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 Makers of History

 Darius the Great

 BY

 JACOB ABBOTT

 WITH ENGRAVINGS

 NEW YORK AND LONDON

 HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

 1904




 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
 eight hundred and fifty, by

 HARPER & BROTHERS,

 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
 of New York.

 Copyright, 1878, by JACOB ABBOTT.




[Illustration: DARIUS CROSSING THE BOSPORUS.]




PREFACE.


In describing the character and the action of the personages whose
histories form the subjects of this series, the writer makes no
attempt to darken the colors in which he depicts their deeds of
violence and wrong, or to increase, by indignant denunciations, the
obloquy which heroes and conquerors have so often brought upon
themselves, in the estimation of mankind, by their ambition, their
tyranny, or their desperate and reckless crimes. In fact, it seems
desirable to diminish, rather than to increase, the spirit of
censoriousness which often leads men so harshly to condemn the errors
and sins of others, committed in circumstances of temptation to which
they themselves were never exposed. Besides, to denounce or vituperate
guilt, in a narrative of the transactions in which it was displayed,
has little influence in awakening a healthy sensitiveness in the
conscience of the reader. We observe, accordingly, that in the
narratives of the sacred Scriptures, such denunciations are seldom
found. The story of Absalom's undutifulness and rebellion, of David's
adultery and murder, of Herod's tyranny, and all other narratives of
crime, are related in a calm, simple, impartial, and forbearing
spirit, which leads us to condemn the sins, but not to feel a
pharisaical resentment and wrath against the sinner.

This example, so obviously proper and right, the writer of this series
has made it his endeavor in all respects to follow.




CONTENTS.


 Chapter                                                    Page

    I. CAMBYSES                                              13

   II. THE END OF CAMBYSES                                   38

  III. SMERDIS THE MAGIAN                                    59

   IV. THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS                               82

    V. THE PROVINCES                                         99

   VI. THE RECONNOITERING OF GREECE                         123

  VII. THE REVOLT OF BABYLON                                144

 VIII. THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA                              167

   IX. THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA                             189

    X. THE STORY OF HISTIAEUS                                210

   XI. THE INVASION OF GREECE                               233

  XII. THE DEATH OF DARIUS                                  264




ENGRAVINGS.


                                                            Page

 MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.

 DARIUS CROSSING THE BOSPORUS                    _Frontispiece._

 THE ARMY OF CAMBYSES OVERWHELMED IN THE DESERT              35

 PHAEDYMA FEELING FOR SMERDIS'S EARS                          69

 THE INDIAN GOLD HUNTERS                                    121

 THE BABYLONIANS DERIDING DARIUS FROM THE WALL              156

 MAP OF GREECE                                              232

 THE INVASION OF GREECE                                     256




[Illustration: MAP OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.]




DARIUS THE GREAT




CHAPTER I.

CAMBYSES.

B.C. 530-524

Cyrus the Great.--His extended conquests.--Cambyses and
Smerdis.--Hystaspes and Darius.--Dream of Cyrus.--His anxiety and
fears.--Accession of Cambyses.--War with Egypt.--Origin of the war
with Egypt.--Ophthalmia.--The Egyptian physician.--His plan of
revenge.--Demand of Cyrus.--Stratagem of the King of Egypt.--Resentment
of Cassandane.--Threats of Cambyses.--Future conquests.--Temperament
and character of Cambyses.--Impetuosity of Cambyses.--Preparations for
the Egyptian war.--Desertion of Phanes.--His narrow escape.--Information
given by Phanes.--Treaty with the Arabian king.--Plan for providing
water.--Account of Herodotus.--A great battle.--Defeat of the
Egyptians.--Inhuman conduct of Cambyses.--His treatment of
Psammenitus.--The train of captive maidens.--The young men.--Scenes
of distress and suffering.--Composure of Psammenitus.--Feelings of the
father.--His explanation of them.--Cambyses relents.--His treatment of
the body of Amasis.--Cambyses's desecrations.--The sacred bull
Apis.--Cambyses stabs the sacred bull.--His mad expeditions.--The sand
storm.--Cambyses a wine-bibber.--Brutal act of Cambyses.--He is deemed
insane.


About five or six hundred years before Christ, almost the whole of the
interior of Asia was united in one vast empire. The founder of this
empire was Cyrus the Great. He was originally a Persian; and the whole
empire is often called the Persian monarchy, taking its name from its
founder's native land.

Cyrus was not contented with having annexed to his dominion all the
civilized states of Asia. In the latter part of his life, he conceived
the idea that there might possibly be some additional glory and power
to be acquired in subduing certain half-savage regions in the north,
beyond the Araxes. He accordingly raised an army, and set off on an
expedition for this purpose, against a country which was governed by a
barbarian queen named Tomyris. He met with a variety of adventures on
this expedition, all of which are fully detailed in our history of
Cyrus. There is, however, only one occurrence that it is necessary to
allude to particularly here. That one relates to a remarkable dream
which he had one night, just after he had crossed the river.

To explain properly the nature of this dream, it is necessary first to
state that Cyrus had two sons. Their names were Cambyses and Smerdis.
He had left them in Persia when he set out on his expedition across
the Araxes. There was also a young man, then about twenty years of
age, in one of his capitals, named Darius. He was the son of one of
the nobles of Cyrus's court. His father's name was Hystaspes.
Hystaspes, besides being a noble of the court, was also, as almost all
nobles were in those days, an officer of the army. He accompanied
Cyrus in his march into the territories of the barbarian queen, and
was with him there, in camp, at the time when this narrative
commences.

Cyrus, it seems, felt some misgivings in respect to the result of his
enterprise; and, in order to insure the tranquillity of his empire
during his absence, and the secure transmission of his power to his
rightful successor in case he should never return, he established his
son Cambyses as regent of his realms before he crossed the Araxes,
and delivered the government of the empire, with great formality, into
his hands. This took place upon the frontier, just before the army
passed the river. The mind of a father, under such circumstances,
would naturally be occupied, in some degree, with thoughts relating to
the arrangements which his son would make, and to the difficulties he
would be likely to encounter in managing the momentous concerns which
had been committed to his charge. The mind of Cyrus was undoubtedly so
occupied, and this, probably, was the origin of the remarkable dream.

His dream was, that Darius appeared to him in a vision, with vast
wings growing from his shoulders. Darius stood, in the vision, on the
confines of Europe and Asia, and his wings, expanded either way,
overshadowed the whole known world. When Cyrus awoke and reflected on
this ominous dream, it seemed to him to portend some great danger to
the future security of his empire. It appeared to denote that Darius
was one day to bear sway over all the world. Perhaps he might be even
then forming ambitious and treasonable designs. Cyrus immediately sent
for Hystaspes, the father of Darius; when he came to his tent, he
commanded him to go back to Persia, and keep a strict watch over the
conduct of his son until he himself should return. Hystaspes received
this commission, and departed to execute it; and Cyrus, somewhat
relieved, perhaps, of his anxiety by this measure of precaution, went
on with his army toward his place of destination.

Cyrus never returned. He was killed in battle; and it would seem that,
though the import of his dream was ultimately fulfilled, Darius was
not, at that time, meditating any schemes of obtaining possession of
the throne, for he made no attempt to interfere with the regular
transmission of the imperial power from Cyrus to Cambyses his son. At
any rate, it was so transmitted. The tidings of Cyrus's death came to
the capital, and Cambyses, his son, reigned in his stead.

The great event of the reign of Cambyses was a war with Egypt, which
originated in the following very singular manner:

It has been found, in all ages of the world, that there is some
peculiar quality of the soil, or climate, or atmosphere of Egypt which
tends to produce an inflammation of the eyes. The inhabitants
themselves have at all times been very subject to this disease, and
foreign armies marching into the country are always very seriously
affected by it. Thousands of soldiers in such armies are sometimes
disabled from this cause, and many are made incurably blind. Now a
country which produces a disease in its worst form and degree, will
produce also, generally, the best physicians for that disease. At any
rate, this was supposed to be the case in ancient times; and
accordingly, when any powerful potentate in those days was afflicted
himself with ophthalmia, or had such a case in his family, Egypt was
the country to send to for a physician.

Now it happened that Cyrus himself, at one time in the course of his
life, was attacked with this disease, and he dispatched an embassador
to Amasis, who was then king of Egypt, asking him to send him a
physician. Amasis, who, like all the other absolute sovereigns of
those days, regarded his subjects as slaves that were in all respects
entirely at his disposal, selected a physician of distinction from
among the attendants about his court, and ordered him to repair to
Persia. The physician was extremely reluctant to go. He had a wife and
family, from whom he was very unwilling to be separated; but the
orders were imperative, and he must obey. He set out on the journey,
therefore, but he secretly resolved to devise some mode of revenging
himself on the king for the cruelty of sending him.

He was well received by Cyrus, and, either by his skill as a
physician, or from other causes, he acquired great influence at the
Persian court. At last he contrived a mode of revenging himself on the
Egyptian king for having exiled him from his native land. The king had
a daughter, who was a lady of great beauty. Her father was very
strongly attached to her. The physician recommended to Cyrus to send
to Amasis and demand this daughter in marriage. As, however, Cyrus was
already married, the Egyptian princess would, if she came, be his
concubine rather than his wife, or, if considered a wife, it could
only be a secondary and subordinate place that she could occupy. The
physician knew that, under these circumstances, the King of Egypt
would be extremely unwilling to send her to Cyrus, while he would yet
scarcely dare to refuse; and the hope of plunging him into extreme
embarrassment and distress, by means of such a demand from so powerful
a sovereign, was the motive which led the physician to recommend the
measure.

Cyrus was pleased with the proposal, and sent, accordingly, to make
the demand. The king, as the physician had anticipated, could not
endure to part with his daughter in such a way, nor did he, on the
other hand, dare to incur the displeasure of so powerful a monarch by
a direct and open refusal. He finally resolved upon escaping from the
difficulty by a stratagem.

There was a young and beautiful captive princess in his court named
Nitetis. Her father, whose name was Apries, had been formerly the King
of Egypt, but he had been dethroned and killed by Amasis. Since the
downfall of her family, Nitetis had been a captive; but, as she was
very beautiful and very accomplished, Amasis conceived the design of
sending her to Cyrus, under the pretense that she was the daughter
whom Cyrus had demanded. He accordingly brought her forth, provided
her with the most costly and splendid dresses, loaded her with
presents, ordered a large retinue to attend her, and sent her forth to
Persia.

Cyrus was at first very much pleased with his new bride. Nitetis
became, in fact, his principal favorite; though, of course, his other
wife, whose name was Cassandane, and her children, Cambyses and
Smerdis, were jealous of her, and hated her. One day, a Persian lady
was visiting at the court, and as she was standing near Cassandane,
and saw her two sons, who were then tall and handsome young men, she
expressed her admiration of them, and said to Cassandane, "How proud
and happy you must be!" "No," said Cassandane; "on the contrary, I am
very miserable; for, though I am the mother of these children, the
king neglects and despises me. All his kindness is bestowed on this
Egyptian woman." Cambyses, who heard this conversation, sympathized
deeply with Cassandane in her resentment. "Mother," said he, "be
patient, and I will avenge you. As soon as I am king, I will go to
Egypt and turn the whole country upside down."

In fact, the tendency which there was in the mind of Cambyses to look
upon Egypt as the first field of war and conquest for him, so soon as
he should succeed to the throne, was encouraged by the influence of
his father; for Cyrus, although he was much captivated by the charms
of the lady whom the King of Egypt had sent him, was greatly incensed
against the king for having practiced upon him such a deception.
Besides, all the important countries in Asia were already included
within the Persian dominions. It was plain that if any future progress
were to be made in extending the empire, the regions of Europe and
Africa must be the theatre of it. Egypt seemed the most accessible and
vulnerable point beyond the confines of Asia; and thus, though Cyrus
himself, being advanced somewhat in years, and interested, moreover,
in other projects, was not prepared to undertake an enterprise into
Africa himself, he was very willing that such plans should be
cherished by his son.

Cambyses was an ardent, impetuous, and self-willed boy, such as the
sons of rich and powerful men are very apt to become. They imbibe, by
a sort of sympathy, the ambitious and aspiring spirit of their
fathers; and as all their childish caprices and passions are generally
indulged, they never learn to submit to control. They become vain,
self-conceited, reckless, and cruel. The conqueror who founds an
empire, although even his character generally deteriorates very
seriously toward the close of his career, still usually knows
something of moderation and generosity. His son, however, who inherits
his father's power, seldom inherits the virtues by which the power
was acquired. These truths, which we see continually exemplified all
around us, on a small scale, in the families of the wealthy and the
powerful, were illustrated most conspicuously, in the view of all
mankind, in the case of Cyrus and Cambyses. The father was prudent,
cautious, wise, and often generous and forbearing. The son grew up
headstrong, impetuous, uncontrolled, and uncontrollable. He had the
most lofty ideas of his own greatness and power, and he felt a supreme
contempt for the rights, and indifference to the happiness of all the
world besides. His history gives us an illustration of the worst which
the principle of hereditary sovereignty can do, as the best is
exemplified in the case of Alfred of England.

Cambyses, immediately after his father's death, began to make
arrangements for the Egyptian invasion. The first thing to be
determined was the mode of transporting his armies thither. Egypt is a
long and narrow valley, with the rocks and deserts of Arabia on one
side, and those of Sahara on the other. There is no convenient mode of
access to it except by sea, and Cambyses had no naval force sufficient
for a maritime expedition.

While he was revolving the subject in his mind, there arrived in his
capital of Susa, where he was then residing, a deserter from the army
of Amasis in Egypt. The name of this deserter was Phanes. He was a
Greek, having been the commander of a body of Greek troops who were
employed by Amasis as auxiliaries in his army. He had had a quarrel
with Amasis, and had fled to Persia, intending to join Cambyses in the
expedition which he was contemplating, in order to revenge himself on
the Egyptian king. Phanes said, in telling his story, that he had had
a very narrow escape from Egypt; for, as soon as Amasis had heard that
he had fled, he dispatched one of his swiftest vessels, a galley of
three banks of oars, in hot pursuit of the fugitive. The galley
overtook the vessel in which Phanes had taken passage just as it was
landing in Asia Minor. The Egyptian officers seized it and made Phanes
prisoner. They immediately began to make their preparations for the
return voyage, putting Phanes, in the mean time, under the charge of
guards, who were instructed to keep him very safely. Phanes, however,
cultivated a good understanding with his guards, and presently invited
them to drink wine with him. In the end, he got them intoxicated, and
while they were in that state he made his escape from them, and then,
traveling with great secrecy and caution until he was beyond their
reach, he succeeded in making his way to Cambyses in Susa.

Phanes gave Cambyses a great deal of information in respect to the
geography of Egypt, the proper points of attack, the character and
resources of the king, and communicated, likewise, a great many other
particulars which it was very important that Cambyses should know. He
recommended that Cambyses should proceed to Egypt by land, through
Arabia; and that, in order to secure a safe passage, he should send
first to the King of the Arabs, by a formal embassy, asking permission
to cross his territories with an army, and engaging the Arabians to
aid him, if possible, in the transit. Cambyses did this. The Arabs
were very willing to join in any projected hostilities against the
Egyptians; they offered Cambyses a free passage, and agreed to aid his
army on their march. To the faithful fulfillment of these stipulations
the Arab chief bound himself by a treaty, executed with the most
solemn forms and ceremonies.

The great difficulty to be encountered in traversing the deserts which
Cambyses would have to cross on his way to Egypt was the want of
water. To provide for this necessity, the king of the Arabs sent a
vast number of camels into the desert, laden with great sacks or bags
full of water. These camels were sent forward just before the army of
Cambyses came on, and they deposited their supplies along the route at
the points where they would be most needed. Herodotus, the Greek
traveler, who made a journey into Egypt not a great many years after
these transactions, and who wrote subsequently a full description of
what he saw and heard there, gives an account of another method by
which the Arab king was said to have conveyed water into the desert,
and that was by a canal or pipe, made of the skins of oxen, which he
laid along the ground, from a certain river of his dominions, to a
distance of twelve days' journey over the sands! This story Herodotus
says he did not believe, though elsewhere in the course of his history
he gravely relates, as true history, a thousand tales infinitely more
improbable than the idea of a leathern pipe or hose like this to serve
for a conduit of water.

By some means or other, at all events, the Arab chief provided
supplies of water in the desert for Cambyses's army, and the troops
made the passage safely. They arrived, at length, on the frontiers of
Egypt.[A] Here they found that Amasis, the king, was dead, and
Psammenitus, his son, had succeeded him. Psammenitus came forward to
meet the invaders. A great battle was fought. The Egyptians were
routed. Psammenitus fled up the Nile to the city of Memphis, taking
with him such broken remnants of his army as he could get together
after the battle, and feeling extremely incensed and exasperated
against the invader. In fact, Cambyses had now no excuse or pretext
whatever for waging such a war against Egypt. The monarch who had
deceived his father was dead, and there had never been any cause of
complaint against his son or against the Egyptian people. Psammenitus,
therefore, regarded the invasion of Egypt by Cambyses as a wanton and
wholly unjustifiable aggression, and he determined, in his own mind,
that such invaders deserved no mercy, and that he would show them
none. Soon after this, a galley on the river, belonging to Cambyses,
containing a crew of two hundred men, fell into his hands. The
Egyptians, in their rage, tore these Persians all to pieces. This
exasperated Cambyses in his turn, and the war went on, attended by the
most atrocious cruelties on both sides.

[Footnote A: For the places mentioned in this chapter, and the track
of Cambyses on his expedition, see the map at the commencement of this
volume.]

In fact, Cambyses, in this Egyptian campaign, pursued such a career of
inhuman and reckless folly, that people at last considered him insane.
He began with some small semblance of moderation, but he proceeded, in
the end, to the perpetration of the most terrible excesses of violence
and wrong.

As to his moderation, his treatment of Psammenitus personally is
almost the only instance that we can record. In the course of the war,
Psammenitus and all his family fell into Cambyses's hands as captives.
A few days afterward, Cambyses conducted the unhappy king without the
gates of the city to exhibit a spectacle to him. The spectacle was
that of his beloved daughter, clothed in the garments of a slave, and
attended by a company of other maidens, the daughters of the nobles
and other persons of distinction belonging to his court, all going
down to the river, with heavy jugs, to draw water. The fathers of all
these hapless maidens had been brought out with Psammenitus to
witness the degradation and misery of their children. The maidens
cried and sobbed aloud as they went along, overwhelmed with shame and
terror. Their fathers manifested the utmost agitation and distress.
Cambyses stood smiling by, highly enjoying the spectacle. Psammenitus
alone appeared unmoved. He gazed on the scene silent, motionless, and
with a countenance which indicated no active suffering; he seemed to
be in a state of stupefaction and despair. Cambyses was disappointed,
and his pleasure was marred at finding that his victim did not feel
more acutely the sting of the torment with which he was endeavoring to
goad him.

When this train had gone by, another came. It was a company of young
men, with halters about their necks, going to execution. Cambyses had
ordered that for every one of the crew of his galley that the
Egyptians had killed, ten Egyptians should be executed. This
proportion would require two thousand victims, as there had been two
hundred in the crew. These victims were to be selected from among the
sons of the leading families; and their parents, after having seen
their delicate and gentle daughters go to their servile toil, were now
next to behold their sons march in a long and terrible array to
execution. The son of Psammenitus was at the head of the column. The
Egyptian parents who stood around Psammenitus wept and lamented aloud,
as one after another saw his own child in the train. Psammenitus
himself, however, remained as silent and motionless, and with a
countenance as vacant as before. Cambyses was again disappointed. The
pleasure which the exhibition afforded him was incomplete without
visible manifestations of suffering in the victim for whose torture it
was principally designed.

After this train of captives had passed, there came a mixed collection
of wretched and miserable men, such as the siege and sacking of a city
always produces in countless numbers. Among these was a venerable man
whom Psammenitus recognized as one of his friends. He had been a man
of wealth and high station; he had often been at the court of the
king, and had been entertained at his table. He was now, however,
reduced to the last extremity of distress, and was begging of the
people something to keep him from starving. The sight of this man in
such a condition seemed to awaken the king from his blank and
death-like despair. He called his old friend by name in a tone of
astonishment and pity, and burst into tears.

Cambyses, observing this, sent a messenger to Psammenitus to inquire
what it meant. "He wishes to know," said the messenger, "how it
happens that you could see your own daughter set at work as a slave,
and your son led away to execution unmoved, and yet feel so much
commiseration for the misfortunes of a stranger." We might suppose
that any one possessing the ordinary susceptibilities of the human
soul would have understood without an explanation the meaning of this,
though it is not surprising that such a heartless monster as Cambyses
did not comprehend it. Psammenitus sent him word that he could not
help weeping for his friend, but that his distress and anguish on
account of his children were too great for tears.

The Persians who were around Cambyses began now to feel a strong
sentiment of compassion for the unhappy king, and to intercede with
Cambyses in his favor. They begged him, too, to spare Psammenitus's
son. It will interest those of our readers who have perused our
history of Cyrus to know that Croesus, the captive king of Lydia,
whom they will recollect to have been committed to Cambyses's charge
by his father, just before the close of his life, when he was setting
forth on his last fatal expedition, and who accompanied Cambyses on
this invasion of Egypt, was present on this occasion, and was one of
the most earnest interceders in Psammenitus's favor. Cambyses allowed
himself to be persuaded. They sent off a messenger to order the
execution of the king's son to be stayed; but he arrived too late. The
unhappy prince had already fallen. Cambyses was so far appeased by the
influence of these facts, that he abstained from doing Psammenitus or
his family any further injury.

He, however, advanced up the Nile, ravaging and plundering the country
as he went on, and at length, in the course of his conquests, he
gained possession of the tomb in which the embalmed body of Amasis was
deposited. He ordered this body to be taken out of its sarcophagus,
and treated with every mark of ignominy. His soldiers, by his orders,
beat it with rods, as if it could still feel, and goaded it, and cut
it with swords. They pulled the hair out of the head by the roots, and
loaded the lifeless form with every conceivable mark of insult and
ignominy. Finally, Cambyses ordered the mutilated remains that were
left to be burned, which was a procedure as abhorrent to the ideas and
feelings of the Egyptians as could possibly be devised.

Cambyses took every opportunity to insult the religious, or as,
perhaps, we ought to call them, the superstitious feelings of the
Egyptians. He broke into their temples, desecrated their altars, and
subjected every thing which they held most sacred to insult and
ignominy. Among their objects of religious veneration was the sacred
bull called Apis. This animal was selected from time to time, from the
country at large, by the priests, by means of certain marks which they
pretended to discover upon its body, and which indicated a divine and
sacred character. The sacred bull thus found was kept in a magnificent
temple, and attended and fed in a most sumptuous manner. In serving
him, the attendants used vessels of gold.

Cambyses arrived at the city where Apis was kept at a time when the
priests were celebrating some sacred occasion with festivities and
rejoicings. He was himself then returning from an unsuccessful
expedition which he had made, and, as he entered the town, stung with
vexation and anger at his defeat, the gladness and joy which the
Egyptians manifested in their ceremonies served only to irritate him,
and to make him more angry than ever. He killed the priests who were
officiating. He then demanded to be taken into the edifice to see the
sacred animal, and there, after insulting the feelings of the
worshipers in every possible way by ridicule and scornful words, he
stabbed the innocent bull with his dagger. The animal died of the
wound, and the whole country was filled with horror and indignation.
The people believed that this deed would most assuredly bring down
upon the impious perpetrator of it the judgments of heaven.

Cambyses organized, while he was in Egypt, several mad expeditions
into the surrounding countries. In a fit of passion, produced by an
unsatisfactory answer to an embassage, he set off suddenly, and
without any proper preparation, to march into Ethiopia. The provisions
of his army were exhausted before he had performed a fifth part of the
march. Still, in his infatuation, he determined to go on. The soldiers
subsisted for a time on such vegetables as they could find by the way;
when these failed, they slaughtered and ate their beasts of burden;
and finally, in the extremity of their famine, they began to kill and
devour one another; then, at length, Cambyses concluded to return. He
sent off, too, at one time, a large army across the desert toward the
Temple of Jupiter Ammon, without any of the necessary precautions for
such a march. This army never reached their destination, and they
never returned. The people of the Oasis said that they were overtaken
by a sand storm in the desert, and were all overwhelmed.

[Illustration: THE ARMY OF CAMBYSES OVERWHELMED IN THE DESERT.]

There was a certain officer in attendance on Cambyses named
Prexaspes. He was a sort of confidential friend and companion of the
king; and his son, who was a fair, and graceful, and accomplished
youth, was the king's cup-bearer, which was an office of great
consideration and honor. One day Cambyses asked Prexaspes what the
Persians generally thought of him. Prexaspes replied that they
thought and spoke well of him in all respects but one. The king
wished to know what the exception was. Prexaspes rejoined, that it
was the general opinion that he was too much addicted to wine.
Cambyses was offended at this reply; and, under the influence of the
feeling, so wholly unreasonable and absurd, which so often leads men
to be angry with the innocent medium through which there comes to
them any communication which they do not like, he determined to
punish Prexaspes for his freedom. He ordered his son, therefore, the
cup-bearer, to take his place against the wall on the other side of
the room. "Now," said he, "I will put what the Persians say to the
test." As he said this, he took up a bow and arrow which were at his
side, and began to fit the arrow to the string. "If," said he, "I do
not shoot him exactly through the heart, it shall prove that the
Persians are right. If I do, then they are wrong, as it will show
that I do not drink so much as to make my hand unsteady." So saying,
he drew the bow, the arrow flew through the air and pierced the poor
boy's breast. He fell, and Cambyses coolly ordered the attendants to
open the body, and let Prexasp