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buried him secretly without the knowledge of Cambyses. And now Cambyses, who even before had not been quite in his right mind, was forthwith, as the Egyptians say, smitten with madness for this crime.

CAMBYSES MURDERS HIS BROTHER.

The first of his outrages was the slaying of Smerdis, his full brother, whom he had sent back to Persia from Egypt out of envy because he drew the bow brought from the Ethiopians by the Ichthyophagi, which none of the other Persians were able to bend the distance of two fingers' breadth. When Smerdis was departed into Persia, Cambyses had a vision in his sleep: he thought a messenger from Persia came to him with tidings that Smerdis sat upon the royal throne, and with his head touched the heavens. Fearing therefore for himself, and thinking it likely that his brother would kill him and rule in his stead, Cambyses sent Prexaspes, whom he trusted beyond all the other Persians, bidding him put Smerdis to death. So this Prexaspes went up to Susa, and slew Smerdis. Some say he killed him as they hunted together; others that he took him down to the Erythræan Sea, and there drowned him.

CAMBYSES MURDERS HIS WIFE-SISTER.

This, it is said, was the first outrage which Cambyses committed. The second was the slaying of his sister, who had accompanied him into Egypt, and lived with him as his wife, though she was his full sister, the daughter both of his father and his mother. The way wherein he had made her his wife was the following: It was not the custom of the Persians before his time to marry their sisters; but Cambyses happening to fall in love with one of his, and wishing to take her to wife, as he knew that it was an uncommon thing, called together the royal judges, and put it to them "whether there was any law which allowed a brother if he wished, to marry his sister?" Now the royal judges are certain picked men among the Persians who hold their office for life, or until they are found guilty of some misconduct. By them justice is administered in Persia, and

they are the interpreters of the old laws, all disputes being referred to their decision. When Cambyses, therefore, put his question to these judges, they gave him an answer which was at once true and safe: "They did not find any law," they said, "allowing a brother to take his sister to wife; but they found a law that the king might do whatever he pleased." And so they neither warped the law through fear of Cambyses, nor ruined themselves by over-stiffly maintaining the law; but they brought another quite distinct law to the king's help, which allowed him to have his wish. Cambyses therefore married the object of his love, and no long time afterward he took to wife another sister. It was the younger of these who went with him to Egypt and there suffered death at his hands.

Concerning the manner of her death, as concerning that of Smerdis, two different accounts are given. . . . The Egyptians tell the story thus: The two were sitting at table, when the sister took a lettuce, and stripping off the leaves asked her brother when he thought the lettuce looked the prettiest-when it had its leaves on, or now that it was stripped; he answered: "When the leaves were on." "But thou," she rejoined, “hast done as I did to the lettuce, and made bare the house of Cyrus." Then Cambyses was wroth, and sprang fiercely upon her, though she was with child at the time. And so it came to pass that she miscarried and died.

Thus mad was Cambyses upon his own kindred, and this either from his usage of spies or from some other among the many causes from which calamities are wont to arise. They say that from his birth he was afflicted with a dreadful disease-the disorder which some call the "sacred sickness." It would be by no means strange, therefore, if his mind were affected in some degree, seeing that his body labored under so sore a malady.

CAMBYSES AND PREXASPES.

He was mad also upon others besides his kindred : among the rest upon Prexaspes, the man whom he esteemed beyond the rest of all the Persians, who carried his messages, and whose son held the office-an

honor of no small account among the Persians-of his cupbearer. Him Cambyses is said to have once addressed as follows: "What sort of a man, Prexaspes, do the Persians think me? What do they say of me?" Prexaspes answered, "Oh! Sire, they praise thee greatly in all things but one-they say that thou art too much given to the love of wine.' Whereupon Cambyses, full of rage, made answer: "What! they say now that I drink too much wine, and have lost my senses, and am gone out of my mind! Then their former speeches about me were untrue." For once when the Persians were sitting with him and Croesus was by, he had asked them, "What sort of a man they thought him compared to his father, Cyrus?" Hereon they had answered, "that he surpassed his father, for he was lord of all that his father ever ruled, and further, had made himself master of Egypt and the sea. Then Croesus, who was standing near, and misliked the comparison, spoke thus to Cambyses: "In my judgment, O son of Cyrus, thou art not equal to thy father, for thou hast not left behind thee such a son as he." Cambyses was delighted when he heard this reply, and praised the judgment of Croesus.

Recollecting these answers, Cambyses spoke fiercely to Prexaspes, saying: "Judge now thyself, Prexaspes, whether the Persians tell the truth, or whether it is not they who are mad for speaking as they do. Look there now at thy son standing in the vestibule-if I shoot and hit him right in the middle of the heart, it would be plain that the Persians have no grounds for what they say; if I miss him, then I allow that the Persians are right, and that I am out of my mind." So speaking he drew his bow to the full, and struck the boy, who straightway fell down dead. Then Cambyses ordered the body to be opened, and the wound examined; and when the arrow was found to have entered the heart, the king was quite overjoyed, and said to the father with a laugh: "Now thou seest plainly, Prexaspes, that it is not I who am mad, but the Persians who have lost their senses. I pray thee, tell me sawest thou ever mortal man send an arrow with a better aim?" Prexaspes, seeing that the king was not in his right mind, and fearing for himself, replied: "Oh! my lord, I do not think that God himself could shoot so dexterously."

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