him to a cruel and ignominious death. When they
daily communicated these things as secrets, and told him at one
time that the king would do so to him ere long, and at another,
that the blow was actually close impending, they so alarmed the
young man, struck; such a terror into him, and cast such a
confusion and anxiety upon his thoughts, that, having prepared
some poisonous drugs, he drank them, that he might be delivered
from his life. The king, on hearing what kind of death he died,
heartily lamented him, and was not without a suspicion of the
cause of it. But being disabled by his age to search into and
prove it, he was, after the loss of this son, more affectionate
than before to Arsames, did manifestly place his greatest
confidence in him, and made him privy to his counsels.
Whereupon Ochus had no longer patience to defer the execution of
his purpose, but having procured Arpates, Teribazus's son, for
the undertaking, he killed Arsames by his hand. Artaxerxes at
that time had but a little hold on life, by reason of his
extreme age, and so, when he heard of the fate of Arsames, he
could not sustain it at all, but sinking at once under the
weight of his grief and distress, expired, after a life of
ninety-four years, and a reign of sixty-two. And then he seemed
a moderate and gracious governor, more especially as compared to
his son Ochus, who outdid all his predecessors in
blood-thirstiness and cruelty.
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