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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Darius the Great, by Jacob Abbott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Darius the Great
+       Makers of History
+
+Author: Jacob Abbott
+
+Release Date: January 13, 2009 [EBook #27802]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DARIUS THE GREAT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ 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 Prexaspes see whether the arrow had not gone
+through the heart.
+
+These, and a constant succession of similar acts of atrocious and
+reckless cruelty and folly, led the world to say that Cambyses was
+insane.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE END OF CAMBYSES.
+
+B.C. 523-522
+
+Cambyses's profligate conduct.--He marries his own
+sisters.--Consultation of the Persian judges.--Their
+opinion.--Smerdis.--Jealousy of Cambyses.--The two magi.--Cambyses
+suspicious.--He plans an invasion of Ethiopia.--Island of
+Elephantine.--The Icthyophagi.--Classes of savage nations.--Embassadors
+sent to Ethiopia.--The presents.--The Ethiopian king detects the
+imposture.--The Ethiopian king's opinion of Cambyses's presents.--The
+Ethiopian bow.--Return of the Icthyophagi.--Jealousy of Cambyses.--He
+orders Smerdis to be murdered.--Cambyses grows more cruel.--Twelve
+noblemen buried alive.--Cambyses's cruelty to his sister.--Her
+death.--The venerable Croesus.--His advice to Cambyses.--Cambyses's
+rage at Croesus.--He attempts to kill him.--The declaration of the
+oracle.--Ecbatane, Susa, and Babylon.--Cambyses returns
+northward.--He enters Syria.--A herald proclaims Smerdis.--The herald
+seized.--Probable explanation.--Rage of Cambyses.--Cambyses mortally
+wounded.--His remorse and despair.--Cambyses calls his nobles about
+him.--His dying declaration.--Death of Cambyses.--His dying declaration
+discredited.
+
+
+Among the other acts of profligate wickedness which have blackened
+indelibly and forever Cambyses's name, he married two of his own
+sisters, and brought one of them with him to Egypt as his wife. The
+natural instincts of all men, except those whose early life has been
+given up to the most shameless and dissolute habits of vice, are
+sufficient to preserve them from such crimes as these. Cambyses
+himself felt, it seems, some misgivings when contemplating the first
+of these marriages; and he sent to a certain council of judges, whose
+province it was to interpret the laws, asking them their opinion of
+the rightfulness of such a marriage. Kings ask the opinion of their
+legal advisers in such cases, not because they really wish to know
+whether the act in question is right or wrong, but because, having
+themselves determined upon the performance of it, they wish their
+counselors to give it a sort of legal sanction, in order to justify
+the deed, and diminish the popular odium which it might otherwise
+incur.
+
+The Persian judges whom Cambyses consulted on this occasion understood
+very well what was expected of them. After a grave deliberation, they
+returned answer to the king that, though they could find no law
+allowing a man to marry his sister, they found many which authorized a
+king of Persia to do whatever he thought best. Cambyses accordingly
+carried his plan into execution. He married first the older sister,
+whose name was Atossa. Atossa became subsequently a personage of great
+historical distinction. The daughter of Cyrus, the wife of Darius, and
+the mother of Xerxes, she was the link that bound together the three
+most magnificent potentates of the whole Eastern world. How far these
+sisters were willing participators in the guilt of their incestuous
+marriages we can not now know. The one who went with Cambyses into
+Egypt was of a humane, and gentle, and timid disposition, being in
+these respects wholly unlike her brother; and it may be that she
+merely yielded, in the transaction of her marriage, to her brother's
+arbitrary and imperious will.
+
+Besides this sister, Cambyses had brought his brother Smerdis with
+him into Egypt. Smerdis was younger than Cambyses, but he was superior
+to him in strength and personal accomplishments. Cambyses was very
+jealous of this superiority. He did not dare to leave his brother in
+Persia, to manage the government in his stead during his absence, lest
+he should take advantage of the temporary power thus committed to his
+hands, and usurp the throne altogether. He decided, therefore, to
+bring Smerdis with him into Egypt, and to leave the government of the
+state in the hands of a regency composed of two _magi_. These magi
+were public officers of distinction, but, having no hereditary claims
+to the crown, Cambyses thought there would be little danger of their
+attempting to usurp it. It happened, however, that the name of one of
+these magi was Smerdis. This coincidence between the magian's name and
+that of the prince led, in the end, as will presently be seen, to very
+important consequences.
+
+The uneasiness and jealousy which Cambyses felt in respect to his
+brother was not wholly allayed by the arrangement which he thus made
+for keeping him in his army, and so under his own personal observation
+and command. Smerdis evinced, on various occasions, so much strength
+and skill, that Cambyses feared his influence among the officers and
+soldiers, and was rendered continually watchful, suspicious, and
+afraid. A circumstance at last occurred which excited his jealousy
+more than ever, and he determined to send Smerdis home again to
+Persia. The circumstance was this:
+
+After Cambyses had succeeded in obtaining full possession of Egypt, he
+formed, among his other wild and desperate schemes, the design of
+invading the territories of a nation of Ethiopians who lived in the
+interior of Africa, around and beyond the sources of the Nile. The
+Ethiopians were celebrated for their savage strength and bravery.
+Cambyses wished to obtain information respecting them and their
+country before setting out on his expedition against them, and he
+determined to send spies into their country to obtain it. But, as
+Ethiopia was a territory so remote, and as its institutions and
+customs, and the language, the dress, and the manners of its
+inhabitants were totally different from those of all the other nations
+of the earth, and were almost wholly unknown to the Persian army, it
+was impossible to send Persians in disguise, with any hope that they
+could enter and explore the country without being discovered. It was
+very doubtful, in fact, whether, if such spies were to be sent, they
+could succeed in reaching Ethiopia at all.
+
+Now there was, far up the Nile, near the cataracts, at a place where
+the river widens and forms a sort of bay, a large and fertile island
+called Elephantine, which was inhabited by a half-savage tribe called
+the Icthyophagi. They lived mainly by fishing on the river, and,
+consequently, they had many boats, and were accustomed to make long
+excursions up and down the stream. Their name was, in fact, derived
+from their occupation. It was a Greek word, and might be translated
+"Fishermen."[B] The manners and customs of half-civilized or savage
+nations depend entirely, of course, upon the modes in which they
+procure their subsistence. Some depend on hunting wild beasts, some on
+rearing flocks and herds of tame animals, some on cultivating the
+ground, and some on fishing in rivers or in the sea. These four
+different modes of procuring food result in as many totally diverse
+modes of life: it is a curious fact, however, that while a nation of
+hunters differs very essentially from a nation of herdsmen or of
+fishermen, though they may live, perhaps, in the same neighborhood
+with them, still, all nations of hunters, however widely they may be
+separated in geographical position, very strongly resemble one another
+in character, in customs, in institutions, and in all the usages of
+life. It is so, moreover, with all the other types of national
+constitution mentioned above. The Greeks observed these
+characteristics of the various savage tribes with which they became
+acquainted, and whenever they met with a tribe that lived by fishing,
+they called them Icthyophagi.
+
+[Footnote B: Literally, _fish-eaters_.]
+
+Cambyses sent to the Icthyophagi of the island of Elephantine,
+requiring them to furnish him with a number of persons acquainted with
+the route to Ethiopia and with the Ethiopian language, that he might
+send them as an embassy. He also provided some presents to be sent as
+a token of friendship to the Ethiopian king. The presents were,
+however, only a pretext, to enable the embassadors, who were, in fact,
+spies, to go to the capital and court of the Ethiopian monarch in
+safety, and bring back to Cambyses all the information which they
+should be able to obtain.
+
+The presents consisted of such toys and ornaments as they thought
+would most please the fancy of a savage king. There were some purple
+vestments of a very rich and splendid dye, and a golden chain for the
+neck, golden bracelets for the wrists, an alabaster box of very
+precious perfumes, and other similar trinkets and toys. There was also
+a large vessel filled with wine.
+
+The Icthyophagi took these presents, and set out on their expedition.
+After a long and toilsome voyage and journey, they came to the country
+of the Ethiopians, and delivered their presents, together with the
+message which Cambyses had intrusted to them. The presents, they said,
+had been sent by Cambyses as a token of his desire to become the
+friend and ally of the Ethiopian king.
+
+The king, instead of being deceived by this hypocrisy, detected the
+imposture at once. He knew very well, he said, what was the motive of
+Cambyses in sending such an embassage to him, and he should advise
+Cambyses to be content with his own dominions, instead of planning
+aggressions of violence, and schemes and stratagems of deceit against
+his neighbors, in order to get possession of theirs. He then began to
+look at the presents which the embassadors had brought, which,
+however, he appeared very soon to despise. The purple vest first
+attracted his attention. He asked whether that was the true, natural
+color of the stuff, or a false one. The messengers told him that the
+linen was dyed, and began to explain the process to him. The mind of
+the savage potentate, however, instead of being impressed, as the
+messengers supposed he would have been through their description, with
+a high idea of the excellence and superiority of Persian art, only
+despised the false show of what he considered an artificial and
+fictitious beauty. "The beauty of Cambyses's dresses," said he, "is as
+deceitful, it seems, as the fair show of his professions of
+friendship." As to the golden bracelets and necklaces, the king looked
+upon them with contempt. He thought that they were intended for
+fetters and chains, and said that, however well they might answer
+among the effeminate Persians, they were wholly insufficient to
+confine such sinews as he had to deal with. The wine, however, he
+liked. He drank it with great pleasure, and told the Icthyophagi that
+it was the only article among all their presents that was worth
+receiving.
+
+In return for the presents which Cambyses had sent him, the King of
+the Ethiopians, who was a man of prodigious size and strength, took
+down his bow and gave it to the Icthyophagi, telling them to carry it
+to Cambyses as a token of his defiance, and to ask him to see if he
+could find a man in all his army who could bend it. "Tell Cambyses,"
+he added, "that when his soldiers are able to bend such bows as that,
+it will be time for him to think of invading the territories of the
+Ethiopians; and that, in the mean time, he ought to consider himself
+very fortunate that the Ethiopians were not grasping and ambitious
+enough to attempt the invasion of his."
+
+When the Icthyophagi returned to Cambyses with this message, the
+strongest men in the Persian camp were of course greatly interested in
+examining and trying the bow. Smerdis was the only one that could be
+found who was strong enough to bend it; and he, by the superiority to
+the others which he thus evinced, gained great renown. Cambyses was
+filled with jealousy and anger. He determined to send Smerdis back
+again to Persia. "It will be better," thought he to himself, "to incur
+whatever danger there may be of his exciting revolt at home, than to
+have him present in my court, subjecting me to continual mortification
+and chagrin by the perpetual parade of his superiority."
+
+His mind was, however, not at ease after his brother had gone.
+Jealousy and suspicion in respect to Smerdis perplexed his waking
+thoughts and troubled his dreams. At length, one night, he thought he
+saw Smerdis seated on a royal throne in Persia, his form expanded
+supernaturally to such a prodigious size that he touched the heavens
+with his head. The next day, Cambyses, supposing that the dream
+portended danger that Smerdis would be one day in possession of the
+throne, determined to put a final and perpetual end to all these
+troubles and fears, and he sent for an officer of his court,
+Prexaspes--the same whose son he shot through the heart with an arrow,
+as described in the last chapter--and commanded him to proceed
+immediately to Persia, and there to find Smerdis, and kill him. The
+murder of Prexaspes's son, though related in the last chapter as an
+illustration of Cambyses's character, did not actually take place till
+after Prexaspes returned from this expedition.
+
+Prexaspes went to Persia, and executed the orders of the king by the
+assassination of Smerdis. There are different accounts of the mode
+which he adopted for accomplishing his purpose. One is, that he
+contrived some way to drown him in the sea; another, that he poisoned
+him; and a third, that he killed him in the forests, when he was out
+on a hunting excursion. At all events, the deed was done, and
+Prexaspes went back to Cambyses, and reported to him that he had
+nothing further to fear from his brother's ambition.
+
+In the mean time, Cambyses went on from bad to worse in his
+government, growing every day more despotic and tyrannical, and
+abandoning himself to fits of cruelty and passion which became more
+and more excessive and insane. At one time, on some slight
+provocation, he ordered twelve distinguished noblemen of his court to
+be buried alive. It is astonishing that there can be institutions and
+arrangements in the social state which will give one man such an
+ascendency over others that such commands can be obeyed. On another
+occasion, Cambyses's sister and wife, who had mourned the death of her
+brother Smerdis, ventured a reproach to Cambyses for having destroyed
+him. She was sitting at table, with some plant or flower in her hand,
+which she slowly picked to pieces, putting the fragments on the table.
+She asked Cambyses whether he thought the flower looked fairest and
+best in fragments, or in its original and natural integrity. "It
+looked best, certainly," Cambyses said, "when it was whole." "And
+yet," said she, "you have begun to take to pieces and destroy our
+family, as I have destroyed this flower." Cambyses sprang upon his
+unhappy sister, on hearing this reproof, with the ferocity of a tiger.
+He threw her down and leaped upon her. The attendants succeeded in
+rescuing her and bearing her away; but she had received a fatal
+injury. She fell immediately into a premature and unnatural sickness,
+and died.
+
+These fits of sudden and terrible passion to which Cambyses was
+subject, were often followed, when they had passed by, as is usual in
+such cases, with remorse and misery; and sometimes the officers of
+Cambyses, anticipating a change in their master's feelings, did not
+execute his cruel orders, but concealed the object of his blind and
+insensate vengeance until the paroxysm was over. They did this once in
+the case of Croesus. Croesus, who was now a venerable man,
+advanced in years, had been for a long time the friend and faithful
+counselor of Cambyses's father. He had known Cambyses himself from
+his boyhood, and had been charged by his father to watch over him and
+counsel him, and aid him, on all occasions which might require it,
+with his experience and wisdom. Cambyses, too, had been solemnly
+charged by his father Cyrus, at the last interview that he had with
+him before his death, to guard and protect Croesus, as his father's
+ancient and faithful friend, and to treat him, as long as he lived,
+with the highest consideration and honor.
+
+Under these circumstances, Croesus considered himself justified in
+remonstrating one day with Cambyses against his excesses and his
+cruelty. He told him that he ought not to give himself up to the
+control of such violent and impetuous passions; that, though his
+Persian soldiers and subjects had borne with him thus far, he might,
+by excessive oppression and cruelty, exhaust their forbearance and
+provoke them to revolt against him, and that thus he might suddenly
+lose his power, through his intemperate and inconsiderate use of it.
+Croesus apologized for offering these counsels, saying that he felt
+bound to warn Cambyses of his danger, in obedience to the injunctions
+of Cyrus, his father.
+
+Cambyses fell into a violent passion at hearing these words. He told
+Croesus that he was amazed at his presumption in daring to offer him
+advice, and then began to load his venerable counselor with the
+bitterest invectives and reproaches. He taunted him with his own
+misfortunes, in losing, as he had done, years before, his own kingdom
+of Lydia, and then accused him of having been the means, through his
+foolish counsels, of leading his father, Cyrus, into the worst of the
+difficulties which befell him toward the close of his life. At last,
+becoming more and more enraged by the reaction upon himself of his own
+angry utterance, he told Croesus that he had hated him for a long
+time, and for a long time had wished to punish him; "and now," said
+he, "you have given me an opportunity." So saying, he seized his bow,
+and began to fit an arrow to the string. Croesus fled. Cambyses
+ordered his attendants to pursue him, and when they had taken him, to
+kill him. The officers knew that Cambyses would regret his rash and
+reckless command as soon as his anger should have subsided, and so,
+instead of slaying Croesus, they concealed him. A few days after,
+when the tyrant began to express his remorse and sorrow at having
+destroyed his venerable friend in the heat of passion, and to mourn
+his death, they told him that Croesus was still alive. They had
+ventured, they said, to save him, till they could ascertain whether it
+was the king's real and deliberate determination that he must die. The
+king was overjoyed to find Croesus still alive, but he would not
+forgive those who had been instrumental in saving him. He ordered
+every one of them to be executed.
+
+Cambyses was the more reckless and desperate in these tyrannical
+cruelties because he believed that he possessed a sort of charmed
+life. He had consulted an oracle, it seems, in Media, in respect to
+his prospects of life, and the oracle had informed him that he would
+die at Ecbatane. Now Ecbatane was one of the three great capitals of
+his empire, Susa and Babylon being the others. Ecbatane was the most
+northerly of these cities, and the most remote from danger. Babylon
+and Susa were the points where the great transactions of government
+chiefly centered, while Ecbatane was more particularly the private
+residence of the kings. It was their refuge in danger, their retreat
+in sickness and age. In a word, Susa was their seat of government,
+Babylon their great commercial emporium, but Ecbatane was their home.
+
+And thus as the oracle, when Cambyses inquired in respect to the
+circumstances of his death, had said that it was decreed by the fates
+that he should die at Ecbatane, it meant, as he supposed, that he
+should die in peace, in his bed, at the close of the usual period
+allotted to the life of man. Considering thus that the fates had
+removed all danger of a sudden and violent death from his path, he
+abandoned himself to his career of vice and folly, remembering only
+the substance of the oracle, while the particular form of words in
+which it was expressed passed from his mind.
+
+At length Cambyses, after completing his conquests in Egypt, returned
+to the northward along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, until he
+came into Syria. The province of Galilee, so often mentioned in the
+sacred Scriptures, was a part of Syria. In traversing Galilee at the
+head of the detachment of troops that was accompanying him, Cambyses
+came, one day, to a small town, and encamped there. The town itself
+was of so little importance that Cambyses did not, at the time of his
+arriving at it, even know its name. His encampment at the place,
+however, was marked by a very memorable event, namely, he met with a
+herald here, who was traveling through Syria, saying that he had been
+sent from Susa to proclaim to the people of Syria that Smerdis, the
+son of Cyrus, had assumed the throne, and to enjoin upon them all to
+obey no orders except such as should come from him!
+
+Cambyses had supposed that Smerdis was dead. Prexaspes, when he had
+returned from Susa, had reported that he had killed him. He now,
+however, sent for Prexaspes, and demanded of him what this
+proclamation could mean. Prexaspes renewed, and insisted upon, his
+declaration that Smerdis was dead. He had destroyed him with his own
+hands, and had seen him buried. "If the dead can rise from the grave,"
+added Prexaspes, "then Smerdis may perhaps, raise a revolt and appear
+against you; but not otherwise."
+
+Prexaspes then recommended that the king should send and seize the
+herald, and inquire particularly of him in respect to the government
+in whose name he was acting. Cambyses did so. The herald was taken and
+brought before the king. On being questioned whether it was true that
+Smerdis had really assumed the government and commissioned him to make
+proclamation of the fact, he replied that it was so. He had not seen
+Smerdis himself, he said, for he kept himself shut up very closely in
+his palace; but he was informed of his accession by one of the magians
+whom Cambyses had left in command. It was by him, he said, that he had
+been commissioned to proclaim Smerdis as king.
+
+Prexaspes then said that he had no doubt that the two magians whom
+Cambyses had left in charge of the government had contrived to seize
+the throne. He reminded Cambyses that the name of one of them was
+Smerdis, and that probably that was the Smerdis who was usurping the
+supreme command. Cambyses said that he was convinced that this
+supposition was true. His dream, in which he had seen a vision of
+Smerdis, with his head reaching to the heavens, referred, he had no
+doubt, to the magian Smerdis, and not to his brother. He began
+bitterly to reproach himself for having caused his innocent brother to
+be put to death; but the remorse which he thus felt for his crime, in
+assassinating an imaginary rival, soon gave way to rage and resentment
+against the real usurper. He called for his horse, and began to mount
+him in hot haste, to give immediate orders, and make immediate
+preparations for marching to Susa.
+
+As he bounded into the saddle, with his mind in this state of
+reckless desperation, the sheath, by some accident or by some
+carelessness caused by his headlong haste, fell from his sword, and
+the naked point of the weapon pierced his thigh. The attendants took
+him from his horse, and conveyed him again to his tent. The wound, on
+examination, proved to be a very dangerous one, and the strong
+passions, the vexation, the disappointment, the impotent rage, which
+were agitating the mind of the patient, exerted an influence extremely
+unfavorable to recovery. Cambyses, terrified at the prospect of death,
+asked what was the name of the town where he was lying. They told him
+it was Ecbatane.
+
+He had never thought before of the possibility that there might be
+some other Ecbatane besides his splendid royal retreat in Media; but
+now, when he learned that was the name of the place where he was then
+encamped, he felt sure that his hour was come, and he was overwhelmed
+with remorse and despair.
+
+He suffered, too, inconceivable pain and anguish from his wound. The
+sword had pierced to the bone, and the inflammation which had
+supervened was of the worst character. After some days, the acuteness
+of the agony which he at first endured passed gradually away, though
+the extent of the injury resulting from the wound was growing every
+day greater and more hopeless. The sufferer lay, pale, emaciated, and
+wretched, on his couch, his mind, in every interval of bodily agony,
+filling up the void with the more dreadful sufferings of horror and
+despair.
+
+At length, on the twentieth day after his wound had been received, he
+called the leading nobles of his court and officers of his army about
+his bedside, and said to them that he was about to die, and that he
+was compelled, by the calamity which had befallen him, to declare to
+them what he would otherwise have continued to keep concealed. The
+person who had usurped the throne under the name of Smerdis, he now
+said, was not, and could not be, his brother Smerdis, the son of
+Cyrus. He then proceeded to give them an account of the manner in
+which his fears in respect to his brother had been excited by his
+dream, and of the desperate remedy that he had resorted to in ordering
+him to be killed. He believed, he said, that the usurper was Smerdis
+the magian, whom he had left as one of the regents when he set out on
+his Egyptian campaign. He urged them, therefore, not to submit to his
+sway, but to go back to Media, and if they could not conquer him and
+put him down by open war, to destroy him by deceit and stratagem, or
+in any way whatever by which the end could be accomplished. Cambyses
+urged this with so much of the spirit of hatred and revenge beaming in
+his hollow and glassy eye as to show that sickness, pain, and the
+approach of death, which had made so total a change in the wretched
+sufferer's outward condition, had altered nothing within.
+
+Very soon after making this communication to his nobles, Cambyses
+expired.
+
+It will well illustrate the estimate which those who knew him best,
+formed of this great hero's character, to state, that those who heard
+this solemn declaration did not believe one word of it from beginning
+to end. They supposed that the whole story which the dying tyrant had
+told them, although he had scarcely breath enough left to tell it, was
+a fabrication, dictated by his fraternal jealousy and hate. They
+believed that it was really the true Smerdis who had been proclaimed
+king, and that Cambyses had invented, in his dying moments, the story
+of his having killed him, in order to prevent the Persians from
+submitting peaceably to his reign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SMERDIS THE MAGIAN.
+
+B.C. 520
+
+Usurpation of the magians.--Circumstances favoring it.--Murder of
+Smerdis not known.--He is supposed to be alive.--Precautions taken
+by Smerdis.--Effect of Cambyses's measures.--Opinion in regard to
+Smerdis.--Acquiescence of the people.--Dangerous situation of
+Smerdis.--Arrangement with Patizithes.--Smerdis lives in
+retirement.--Special grounds of apprehension.--Cambyses's
+wives.--Smerdis appropriates them.--Phaedyma.--Measures of
+Otanes.--Otanes's communications with his daughter.--Her
+replies.--Phaedyma discovers the deception.--Otanes and the six
+nobles.--Arrival of Darius.--Secret consultations.--Various
+opinions.--Views of Darius.--Apology for a falsehood.--Opinion of
+Gobryas.--Uneasiness of the magi.--Situation of Prexaspes.--Measures
+of the magi.--An assembly of the people.--Decision of Prexaspes.--His
+speech from the tower.--Death of Prexaspes.--The conspirators.--The
+omen.--The conspirators enter the palace.--Combat with the
+magi.--Flight of Smerdis.--Smerdis is killed.--Exultation of the
+conspirators.--General massacre of the magians.
+
+
+Cambyses and his friends had been right in their conjectures that it
+was Smerdis the magian who had usurped the Persian throne. This
+Smerdis resembled, it was said, the son of Cyrus in his personal
+appearance as well as in name. The other magian who had been
+associated with him in the regency when Cambyses set out from Persia
+on his Egyptian campaign was his brother. His name was Patizithes.
+When Cyrus had been some time absent, these magians, having in the
+mean time, perhaps, heard unfavorable accounts of his conduct and
+character, and knowing the effect which such wanton tyranny must have
+in alienating from him the allegiance of his subjects, conceived the
+design of taking possession of the empire in their own name. The great
+distance of Cambyses and his army from home, and his long-continued
+absence, favored this plan. Their own position, too, as they were
+already in possession of the capitals and the fortresses of the
+country, aided them; and then the name of Smerdis, being the same
+with that of the brother of Cambyses, was a circumstance that greatly
+promoted the success of the undertaking. In addition to all these
+general advantages, the cruelty of Cambyses was the means of
+furnishing them with a most opportune occasion for putting their plans
+into execution.
+
+The reader will recollect that, as was related in the last chapter,
+Cambyses first sent his brother Smerdis home, and afterward, when
+alarmed by his dream, he sent Prexaspes to murder him. Now the return
+of Smerdis was publicly and generally known, while his assassination
+by Prexaspes was kept a profound secret. Even the Persians connected
+with Cambyses's court in Egypt had not heard of the perpetration of
+this crime, until Cambyses confessed it on his dying bed, and even
+then, as was stated in the last chapter, they did not believe it. It
+is not probable that it was known in Media and Persia; so that, after
+Prexaspes accomplished his work, and returned to Cambyses with the
+report of it, it was probably generally supposed that his brother was
+still alive, and was residing somewhere in one or another of the royal
+palaces.
+
+Such royal personages were often accustomed to live thus, in a state
+of great seclusion, spending their time in effeminate pleasures within
+the walls of their palaces, parks, and gardens. When the royal
+Smerdis, therefore, secretly and suddenly disappeared, it would be
+very easy for the magian Smerdis, with the collusion of a moderate
+number of courtiers and attendants, to take his place, especially if
+he continued to live in retirement, and exhibited himself as little as
+possible to public view. Thus it was that Cambyses himself, by the
+very crimes which he committed to shield himself from all danger of a
+revolt, opened the way which specially invited it, and almost insured
+its success. Every particular step that he took, too, helped to
+promote the end. His sending Smerdis home; his waiting an interval,
+and then sending Prexaspes to destroy him; his ordering his
+assassination to be secret--these, and all the other attendant
+circumstances, were only so many preliminary steps, preparing the way
+for the success of the revolution which was to accomplish his ruin. He
+was, in a word, his own destroyer. Like other wicked men, he found, in
+the end, that the schemes of wickedness which he had malignantly aimed
+at the destruction of others, had been all the time slowly and surely
+working out his own.
+
+The people of Persia, therefore, were prepared by Cambyses's own acts
+to believe that the usurper Smerdis was really Cyrus's son, and, next
+to Cambyses, the heir to the throne. The army of Cambyses, too, in
+Egypt, believed the same. It was natural that they should do so for
+they placed no confidence whatever in Cambyses's dying declarations;
+and since intelligence, which seemed to be official, came from Susa
+declaring that Smerdis was still alive, and that he had actually taken
+possession of the throne, there was no apparent reason for doubting
+the fact. Besides, Prexaspes, as soon as Cambyses was dead, considered
+it safer for him to deny than to confess having murdered the prince.
+He therefore declared that Cambyses's story was false, and that he had
+no doubt that Smerdis, the monarch in whose name the government was
+administered at Susa, was the son of Cyrus, the true and rightful heir
+to the throne. Thus all parties throughout the empire acquiesced
+peaceably in what they supposed to be the legitimate succession.
+
+In the mean time, the usurper had placed himself in an exceedingly
+dizzy and precarious situation, and one which it would require a
+great deal of address and skillful management to sustain. The plan
+arranged between himself and his brother for a division of the
+advantages which they had secured by their joint and common cunning
+was, that Smerdis was to enjoy the ease and pleasure, and Patizithes
+the substantial power of the royalty which they had so stealthily
+seized. This was the safest plan. Smerdis, by living secluded, and
+devoting himself to retired and private pleasures, was the more likely
+to escape public observation; while Patizithes, acting as his prime
+minister of state, could attend councils, issue orders, review troops,
+dispatch embassies, and perform all the other outward functions of
+supreme command, with safety as well as pleasure. Patizithes seems to
+have been, in fact, the soul of the whole plan. He was ambitious and
+aspiring in character, and if he could only himself enjoy the actual
+exercise of royal power, he was willing that his brother should enjoy
+the honor of possessing it. Patizithes, therefore, governed the realm,
+acting, however, in all that he did, in Smerdis's name.
+
+Smerdis, on his part, was content to take possession of the palaces,
+the parks, and the gardens of Media and Persia, and to live in them
+in retired and quiet luxury and splendor. He appeared seldom in
+public, and then only under such circumstances as should not expose
+him to any close observation on the part of the spectators. His
+figure, air, and manner, and the general cast of his countenance, were
+very much like those of the prince whom he was attempting to
+personate. There was one mark, however, by which he thought that there
+was danger that he might be betrayed, and that was, his ears had been
+cut off. This had been done many years before, by command of Cyrus, on
+account of some offense of which he had been guilty. The marks of the
+mutilation could, indeed, on public occasions, be concealed by the
+turban, or helmet, or other head-dress which he wore; but in private
+there was great danger either that the loss of the ears, or the
+studied effort to conceal it, should be observed. Smerdis was,
+therefore, very careful to avoid being seen in private, by keeping
+himself closely secluded. He shut himself up in the apartments of his
+palace at Susa, within the citadel, and never invited the Persian
+nobles to visit him there.
+
+Among the other means of luxury and pleasure which Smerdis found in
+the royal palaces, and which he appropriated to his own enjoyment,
+were Cambyses's wives. In those times, Oriental princes and
+potentates--as is, in fact, the case at the present day, in many
+Oriental countries--possessed a great number of wives, who were bound
+to them by different sorts of matrimonial ties, more or less
+permanent, and bringing them into relations more or less intimate with
+their husband and sovereign. These wives were in many respects in the
+condition of slaves: in one particular they were especially so,
+namely, that on the death of a sovereign they descended, like any
+other property, to the heir, who added as many of them as he pleased
+to his own seraglio. Until this was done, the unfortunate women were
+shut up in close seclusion on the death of their lord, like mourners
+who retire from the world when suffering any great and severe
+bereavement.
+
+The wives of Cambyses were appropriated by Smerdis to himself on his
+taking possession of the throne and hearing of Cambyses's death. Among
+them was Atossa, who has already been mentioned as the daughter of
+Cyrus, and, of course, the sister of Cambyses as well as his wife. In
+order to prevent these court ladies from being the means, in any way,
+of discovering the imposture which he was practicing, the magian
+continued to keep them all closely shut up in their several separate
+apartments, only allowing a favored few to visit him, one by one, in
+turn, while he prevented their having any communication with one
+another.
+
+The name of one of these ladies was Phaedyma. She was the daughter of a
+Persian noble of the highest rank and influence, named Otanes. Otanes,
+as well as some other nobles of the court, had observed and reflected
+upon the extraordinary circumstances connected with the accession of
+Smerdis to the throne, and the singular mode of life that he led in
+secluding himself, in a manner so extraordinary for a Persian monarch,
+from all intercourse with his nobles and his people. The suspicions of
+Otanes and his associates were excited, but no one dared to
+communicate his thoughts to the others. At length, however, Otanes,
+who was a man of great energy as well as sagacity and discretion,
+resolved that he would take some measures to ascertain the truth.
+
+He first sent a messenger to Phaedyma, his daughter, asking of her
+whether it was really Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, who received her when
+she went to visit the king. Phaedyma, in return, sent her father word
+that she did not know, for she had never seen Smerdis, the son of
+Cyrus, before the death of Cambyses. She therefore could not say, of
+her own personal knowledge, whether the king was the genuine Smerdis
+or not. Otanes then sent to Phaedyma a second time, requesting her to
+ask the queen Atossa. Atossa was the sister of Smerdis the prince, and
+had known him from his childhood. Phaedyma sent back word to her father
+that she could not speak to Atossa, for she was kept closely shut up
+in her own apartments, without the opportunity to communicate with any
+one. Otanes then sent a third time to his daughter, telling her that
+there was one remaining mode by which she might ascertain the truth,
+and that was, the next time that she visited the king, to feel for his
+ears when he was asleep. If it was Smerdis the magian, she would find
+that he had none. He urged his daughter to do this by saying that, if
+the pretended king was really an impostor, the imposture ought to be
+made known, and that she, being of noble birth, ought to have the
+courage and energy to assist in discovering it. To this Phaedyma
+replied that she would do as her father desired, though she knew that
+she hazarded her life in the attempt. "If he has no ears," said she,
+"and if I awaken him in attempting to feel for them, he will kill me;
+I am sure that he will kill me on the spot."
+
+The next time that it came to Phaedyma's turn to visit the king, she
+did as her father had requested. She passed her hand very cautiously
+beneath the king's turban, and found that his ears had been cut off
+close to his head. Early in the morning she communicated the knowledge
+of the fact to her father.
+
+[Illustration: PHAEDYMA FEELING FOR SMERDIS'S EARS.]
+
+Otanes immediately made the case known to two of his friends, Persian
+nobles, who had, with him, suspected the imposture, and had consulted
+together before in respect to the means of detecting it. The question
+was, what was now to be done. After some deliberation, it was agreed
+that each of them should communicate the discovery which they had
+made to one other person, such as each should select from among the
+circle of his friends as the one on whose resolution, prudence, and
+fidelity he could most implicitly rely. This was done, and the number
+admitted to the secret was thus increased to six. At this juncture it
+happened that Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the young man who has
+already been mentioned as the subject of Cyrus's dream, came to
+Susa. Darius was a man of great prominence and popularity. His
+father, Hystaspes, was at that time the governor of the province of
+Persia, and Darius had been residing with him in that country. As
+soon as the six conspirators heard of his arrival, they admitted him
+to their councils, and thus their number was increased to seven.
+
+They immediately began to hold secret consultations for the purpose of
+determining how it was best to proceed, first binding themselves by
+the most solemn oaths never to betray one another, however their
+undertaking might end. Darius told them that he had himself discovered
+the imposture and usurpation of Smerdis, and that he had come from
+Persia for the purpose of slaying him; and that now, since it appeared
+that the secret was known to so many, he was of opinion that they
+ought to act at once with the utmost decision. He thought there would
+be great danger in delay.
+
+Otanes, on the other hand, thought that they were not yet ready for
+action. They must first increase their numbers. Seven persons were too
+few to attempt to revolutionize an empire. He commended the courage
+and resolution which Darius displayed, but he thought that a more
+cautious and deliberate policy would be far more likely to conduct
+them to a safe result.
+
+Darius replied that the course which Otanes recommended would
+certainly ruin them. "If we make many other persons acquainted with
+our plans," said he, "there will be some, notwithstanding all our
+precautions, who will betray us, for the sake of the immense rewards
+which they well know they would receive in that case from the king.
+No," he added, "we must act ourselves, and alone. We must do nothing
+to excite suspicion, but must go at once into the palace, penetrate
+boldly into Smerdis's presence, and slay him before he has time to
+suspect our designs."
+
+"But we can not get into his presence," replied Otanes. "There are
+guards stationed at every gate and door, who will not allow us to
+pass. If we attempt to kill them, a tumult will be immediately raised,
+and the alarm given, and all our designs will thus be baffled."
+
+"There will be little difficulty about the guards," said Darius. "They
+know us all, and, from deference to our rank and station, they will
+let us pass without suspicion, especially if we act boldly and
+promptly, and do not give them time to stop and consider what to do.
+Besides, I can say that I have just arrived from Persia with
+important dispatches for the king, and that I must be admitted
+immediately into his presence. If a falsehood must be told, so let it
+be. The urgency of the crisis demands and sanctions it."
+
+It may seem strange to the reader, considering the ideas and habits of
+the times, that Darius should have even thought it necessary to
+apologize to his confederates for his proposal of employing falsehood
+in the accomplishment of their plans; and it is, in fact, altogether
+probable that the apology which he is made to utter is his
+historian's, and not his own.
+
+The other conspirators had remained silent during this discussion
+between Darius and Otanes; but now a third, whose name was Gobryas,
+expressed his opinion in favor of the course which Darius recommended.
+He was aware, he said, that, in attempting to force their way into the
+king's presence and kill him by a sudden assault, they exposed
+themselves to the most imminent danger; but it was better for them to
+die in the manly attempt to bring back the imperial power again into
+Persian hands, where it properly belonged, than to acquiesce any
+further in its continuance in the possession of the ignoble Median
+priests who had so treacherously usurped it.
+
+To this counsel they all finally agreed, and began to make
+arrangements for carrying their desperate enterprise into execution.
+
+In the mean time, very extraordinary events were transpiring in
+another part of the city. The two magi, Smerdis the king and
+Patizithes his brother, had some cause, it seems, to fear that the
+nobles about the court, and the officers of the Persian army, were not
+without suspicions that the reigning monarch was not the real son of
+Cyrus. Rumors that Smerdis had been killed by Prexaspes, at the
+command of Cambyses, were in circulation. These rumors were
+contradicted, it is true, in private, by Prexaspes, whenever he was
+forced to speak of the subject; but he generally avoided it; and he
+spoke, when he spoke at all, in that timid and undecided tone which
+men usually assume when they are persisting in a lie. In the mean
+time, the gloomy recollections of his past life, the memory of his
+murdered son, remorse for his own crime in the assassination of
+Smerdis, and anxiety on account of the extremely dangerous position in
+which he had placed himself by his false denial of it, all conspired
+to harass his mind with perpetual restlessness and misery, and to
+make life a burden.
+
+In order to do something to quiet the suspicions which the magi feared
+were prevailing, they did not know how extensively, they conceived the
+plan of inducing Prexaspes to declare in a more public and formal
+manner what he had been asserting timidly in private, namely, that
+Smerdis had not been killed. They accordingly convened an assembly of
+the people in a court-yard of the palace, or perhaps took advantage of
+some gathering casually convened, and proposed that Prexaspes should
+address them from a neighboring tower. Prexaspes was a man of high
+rank and of great influence, and the magi thought that his public
+espousal of their cause, and his open and decided contradiction of the
+rumor that he had killed Cambyses's brother, would fully convince the
+Persians that it was really the rightful monarch that had taken
+possession of the throne.
+
+But the strength even of a strong man, when he has a lie to carry,
+soon becomes very small. That of Prexaspes was already almost
+exhausted and gone. He had been wavering and hesitating before, and
+this proposal, that he should commit himself so formally and solemnly,
+and in so public a manner, to statements wholly and absolutely
+untrue, brought him to a stand. He decided, desperately, in his own
+mind, that he would go on in his course of falsehood, remorse, and
+wretchedness no longer. He, however, pretended to accede to the
+propositions of the magi. He ascended the tower, and began to address
+the people. Instead, however, of denying that he had murdered Smerdis,
+he fully confessed to the astonished audience that he had really
+committed that crime; he openly denounced the reigning Smerdis as an
+impostor, and called upon all who heard him to rise at once, destroy
+the treacherous usurper, and vindicate the rights of the true Persian
+line. As he went on, with vehement voice and gestures, in this speech,
+the utterance of which he knew sealed his own destruction, he became
+more and more excited and reckless. He denounced his hearers in the
+severest language if they failed to obey his injunctions, and
+imprecated upon them, in that event, all the curses of Heaven. The
+people listened to this strange and sudden phrensy of eloquence in
+utter amazement, motionless and silent; and before they or the
+officers of the king's household who were present had time even to
+consider what to do, Prexaspes, coming abruptly to the conclusion of
+his harangue, threw himself headlong from the parapet of the tower,
+and came down among them, lifeless and mangled, on the pavement below.
+
+Of course, all was now tumult and commotion in the court-yard, and it
+happened to be just at this juncture that the seven conspirators came
+from the place of their consultation to the palace, with a view of
+executing their plans. They were soon informed of what had taken
+place. Otanes was now again disposed to postpone their attempt upon
+the life of the king. The event which had occurred changed, he said,
+the aspect of the subject, and they must wait until the tumult and
+excitement should have somewhat subsided. But Darius was more eager
+than ever in favor of instantaneous action. He said that there was not
+a moment to be lost; for the magi, so soon as they should be informed
+of the declarations and of the death of Prexaspes, would be alarmed,
+and would take at once the most effectual precautions to guard against
+any sudden assault or surprise.
+
+These arguments, at the very time in which Darius was offering them
+with so much vehemence and earnestness, were strengthened by a very
+singular sort of confirmation; for while the conspirators stood
+undetermined, they saw a flock of birds moving across the sky, which,
+on their more attentively regarding them, proved to be seven hawks
+pursuing two vultures. This they regarded an omen, intended to signify
+to them, by a divine intimation, that they ought to proceed. They
+hesitated, therefore, no longer.
+
+They went together to the outer gates of the palace. The action of the
+guards who were stationed there was just what Darius had predicted
+that it would be. Awed by the imposing spectacle of the approach of
+seven nobles of the highest distinction, who were advancing, too, with
+an earnest and confident air, as if expecting no obstacle to their
+admission, they gave way at once, and allowed them to enter. The
+conspirators went on until they came to the inner apartments, where
+they found eunuchs in attendance at the doors. The eunuchs resisted,
+and demanded angrily why the guards had let the strangers in. "Kill
+them," said the conspirators, and immediately began to cut them down.
+The magi were within, already in consternation at the disclosures of
+Prexaspes, of which they had just been informed. They heard the tumult
+and the outcries of the eunuchs at the doors, and seized their arms,
+the one a bow and the other a spear. The conspirators rushed in. The
+bow was useless in the close combat which ensued, and the magian who
+had taken it turned and fled. The other defended himself with his
+spear for a moment, and wounded severely two of his assailants. The
+wounded conspirators fell. Three others of the number continued the
+unequal combat with the armed magian, while Darius and Gobryas rushed
+in pursuit of the other.
+
+The flying magian ran from one apartment to another until he reached a
+dark room, into which the blind instinct of fear prompted him to rush,
+in the vain hope of concealment. Gobryas was foremost; he seized the
+wretched fugitive by the waist, and struggled to hold him, while the
+magian struggled to get free. Gobryas called upon Darius, who was
+close behind him, to strike. Darius, brandishing his sword, looked
+earnestly into the obscure retreat, that he might see where to strike.
+
+"Strike!" exclaimed Gobryas. "Why do you not strike?"
+
+"I can not see," said Darius, "and I am afraid of wounding you."
+
+"No matter," said Gobryas, struggling desperately all the time with
+his frantic victim. "Strike quick, if you kill us both."
+
+Darius struck. Gobryas loosened his hold, and the magian fell upon the
+floor, and there, stabbed again through the heart by Darius's sword,
+almost immediately ceased to breathe.
+
+They dragged the body to the light, and cut off the head. They did the
+same with the other magian, whom they found that their confederates
+had killed when they returned to the apartments where they had left
+them contending. The whole body of the conspirators then, except the
+two who were wounded, exulting in their success, and wild with the
+excitement which such deeds always awaken, went forth into the streets
+of the city, bearing the heads upon pikes as the trophies of their
+victory. They summoned the Persian soldiers to arms, and announced
+every where that they had ascertained that the king was a priest and
+an impostor, and not their legitimate sovereign, and that they had
+consequently killed him. They called upon the people to kill the
+magians wherever they could find them, as if the whole class were
+implicated in the guilt of the usurping brothers.
+
+The populace in all countries are easily excited by such denunciations
+and appeals as these. The Persians armed themselves, and ran to and
+fro every where in pursuit of the unhappy magians, and before night
+vast numbers of them were slain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE ACCESSION OF DARIUS.
+
+B.C. 520
+
+Confusion at Susa.--No heir to the throne.--Five days'
+interregnum.--Provisional government.--Consultation of the
+confederates.--Otanes in favor of a republic.--Otanes's
+republic.--Principles of representation.--Large assemblies.--Nature
+of ancient republics.--Nature of a representative
+republic.--Megabyzus.--He opposes the plan of Otanes.--Speech of
+Megabyzus.--He proposes an oligarchy.--Speech of Darius.--He advocates
+a monarchy.--Four of the seven confederates concur with Darius.--Otanes
+withdraws.--Agreement made by the rest.--Singular mode of deciding
+which should be the king.--The groom Oebases.--His method of making
+Darius's horse neigh.--Probable truth or falsehood of this
+account.--Ancient statesmen.--Their character and position.--The
+conspirators governed, in their decision, by superstitious
+feelings.--The conspirators do homage to Darius.--The equestrian
+statue.
+
+
+For several days after the assassination of the magi the city was
+filled with excitement, tumults, and confusion. There was no heir, of
+the family of Cyrus, entitled to succeed to the vacant throne, for
+neither Cambyses, nor Smerdis his brother, had left any sons. There
+was, indeed, a daughter of Smerdis, named Parmys, and there were also
+still living two daughters of Cyrus. One was Atossa, whom we have
+already mentioned as having been married to Cambyses, her brother, and
+as having been afterward taken by Smerdis the magian as one of his
+wives. These princesses, though of royal lineage, seem neither of them
+to have been disposed to assert any claims to the throne at such a
+crisis. The mass of the community were stupefied with astonishment at
+the sudden revolution which had occurred. No movement was made toward
+determining the succession. For five days nothing was done.
+
+During this period, all the subordinate functions of government in
+the provinces, cities, and towns, and among the various garrisons and
+encampments of the army, went on, of course, as usual, but the general
+administration of the government had no head. The seven confederates
+had been regarded, for the time being, as a sort of provisional
+government, the army and the country in general, so far as appears,
+looking to them for the means of extrication from the political
+difficulties in which this sudden revolution had involved them, and
+submitting, in the mean time, to their direction and control. Such a
+state of things, it was obvious, could not long last; and after five
+days, when the commotion had somewhat subsided, they began to consider
+it necessary to make some arrangements of a more permanent character,
+the power to make such arrangements as they thought best resting with
+them alone. They accordingly met for consultation.
+
+Herodotus the historian,[C] on whose narrative of these events we have
+mainly to rely for all the information respecting them which is now
+to be attained, gives a very minute and dramatic account of the
+deliberations of the conspirators on this occasion. The account is, in
+fact, too dramatic to be probably true.
+
+[Footnote C: An account of Herodotus, and of the circumstances under
+which he wrote his history, which will aid the reader very much in
+forming an opinion in respect to the kind and degree of confidence
+which it is proper to place in his statements, will be found in the
+first chapter of our history of Cyrus the Great.]
+
+Otanes, in this discussion, was in favor of establishing a republic.
+He did not think it safe or wise to intrust the supreme power again to
+any single individual. It was proved, he said, by universal
+experience, that when any one person was raised to such an elevation
+above his fellow-men, he became suspicious, jealous, insolent, and
+cruel. He lost all regard for the welfare and happiness of others, and
+became supremely devoted to the preservation of his own greatness and
+power by any means, however tyrannical, and to the accomplishment of
+the purposes of his own despotic will. The best and most valuable
+citizens were as likely to become the victims of his oppression as the
+worst. In fact, tyrants generally chose their favorites, he said, from
+among the most abandoned men and women in their realms, such
+characters being the readiest instruments of their guilty pleasures
+and their crimes. Otanes referred very particularly to the case of
+Cambyses as an example of the extreme lengths to which the despotic
+insolence and cruelty of a tyrant could go. He reminded his colleagues
+of the sufferings and terrors which they had endured while under his
+sway, and urged them very strongly not to expose themselves to such
+terrible evils and dangers again. He proposed, therefore, that they
+should establish a republic, under which the officers of government
+should be elected, and questions of public policy be determined, in
+assemblies of the people.
+
+It must be understood, however, by the reader, that a republic, as
+contemplated and intended by Otanes in this speech, was entirely
+different from the mode of government which that word denotes at the
+present day. They had little idea, in those times, of the principle of
+representation, by which the thousand separate and detached
+communities of a great empire can choose _delegates_, who are to
+deliberate, speak, and act for them in the assemblies where the great
+governmental decisions are ultimately made. By this principle of
+representation, the people can really all share in the exercise of
+power. Without it they can not, for it is impossible that the people
+of a great state can ever be brought together in one assembly; nor,
+even if it were practicable to bring them thus together, would it be
+possible for such a concourse to deliberate or act. The action of any
+assembly which goes beyond a very few hundred in numbers, is always,
+in fact, the action exclusively of the small knot of leaders who call
+and manage it. Otanes, therefore, as well as all other advocates of
+republican government in ancient times, meant that the supreme power
+should be exercised, not by the great mass of the people included
+within the jurisdiction in question, but by such a portion of certain
+privileged classes as could be brought together in the capital. It was
+such a sort of republic as would be formed in this country if the
+affairs of the country at large, and the municipal and domestic
+institutions of all the states, were regulated and controlled by laws
+enacted, and by governors appointed, at great municipal meetings held
+in the city of New York.
+
+This was, in fact, the nature of all the republics of ancient times.
+They were generally small, and the city in whose free citizens the
+supreme power resided, constituted by far the most important portion
+of the body politic. The Roman republic, however, became at one period
+very large. It overspread almost the whole of Europe; but, widely
+extended as it was in territory, and comprising innumerable states
+and kingdoms within its jurisdiction, the vast concentration of power
+by which the whole was governed, vested entirely and exclusively in
+noisy and tumultuous assemblies convened in the Roman forum.
+
+Even if the idea of a representative system of government, such as is
+adopted in modern times, and by means of which the people of a great
+and extended empire can exercise, conveniently and efficiently, a
+general sovereignty held in common by them all, had been understood in
+ancient times, it is very doubtful whether it could, in those times,
+have been carried into effect, for want of certain facilities which
+are enjoyed in the present age, and which seem essential for the safe
+and easy action of so vast and complicated a system as a great
+representative government must necessarily be. The regular transaction
+of business at public meetings, and the orderly and successful
+management of any extended system of elections, requires a great deal
+of writing; and the general circulation of newspapers, or something
+exercising the great function which it is the object of newspapers to
+fulfill, that of keeping the people at large in some degree informed
+in respect to the progress of public affairs, seems essential to the
+successful working of a system of representative government comprising
+any considerable extent of territory.
+
+However this may be, whether a great representative system would or
+would not have been practicable in ancient times if it had been tried,
+it is certain that it was never tried. In all ancient republics, the
+sovereignty resided, essentially, in a privileged class of the people
+of the capital. The territories governed were provinces, held in
+subjection as dependencies, and compelled to pay tribute; and this was
+the plan which Otanes meant to advocate when recommending a republic,
+in the Persian council.
+
+The name of the second speaker in this celebrated consultation was
+Megabyzus. He opposed the plan of Otanes. He concurred fully, he said,
+in all that Otanes had advanced in respect to the evils of a monarchy,
+and to the oppression and tyranny to which a people were exposed whose
+liberties and lives were subject to the despotic control of a single
+human will. But in order to avoid one extreme, it was not necessary to
+run into the evils of the other. The disadvantages and dangers of
+popular control in the management of the affairs of state were
+scarcely less than those of a despotism. Popular assemblies were
+always, he said, turbulent, passionate, capricious. Their decisions
+were controlled by artful and designing demagogues. It was not
+possible that masses of the common people could have either the
+sagacity to form wise counsels, or the energy and steadiness to
+execute them. There could be no deliberation, no calmness, no secrecy
+in their consultations. A populace was always governed by excitements,
+which spread among them by a common sympathy; and they would give way
+impetuously to the most senseless impulses, as they were urged by
+their fear, their resentment, their exultation, their hate, or by any
+other passing emotion of the hour.
+
+Megabyzus therefore disapproved of both a monarchy and a republic. He
+recommended an oligarchy. "We are now," said he, "already seven. Let
+us select from the leading nobles in the court and officers of the
+army a small number of men, eminent for talents and virtue, and thus
+form a select and competent body of men, which shall be the depository
+of the supreme power. Such a plan avoids the evils and inconveniences
+of both the other systems. There can be no tyranny or oppression
+under such a system; for, if any one of so large a number should be
+inclined to abuse his power, he will be restrained by the rest. On the
+other hand, the number will not be so large as to preclude prudence
+and deliberation in counsel, and the highest efficiency and energy in
+carrying counsels into effect."
+
+When Megabyzus had completed his speech, Darius expressed his opinion.
+He said that the arguments of those who had already spoken appeared
+plausible, but that the speakers had not dealt quite fairly by the
+different systems whose merits they had discussed, since they had
+compared a good administration of one form of government with a bad
+administration of another. Every thing human was, he admitted, subject
+to imperfection and liable to abuse; but on the supposition that each
+of the three forms which had been proposed were equally well
+administered, the advantage, he thought, would be strongly on the side
+of monarchy. Control exercised by a single mind and will was far more
+concentrated and efficient than that proceeding from any conceivable
+combination. The forming of plans could be, in that case, more secret
+and wary, and the execution of them more immediate and prompt. Where
+power was lodged in many hands, all energetic exercise of it was
+paralyzed by the dissensions, the animosities and the contending
+struggles of envious and jealous rivals. These struggles, in fact,
+usually resulted in the predominance of some one, more energetic or
+more successful than the rest, the aristocracy or the democracy
+running thus, of its own accord, to a despotism in the end, showing
+that there were natural causes always tending to the subjection of
+nations of men to the control of one single will.
+
+Besides all this, Darius added, in conclusion, that the Persians had
+always been accustomed to a monarchy, and it would be a very dangerous
+experiment to attempt to introduce a new system, which would require
+so great a change in all the habits and usages of the people.
+
+Thus the consultation went on. At the end of it, it appeared that four
+out of the seven agreed with Darius in preferring a monarchy. This was
+a majority, and thus the question seemed to be settled. Otanes said
+that he would make no opposition to any measures which they might
+adopt to carry their decision into effect, but that he would not
+himself be subject to the monarchy which they might establish. "I do
+not wish," he added, "either to govern others or to have others
+govern me. You may establish a kingdom, therefore, if you choose, and
+designate the monarch in any mode that you see fit to adopt, but he
+must not consider me as one of his subjects. I myself, and all my
+family and dependents, must be wholly free from his control."
+
+This was a very unreasonable proposition, unless, indeed, Otanes was
+willing to withdraw altogether from the community to which he thus
+refused to be subject; for, by residing within it, he necessarily
+enjoyed its protection, and ought, therefore, to bear his portion of
+its burdens, and to be amenable to its laws. Notwithstanding this,
+however, the conspirators acceded to the proposal, and Otanes
+withdrew.
+
+The remaining six of the confederates then proceeded with their
+arrangements for the establishment of a monarchy. They first agreed
+that one of their own number should be the king, and that on
+whomsoever the choice should fall, the other five, while they
+submitted to his dominion, should always enjoy peculiar privileges and
+honors at his court. They were at all times to have free access to the
+palaces and to the presence of the king, and it was from among their
+daughters alone that the king was to choose his wives. These and some
+other similar points having been arranged, the manner of deciding
+which of the six should be the king remained to be determined. The
+plan which they adopted, and the circumstances connected with the
+execution of it, constitute, certainly, one of the most extraordinary
+of all the strange transactions recorded in ancient times. It is
+gravely related by Herodotus as sober truth. How far it is to be
+considered as by any possibility credible, the reader must judge,
+after knowing what the story is.
+
+They agreed, then, that on the following morning they would all meet
+on horseback at a place agreed upon beyond the walls of the city, and
+that the one whose horse should neigh first should be the king! The
+time when this ridiculous ceremony was to be performed was sunrise.
+
+As soon as this arrangement was made the parties separated, and each
+went to his own home. Darius called his groom, whose name was
+OEbases, and ordered him to have his horse ready at sunrise on the
+next morning, explaining to him, at the same time, the plan which had
+been formed for electing the king. "If that is the mode which is to be
+adopted," said Oebases, "you need have no concern, for I can
+arrange it very easily so as to have the lot fall upon you." Darius
+expressed a strong desire to have this accomplished, if it were
+possible, and Oebases went away.
+
+The method which Oebases adopted was to lead Darius's horse out to
+the ground that evening, in company with another, the favorite
+companion, it seems, of the animal. Now the attachment of the horse to
+his companion is very strong, and his recollection of localities very
+vivid, and Oebases expected that when the horse should approach the
+ground on the following morning, he would be reminded of the company
+which he enjoyed there the night before, and neigh. The result was as
+he anticipated. As the horsemen rode up to the appointed place, the
+horse of Darius neighed the first, and Darius was unanimously
+acknowledged king.
+
+In respect to the credibility of this famous story, the first thought
+which arises in the mind is, that it is utterly impossible that sane
+men, acting in so momentous a crisis, and where interests so vast and
+extended were at stake, could have resorted to a plan so childish and
+ridiculous as this. Such a mode of designating a leader, seriously
+adopted, would have done discredit to a troop of boys making
+arrangements for a holiday; and yet here was an empire extending for
+thousands of miles through the heart of a vast continent, comprising,
+probably, fifty nations and many millions of people, with capitals,
+palaces, armies, fleets, and all the other appointments and machinery
+of an immense dominion, to be appropriated and disposed of absolutely,
+and, so far as they could see, forever. It seems incredible that men
+possessing such intelligence, and information, and extent of view as
+we should suppose that officers of their rank and station would
+necessarily acquire, could have attempted to decide such a momentous
+question in so ridiculous and trivial a manner. And yet the account is
+seriously recorded by Herodotus as sober history, and the story has
+been related again and again, from that day to this, by every
+successive generation of historians, without any particular question
+of its truth.
+
+And it may possibly be that it is true. It is a case in which the
+apparent improbability is far greater than the real. In the first
+place, it would seem that, in all ages of the world, the acts and
+decisions of men occupying positions of the most absolute and exalted
+power have been controlled, to a much greater degree, by caprice and
+by momentary impulse, than mankind have generally supposed. Looking up
+as we do to these vast elevations from below, they seem invested with
+a certain sublimity and grandeur which we imagine must continually
+impress the minds of those who occupy them, and expand and strengthen
+their powers, and lead them to act, in all respects, with the
+circumspection, the deliberation, and the far-reaching sagacity which
+the emergencies continually arising seem to require. And this is, in
+fact, in some degree the case with the statesmen and political leaders
+raised to power under the constitutional governments of modern times.
+Such statesmen are clothed with their high authority, in one way or
+another, by the combined and deliberate action of vast masses of men,
+and every step which they take is watched, in reference to its
+influence on the condition and welfare of these masses, by many
+millions; so that such men live and act under a continual sense of
+responsibility, and they appreciate, in some degree, the momentous
+importance of their doings. But the absolute and independent
+sovereigns of the Old World, who held their power by conquest or by
+inheritance, though raised sometimes to very vast and giddy
+elevations, seem to have been unconscious, in many instances, of the
+dignity and grandeur of their standing, and to have considered their
+acts only as they affected their own personal and temporary interests.
+Thus, though placed on a great elevation, they took only very narrow
+and circumscribed views; they saw nothing but the objects immediately
+around them; and they often acted, accordingly, in the most frivolous
+and capricious manner.
+
+It was so, undoubtedly, with these six conspirators. In deciding which
+of their number should be king, they thought nothing of the interests
+of the vast realms, and of the countless millions of people whose
+government was to be provided for. The question, as they considered
+it, was doubtless merely which of them should have possession of the
+royal palaces, and be the center and the object of royal pomp and
+parade in the festivities and celebrations of the capital.
+
+And in the mode of decision which they adopted, it may be that some
+degree of superstitious feeling mingled. The action and the voices of
+animals were considered, in those days, as supernatural omens,
+indicating the will of heaven. These conspirators may have expected,
+accordingly, in the neighing of the horse, a sort of divine
+intimation in respect to the disposition of the crown. This idea is
+confirmed by the statement which the account of this transaction
+contains, that immediately after the neighing of Darius's horse, it
+thundered, although there were no clouds in the sky from which the
+thunder could be supposed naturally to come. The conspirators, at all
+events, considered it solemnly decided that Darius was to be king.
+They all dismounted from their horses and knelt around him, in
+acknowledgment of their allegiance and subjection.
+
+It seems that Darius, after he became established on his throne,
+considered the contrivance by which, through the assistance of his
+groom, he had obtained the prize, not as an act of fraud which it was
+incumbent on him to conceal, but as one of brilliant sagacity which he
+was to avow and glory in. He caused a magnificent equestrian statue to
+be sculptured, representing himself mounted on his neighing horse.
+This statue he set up in a public place with this inscription:
+
+     DARIUS, SON OF HYSTASPES, OBTAINED THE SOVEREIGNTY OF PERSIA
+     BY THE SAGACITY OF HIS HORSE AND THE INGENIOUS CONTRIVANCE
+     OF OEBASES HIS GROOM.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE PROVINCES.
+
+B.C. 520
+
+Intaphernes.--He is denied admittance to Darius.--Intaphernes's cruelty
+to the two guards.--Darius's apprehensions.--Intaphernes and family
+arrested.--They are condemned to die.--Alternative offered to
+Intaphernes's wife.--Her strange decision.--Death of Intaphernes.--The
+provinces.--The governors.--Their independence.--Power of the
+governors.--Oretes, governor of Sardis.--Conversation between Oretes
+and Mitrobates.--Polycrates.--Dominion of Polycrates.--Letter of
+Amasis.--Suggestion of Amasis.--Adopted by Polycrates.--Polycrates
+throws away his ring.--Its singular recovery.--Predictions of
+Amasis.--Their fulfillment.--Letter of Oretes.--His hypocrisy.--The
+pretended treasure.--Fears of Polycrates's daughter.--Oretes murders
+Polycrates.--He commits other murders.--Oretes destroys Darius's
+messenger.--Darius is incensed.--Plan of Darius for punishing
+Oretes.--His proposal.--Commission of Bagaeus.--His plan.--Oretes
+beheaded.--Divisions of Darius's empire.--Tribute of the satrapies.--The
+white horses.--The gold of India.--Mode of gathering it.--The wonderful
+ants.--Their prodigious size.
+
+
+Several of the events and incidents which occurred immediately after
+the accession of Darius to the throne, illustrate in a striking manner
+the degree in which the princes and potentates of ancient days were
+governed by caprice and passionate impulse even in their public acts.
+One of the most remarkable of these was the case of Intaphernes.
+
+Intaphernes was one of the seven conspirators who combined to depose
+the magian and place Darius on the throne. By the agreement which they
+made with each other before it was decided which should be the king,
+each of them was to have free access to the king's presence at all
+times. One evening, soon after Darius became established on his
+throne, Intaphernes went to the palace, and was proceeding to enter
+the apartment of the king without ceremony, when he was stopped by two
+officers, who told him that the king had retired. Intaphernes was
+incensed at the officers' insolence, as he called it. He drew his
+sword, and cut off their noses and their ears. Then he took the bridle
+off from his horse at the palace gate, and tied the officers together;
+and then, leaving them in this helpless and miserable condition, he
+went away.
+
+The officers immediately repaired to the king, and presented
+themselves to him, a frightful spectacle, wounded and bleeding, and
+complaining bitterly of Intaphernes as the author of the injuries
+which they had received. The king was at first alarmed for his own
+safety. He feared that the conspirators had all combined together to
+rebel against his authority, and that this daring insult offered to
+his personal attendants, in his very palace, was the first outbreak of
+it. He accordingly sent for the conspirators one by one, to ask of
+them whether they approved of what Intaphernes had done. They promptly
+disavowed all connection with Intaphernes in the act, and all approval
+of it, and declared their determination to adhere to the decision that
+they had made, by which Darius had been placed on the throne.
+
+Darius then, after taking proper precautions to guard against any
+possible attempts at resistance, sent soldiers to seize Intaphernes,
+and also his son, and all of his family, relatives, and friends who
+were capable of bearing arms; for he suspected that Intaphernes had
+meditated a rebellion, and he thought that, if so, these men would
+most probably be his accomplices. The prisoners were brought before
+him. There was, indeed, no proof that they were engaged in any plan of
+rebellion, nor even that any plan of rebellion whatever had been
+formed; but this circumstance afforded them no protection. The
+liberties and the lives of all subjects were at the supreme and
+absolute disposal of these ancient kings. Darius thought it possible
+that the prisoners had entertained, or might entertain, some
+treasonable designs, and he conceived that he should, accordingly,
+feel safer if they were removed out of the way. He decreed, therefore,
+that they must all die.
+
+While the preparations were making for the execution, the wife of
+Intaphernes came continually to the palace of Darius, begging for an
+audience, that she might intercede for the lives of her friends.
+Darius was informed of this, and at last, pretending to be moved with
+compassion for her distress, he sent her word that he would pardon one
+of the criminals for her sake, and that she might decide which one it
+should be. His real motive in making this proposal seems to have been
+to enjoy the perplexity and anguish which the heart of a woman must
+suffer in being compelled thus to decide, in a question of life and
+death, between a husband and a son.
+
+The wife of Intaphernes did not decide in favor of either of these.
+She gave the preference, on the other hand, to a brother. Darius was
+very much surprised at this result, and sent a messenger to her to
+inquire how it happened that she could pass over and abandon to their
+fate her husband and her son, in order to save the life of her
+brother, who was certainly to be presumed less near and dear to her.
+To which she gave this extraordinary reply, that the loss of her
+husband and her son might perhaps be repaired, since it was not
+impossible that she might be married again, and that she might have
+another son; but that, inasmuch as both her father and mother were
+dead, she could never have another brother. The death of her present
+brother would, therefore, be an irreparable loss.
+
+The king was so much pleased with the novelty and unexpectedness of
+this turn of thought, that he gave her the life of her son in addition
+to that of her brother. All the rest of the family circle of
+relatives and friends, together with Intaphernes himself, he ordered
+to be slain.
+
+Darius had occasion to be so much displeased, too, shortly after his
+accession to the throne, with the governor of one of his provinces,
+that he was induced to order him to be put to death. The circumstances
+connected with this governor's crime, and the manner of his execution,
+illustrate very forcibly the kind of government which was administered
+by these military despots in ancient times. It must be premised that
+great empires, like that over which Darius had been called to rule,
+were generally divided into provinces. The inhabitants of these
+provinces, each community within its own borders, went on, from year
+to year, in their various pursuits of peaceful industry, governed
+mainly, in their relations to each other, by the natural sense of
+justice instinctive in man, and by those thousand local institutions
+and usages which are always springing up in all human communities
+under the influence of this principle. There were governors stationed
+over these provinces, whose main duty it was to collect and remit to
+the king the tribute which the province was required to furnish him.
+These governors were, of course, also to suppress any domestic
+outbreak of violence, and to repel any foreign invasion which might
+occur. A sufficient military force was placed at their disposal to
+enable them to fulfill these functions. They paid these troops, of
+course, from sums which they collected in their provinces under the
+same system by which they collected the tribute. This made them, in a
+great measure, independent of the king in the maintenance of their
+armies. They thus intrenched themselves in their various capitals at
+the head of these troops, and reigned over their respective dominions
+almost as if they were kings themselves. They had, in fact, very
+little connection with the supreme monarch, except to send him the
+annual tribute which they had collected from their people, and to
+furnish, also, their quota of troops in case of a national war. In the
+time of our Savior, Pilate was such a governor, intrusted by the
+Romans with the charge of Judea, and Matthew was one of the tax
+gatherers employed to collect the tribute.
+
+Of course, the governors of such provinces, as we have already said,
+were, in a great measure, independent of the king. He had, ordinarily,
+no officers of justice whose jurisdiction could control, peacefully,
+such powerful vassals. The only remedy in most cases, when they were
+disobedient and rebellious, was to raise an army and go forth to make
+war upon them, as in the case of any foreign state. This was attended
+with great expense, and trouble, and hazard. The governors, when
+ambitious and aspiring, sometimes managed their resources with so much
+energy and military skill as to get the victory over their sovereign
+in the contests in which they engaged with them, and then they would
+gain vast accessions to the privileges and powers which they exercised
+in their own departments; and they would sometimes overthrow their
+discomfited sovereign entirely, and take possession of his throne
+themselves in his stead.
+
+Oretes was the name of one of these governors in the time of Darius.
+He had been placed by Cyrus, some years before, in charge of one of
+the provinces into which the kingdom of Lydia had been divided. The
+seat of government was Sardis.[D] He was a capricious and cruel
+tyrant, as, in fact, almost all such governors were. We will relate
+an account of one of the deeds which he performed some time before
+Darius ascended the throne, and which sufficiently illustrates his
+character.
+
+[Footnote D: For the position of Sardis, and of other places mentioned
+in this chapter, see the map at the commencement of the volume, and
+also that at the commencement of chapter xi.]
+
+He was one day sitting at the gates of his palace in Sardis, in
+conversation with the governor of a neighboring territory who had come
+to visit him. The name of this guest was Mitrobates. As the two
+friends were boasting to one another, as such warriors are accustomed
+to do, of the deeds of valor and prowess which they had respectively
+performed, Mitrobates said that Oretes could not make any great
+pretensions to enterprise and bravery so long as he allowed the Greek
+island of Samos, which was situate at a short distance from the Lydian
+coast, to remain independent, when it would be so easy to annex it to
+the Persian empire. "You are afraid of Polycrates, I suppose," said
+he. Polycrates was the king of Samos.
+
+Oretes was stung by this taunt, but, instead of revenging himself on
+Mitrobates, the author of it, he resolved on destroying Polycrates,
+though he had no reason other than this for any feeling of enmity
+toward him.
+
+Polycrates, although the seat of his dominion was a small island in
+the AEgean Sea, was a very wealthy, and powerful, and prosperous
+prince. All his plans and enterprises had been remarkably successful.
+He had built and equipped a powerful fleet, and had conquered many
+islands in the neighborhood of his own. He was projecting still wider
+schemes of conquests, and hoped, in fact, to make himself the master
+of all the seas.
+
+A very curious incident is related of Polycrates, which illustrates
+very strikingly the childish superstition which governed the minds of
+men in those ancient days. It seems that in the midst of his
+prosperity, his friend and ally, the King of Egypt--for these events,
+though narrated here, occurred before the invasion of Egypt by
+Cambyses--sent to him a letter, of which the following is the purport.
+
+     "_Amasis, king of Egypt, to Polycrates._
+
+     "It always gives me great satisfaction and pleasure to hear
+     of the prosperity of a friend and ally, unless it is too
+     absolutely continuous and uninterrupted. Something like an
+     alternation of good and ill fortune is best for man; I have
+     never known an instance of a very long-continued course of
+     unmingled and uninterrupted success that did not end, at
+     last, in overwhelming and terrible calamity. I am anxious,
+     therefore, for you, and my anxiety will greatly increase if
+     this extraordinary and unbroken prosperity should continue
+     much longer. I counsel you, therefore, to break the current
+     yourself, if fortune will not break it. Bring upon yourself
+     some calamity, or loss, or suffering, as a means of averting
+     the heavier evils which will otherwise inevitably befall
+     you. It is a general and substantial welfare only that can
+     be permanent and final."
+
+Polycrates seemed to think there was good sense in this suggestion. He
+began to look around him to see in what way he could bring upon
+himself some moderate calamity or loss, and at length decided on the
+destruction of a very valuable signet ring which he kept among his
+treasures. The ring was made with very costly jewels set in gold, and
+was much celebrated both for its exquisite workmanship and also for
+its intrinsic value. The loss of this ring would be, he thought, a
+sufficient calamity to break the evil charm of an excessive and
+unvaried current of good fortune. Polycrates, therefore, ordered one
+of the largest vessels in his navy, a fifty-oared galley, to be
+equipped and manned, and, embarking in it with a large company of
+attendants, he put to sea. When he was at some distance from the
+island, he took the ring, and in the presence of all his attendants,
+he threw it forth into the water, and saw it sink, to rise, as he
+supposed, no more.
+
+But Fortune, it seems, was not to be thus outgeneraled. A few days
+after Polycrates had returned, a certain fisherman on the coast took,
+in his nets, a fish of very extraordinary size and beauty; so
+extraordinary, in fact, that he felt it incumbent on him to make a
+present of it to the king. The servants of Polycrates, on opening the
+fish for the purpose of preparing it for the table, to their great
+astonishment and gratification, found the ring within. The king was
+overjoyed at thus recovering his lost treasure; he had, in fact,
+repented of his rashness in throwing it away, and had been bitterly
+lamenting its loss. His satisfaction and pleasure were, therefore,
+very great in regaining it; and he immediately sent to Amasis an
+account of the whole transaction, expecting that Amasis would share in
+his joy.
+
+Amasis, however, sent word back to him in reply, that he considered
+the return of the ring in that almost miraculous manner as an
+extremely unfavorable omen. "I fear," said he, "that it is decreed by
+the Fates that you must be overwhelmed, at last, by some dreadful
+calamity, and that no measures of precaution which you can adopt will
+avail to avert it. It seems to me, too," he added, "that it is
+incumbent on me to withdraw from all alliance and connection with you,
+lest I should also, at last, be involved in your destined
+destruction."
+
+Whether this extraordinary story was true, or whether it was all
+fabricated after the fall of Polycrates, as a dramatic embellishment
+of his history, we can not now know. The result, however, corresponded
+with these predictions of Amasis, if they were really made; for it was
+soon after these events that the conversation took place at Sardis
+between Oretes and Mitrobates, at the gates of the palace, which led
+Oretes to determine on effecting Polycrates's destruction.
+
+In executing the plans which he thus formed, Oretes had not the
+courage and energy necessary for an open attack on Polycrates, and he
+consequently resolved on attempting to accomplish his end by treachery
+and stratagem.
+
+The plan which he devised was this: He sent a messenger to Polycrates
+with a letter of the following purport:
+
+     "_Oretes, governor of Sardis, to Polycrates of Samos._
+
+     "I am aware, sire, of the plans which you have long been
+     entertaining for extending your power among the islands and
+     over the waters of the Mediterranean, until you shall have
+     acquired the supreme and absolute dominion of the seas. I
+     should like to join you in this enterprise. You have ships
+     and men, and I have money. Let us enter into an alliance
+     with each other. I have accumulated in my treasuries a large
+     supply of gold and silver, which I will furnish for the
+     expenses of the undertaking. If you have any doubt of my
+     sincerity in making these offers, and of my ability to
+     fulfill them, send some messenger in whom you have
+     confidence, and I will lay the evidence before him."
+
+Polycrates was much pleased at the prospect of a large accession to
+his funds, and he sent the messenger, as Oretes had proposed. Oretes
+prepared to receive him by filling a large number of boxes nearly full
+with heavy stones, and then placing a shallow layer of gold or silver
+coin at the top. These boxes were then suitably covered and secured,
+with the fastenings usually adopted in those days, and placed away in
+the royal treasuries. When the messenger arrived, the boxes were
+brought out and opened, and were seen by the messenger to be full, as
+he supposed, of gold and silver treasure. The messenger went back to
+Polycrates, and reported that all which Oretes had said was true; and
+Polycrates then determined to go to the main land himself to pay
+Oretes a visit, that they might mature together their plans for the
+intended campaigns. He ordered a fifty-oared galley to be prepared to
+convey him.
+
+His daughter felt a presentiment, it seems, that some calamity was
+impending. She earnestly entreated her father not to go. She had had a
+dream, she said, about him, which had frightened her excessively, and
+which she was convinced portended some terrible danger. Polycrates
+paid no attention to his daughter's warnings. She urged them more and
+more earnestly, until, at last, she made her father angry, and then
+she desisted. Polycrates then embarked on board his splendid galley,
+and sailed away. As soon as he landed in the dominions of Oretes, the
+monster seized him and put him to death, and then ordered his body to
+be nailed to a cross, for exhibition to all passers by, as a public
+spectacle. The train of attendants and servants that accompanied
+Polycrates on this expedition were all made slaves, except a few
+persons of distinction, who were sent home in a shameful and
+disgraceful manner. Among the attendants who were detained in
+captivity by Oretes was a celebrated family physician, named
+Democedes, whose remarkable and romantic adventures will be the
+subject of the next chapter.
+
+Oretes committed several other murders and assassinations in this
+treacherous manner, without any just ground for provocation. In these
+deeds of violence and cruelty, he seems to have acted purely under the
+influence of that wanton and capricious malignity which the possession
+of absolute and irresponsible power so often engenders in the minds of
+bad men. It is doubtful, however, whether these cruelties and crimes
+would have particularly attracted the attention of Darius, so long as
+he was not himself directly affected by them. The central government,
+in these ancient empires, generally interested itself very little in
+the contentions and quarrels of the governors of the provinces,
+provided that the tribute was efficiently collected and regularly
+paid.
+
+A case, however, soon occurred, in Oretes's treacherous and bloody
+career, which arrested the attention of Darius and aroused his ire.
+Darius had sent a messenger to Oretes, with certain orders, which, it
+seems, Oretes did not like to obey. After delivering his dispatches
+the bearer set out on his return, and was never afterward heard of.
+Darius ascertained, to his own satisfaction at least, that Oretes had
+caused his messenger to be waylaid and killed, and that the bodies
+both of horse and rider had been buried, secretly, in the solitudes of
+the mountains, in order to conceal the evidences of the deed.
+
+Darius determined on punishing this crime. Some consideration was,
+however, required, in order to determine in what way his object could
+best be effected. The province of Oretes was at a great distance from
+Susa, and Oretes was strongly established there, at the head of a
+great force. His guards were bound, it is true, to obey the orders of
+Darius, but it was questionable whether they would do so. To raise an
+army and march against the rebellious governor would be an expensive
+and hazardous undertaking, and perhaps, too, it would prove that such
+a measure was not necessary. All things considered, Darius determined
+to try the experiment of acting, by his own direct orders, upon the
+troops and guards in Oretes's capital, with the intention of resorting
+subsequently to an armed force of his own, if that should be at last
+required.
+
+He accordingly called together a number of his officers and nobles,
+selecting those on whose resolution and fidelity he could most
+confidently rely, and made the following address to them:
+
+"I have an enterprise which I wish to commit to the charge of some one
+of your number who is willing to undertake it, which requires no
+military force, and no violent measures of any kind, but only wisdom,
+sagacity, and courage. I wish to have Oretes, the governor of Sardis,
+brought to me, dead or alive. He has perpetrated innumerable crimes,
+and now, in addition to all his other deeds of treacherous violence,
+he has had the intolerable insolence to put to death one of my
+messengers. Which of you will volunteer to bring him, dead or alive,
+to me?"
+
+This proposal awakened a great enthusiasm among the nobles to whom it
+was addressed. Nearly thirty of them volunteered their services to
+execute the order. Darius concluded to decide between these
+competitors by lot. The lot fell upon a certain man named Bagaeus, and
+he immediately began to form his plans and make his arrangements for
+the expedition.
+
+He caused a number of different orders to be prepared, beginning with
+directions of little moment, and proceeding to commands of more and
+more weighty importance, all addressed to the officers of Oretes's
+army and to his guards. These orders were all drawn up in writing with
+great formality, and were signed by the name of Darius, and sealed
+with his seal; they, moreover, named Bagaeus as the officer selected by
+the king to superintend the execution of them. Provided with these
+documents, Bagaeus proceeded to Sardis, and presented himself at the
+court of Oretes. He presented his own personal credentials, and with
+them some of his most insignificant orders. Neither Oretes nor his
+guards felt any disposition to disobey them. Bagaeus, being thus
+received and recognized as the envoy of the king, continued to present
+new decrees and edicts, from time to time, as occasions occurred in
+which he thought the guards would be ready to obey them, until he
+found the habit, on their part, of looking to him as the
+representative of the supreme power sufficiently established; for
+their disposition to obey him was not merely tested, it was
+strengthened by every new act of obedience. When he found, at length,
+that his hold upon the guards was sufficiently strong, he produced his
+two final decrees, one ordering the guards to depose Oretes from his
+power, and the other to behead him. Both the commands were obeyed.
+
+The events and incidents which have been described in this chapter
+were of no great importance in themselves, but they illustrate, more
+forcibly than any general description would do the nature and the
+operation of the government exercised by Darius throughout the vast
+empire over which he found himself presiding.
+
+Such personal and individual contests and transactions were not all
+that occupied his attention. He devoted a great deal of thought and of
+time to the work of arranging, in a distinct and systematic manner,
+the division of his dominions into provinces, and to regulating
+precisely the amount of tribute to be required of each, and the modes
+of collecting it. He divided his empire into twenty great districts,
+each of which was governed by a ruler called a _satrap_. He fixed the
+amount of tribute which each of these districts was to pay, making it
+greater or less as the soil and the productions of the country varied
+in fertility and abundance. In some cases this tribute was to be paid
+in gold, in others in silver, and in others in peculiar commodities,
+natural to the country of which they were required. For example, one
+satrapy, which comprised a country famous for its horses, was obliged
+to furnish one white horse for every day in the year. This made three
+hundred and sixty annually, that being the number of days in the
+Persian year. Such a supply, furnished yearly, enabled the king soon
+to have a very large troop of white horses; and as the horses were
+beautifully caparisoned, and the riders magnificently armed, the body
+of cavalry thus formed was one of the most splendid in the world.
+
+The satrapies were numbered from the west toward the east. The western
+portion of Asia Minor constituted the first, and the East Indian
+nations the twelfth and last. The East Indians had to pay their
+tribute in ingots of gold. Their country produced gold.
+
+As it is now forever too late to separate the facts from the fiction
+of ancient history, and determine what is to be rejected as false and
+what received as true, our only resource is to tell the whole story
+just as it comes down to us, leaving it to each reader to decide for
+himself what he will believe. In this view of the subject, we will
+conclude this chapter by relating the manner in which it was said in
+ancient times that these Indian nations obtained their gold.
+
+The gold country was situated in remote and dreary deserts, inhabited
+only by wild beasts and vermin, among which last there was, it seems,
+a species of ants, which were of enormous size, and wonderful
+fierceness and voracity, and which could run faster than the fleetest
+horse or camel. These ants, in making their excavations, would bring
+up from beneath the surface of the ground all the particles of gold
+which came in their way, and throw them out around their hills. The
+Indians then would penetrate into these deserts, mounted on the
+fleetest camels that they could procure, and leading other camels, not
+so fleet, by their sides. They were provided, also, with bags for
+containing the golden sands. When they arrived at the ant hills, they
+would dismount, and, gathering up the gold which the ants had
+discarded, would fill their bags with the utmost possible dispatch,
+and then mount their camels and ride away. The ants, in the mean time,
+would take the alarm, and begin to assemble to attack them; but as
+their instinct prompted them to wait until considerable numbers were
+collected before they commenced their attack, the Indians had time to
+fill their bags and begin their flight before their enemies were
+ready. Then commenced the chase, the camels running at their full
+speed, and the swarms of ants following, and gradually drawing nearer
+and nearer. At length, when nearly overtaken, the Indians would
+abandon the camels that they were leading, and fly on, more swiftly,
+upon those which they rode. While the ants were busy in devouring the
+victims thus given up to them, the authors of all the mischief would
+make good their escape, and thus carry off their gold to a place of
+safety. These famous ants were bigger than foxes!
+
+[Illustration: THE INDIAN GOLD HUNTER.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE RECONNOITERING OF GREECE.
+
+B.C. 519
+
+The reconnoitering party.--The physician Democedes.--Story of
+Democedes.--His boyhood.--Democedes at AEgina.--At Athens.--At the court
+of Polycrates.--Democedes a captive.--He is sent to Darius.--Democedes
+is cast into prison.--His wretched condition.--Darius sprains his
+ankle.--The Egyptian physicians baffled.--Sufferings of Darius.--He
+sends for Democedes.--Democedes's denial.--He treats the sprain
+successfully.--Darius's recovery.--The golden fetters.--Democedes
+released.--Honors conferred on him.--Atossa cured by Democedes.--His
+conditions.--Atossa with Darius.--She suggests the invasion of
+Greece.--The exploring party.--Democedes appointed guide.--Designs of
+Democedes.--Darius baffled.--The expedition sets out.--City of
+Sidon.--The sea voyage.--The Grecian coasts examined.--Arrival at
+Tarentum.--Suspicions of the authorities.--The Persians seized.--Escape
+of Democedes.--Release of the Persians.--Tumult at Crotona.--Conduct
+of Democedes.--The expedition returns.--Misfortunes.--Cillus.--Arrival
+at Susa.--Reception by Darius.
+
+
+The great event in the history of Darius--the one, in fact, on account
+of which it was, mainly, that his name and his career have been so
+widely celebrated among mankind, was an attempt which he made, on a
+very magnificent scale, for the invasion and conquest of Greece.
+Before commencing active operations in this grand undertaking, he sent
+a reconnoitering party to examine and explore the ground. This
+reconnoitering party met with a variety of extraordinary adventures in
+the course of its progress, and the history of it will accordingly
+form the subject of this chapter.
+
+The guide to this celebrated reconnoitering party was a certain Greek
+physician named Democedes. Though Democedes was called a Greek, he
+was, really, an Italian by birth. His native town was Crotona, which
+may be found exactly at the ball of the foot on the map of Italy. It
+was by a very singular series of adventures that he passed from this
+remote village in the west, over thousands of miles by land and sea,
+to Susa, Darius's capital. He began by running away from his father
+while he was still a boy. He said that he was driven to this step by
+the intolerable strictness and cruelty of his father's government.
+This, however, is always the pretext of turbulent and ungovernable
+young men, who abandon their parents and their homes when the favors
+and the protection necessary during their long and helpless infancy
+have been all received, and the time is beginning to arrive for making
+some return.
+
+Democedes was ingenious and cunning, and fond of roving adventure. In
+running away from home, he embarked on board a ship, as such
+characters generally do at the present day, and went to sea. After
+meeting with various adventures, he established himself in the island
+of AEgina, in the AEgean sea, where he began to practice as a physician,
+though he had had no regular education in that art. In his practice he
+evinced so much medical skill, or, at least, exercised so much
+adroitness in leading people to believe that he possessed it, as to
+give him very soon a wide and exalted reputation. The people of AEgina
+appointed him their physician, and assigned him a large salary for
+his services in attending upon the sick throughout the island. This
+was the usual practice in those days. A town, or an island, or any
+circumscribed district of country, would appoint a physician as a
+public officer, who was to devote his attention, at a fixed annual
+salary, to any cases of sickness which might arise in the community,
+wherever his services were needed, precisely as physicians serve in
+hospitals and public institutions in modern times.
+
+Democedes remained at AEgina two years, during which time his celebrity
+increased and extended more and more, until, at length, he received an
+appointment from the city of Athens, with the offer of a greatly
+increased salary. He accepted the appointment, and remained in Athens
+one year, when he received still more advantageous offers from
+Polycrates, the king of Samos, whose history was given so fully in the
+last chapter.
+
+Democedes remained for some time in the court of Polycrates, where he
+was raised to the highest distinction, and loaded with many honors. He
+was a member of the household of the king, enjoyed his confidence in a
+high degree, and attended him, personally, on all his expeditions. At
+last, when Polycrates went to Sardis, as is related in the last
+chapter, to receive the treasures of Oretes, and concert with him the
+plans for their proposed campaigns, Democedes accompanied him as
+usual; and when Polycrates was slain, and his attendants and followers
+were made captive by Oretes, the unfortunate physician was among the
+number. By this reverse, he found that he had suddenly fallen from
+affluence, ease, and honor, to the condition of a neglected and
+wretched captive in the hands of a malignant and merciless tyrant.
+
+Democedes pined in this confinement for a long time; when, at length,
+Oretes himself was killed by the order of Darius, it might have been
+expected that the hour of his deliverance had arrived. But it was not
+so; his condition was, in fact, made worse, and not better by it; for
+Bagaeus, the commissioner of Darius, instead of inquiring into the
+circumstances relating to the various members of Oretes's family, and
+redressing the wrongs which any of them might be suffering, simply
+seized the whole company, and brought them all to Darius in Susa, as
+trophies of his triumph, and tokens of the faithfulness and efficiency
+with which he had executed the work that Darius had committed to his
+charge. Thus Democedes was borne away, in hopeless bondage, thousands
+of miles farther from his native land than before, and with very
+little prospect of being ever able to return. He arrived at Susa,
+destitute, squalid, and miserable. His language was foreign, his rank
+and his professional skill unknown, and all the marks which might
+indicate the refinement and delicacy of the modes of life to which he
+had been accustomed were wholly disguised by his present destitution
+and wretchedness. He was sent with the other captives to the prisons,
+where he was secured, like them, with fetters and chains, and was soon
+almost entirely forgotten.
+
+He might have taken some measures for making his character, and his
+past celebrity and fame as a physician known; but he did not dare to
+do this, for fear that Darius might learn to value his medical skill,
+and so detain him as a slave for the sake of his services. He thought
+that the chance was greater that some turn of fortune, or some
+accidental change in the arrangements of government might take place,
+by which he might be set at liberty, as an insignificant and worthless
+captive, whom there was no particular motive for detaining, than if
+he were transferred to the king's household as a slave, and his value
+as an artisan--for medical practice was, in those days, simply an
+art--were once known. He made no effort, therefore, to bring his true
+character to light, but pined silently in his dungeon, in rags and
+wretchedness, and in a mental despondency which was gradually sinking
+into despair.
+
+About this time, it happened that Darius was one day riding furiously
+in a chase, and coming upon some sudden danger, he attempted to leap
+from his horse. He fell and sprained his ankle. He was taken up by the
+attendants, and carried home. His physicians were immediately called
+to attend to the case. They were Egyptians. Egypt was, in fact,
+considered the great seat and centre of learning and of the arts in
+those days, and no royal household was complete without Egyptian
+physicians.
+
+The learning and skill, however, of the Egyptians in Darius's court
+were entirely baffled by the sprain. They thought that the joint was
+dislocated, and they turned and twisted the foot with so much
+violence, in their attempts to restore the bones to their proper
+position, as greatly to increase the pain and the inflammation.
+Darius spent a week in extreme and excruciating suffering. He could
+not sleep day nor night, but tossed in continual restlessness and
+anguish on his couch, made constantly worse instead of better by every
+effort of his physicians to relieve him.
+
+At length somebody informed him that there was a Greek physician among
+the captives that came from Sardis, and recommended that Darius should
+send for him. The king, in his impatience and pain, was ready for any
+experiment which promised the least hope of relief, and he ordered
+that Democedes should be immediately summoned. The officers
+accordingly went to the prison and brought out the astonished captive,
+without any notice or preparation, and conducted him, just as he was,
+ragged and wretched, and shackled with iron fetters upon his feet,
+into the presence of the king. The fetters which such captives wore
+were intended to allow them to walk, slowly and with difficulty, while
+they impeded the movements of the feet so as effectually to prevent
+any long or rapid flight, or any escape at all from free pursuers.
+
+Democedes, when questioned by Darius, denied at first that he
+possessed any medical knowledge or skill. Darius was, however, not
+deceived by these protestations. It was very customary, in those days
+of royal tyranny, for those who possessed any thing valuable to
+conceal the possession of it: concealment was often their only
+protection. Darius, who was well aware of this tendency, did not
+believe the assurances of Democedes, and in the irritation and
+impatience caused by his pain, he ordered the captive to be taken out
+and put to the torture, in order to make him confess that he was
+really a physician.
+
+Democedes yielded without waiting to be actually put to the test. He
+acknowledged at once, for fear of the torture, that he had had some
+experience in medical practice, and the sprained ankle was immediately
+committed to his charge. On examining the case, he thought that the
+harsh and violent operations which the Egyptian physicians had
+attempted were not required. He treated the inflamed and swollen joint
+in the gentlest manner. He made fomenting and emollient applications,
+which soothed the pain, subdued the inflammation, and allayed the
+restlessness and the fever. The royal sufferer became quiet and calm,
+and in a short time fell asleep.
+
+In a word, the king rapidly recovered; and, overwhelmed with gratitude
+toward the benefactor whose skill had saved him from such suffering,
+he ordered that, in place of his single pair of iron fetters, he
+should have two pairs of fetters of gold!
+
+It might at first be imagined that such a strange token of regard as
+this could be intended only as a jest and an insult; but there is no
+doubt that Darius meant it seriously as a compliment and an honor. He
+supposed that Democedes, of course, considered his condition of
+captivity as a fixed and permanent one; and that his fetters were not,
+in themselves, an injustice or disgrace, but the necessary and
+unavoidable concomitant of his lot, so that the sending of golden
+fetters to a slave was very naturally, in his view, like presenting a
+golden crutch to a cripple. Democedes received the equivocal donation
+with great good nature. He even ventured upon a joke on the subject to
+the convalescent king. "It seems, sire," said he "that in return for
+my saving your limb and your life, you double my servitude. You have
+given me two chains instead of one."
+
+The king, who was now in a much better humor to be pleased than when,
+writhing in anguish, he had ordered Democedes to be put to the
+torture, laughed at this reply, and released the captive from the
+bonds entirely. He ordered him to be conducted by the attendants to
+the apartments of the palace, where the wives of Darius and the other
+ladies of the court resided, that they might see him and express their
+gratitude. "This is the physician," said the eunuchs, who introduced
+him, "that cured the king." The ladies welcomed him with the utmost
+cordiality, and loaded him with presents of gold and silver as he
+passed through their apartments. The king made arrangements, too,
+immediately, for providing him with a magnificent house in Susa, and
+established him there in great luxury and splendor, with costly
+furniture and many attendants, and all other marks of distinction and
+honor. In a word, Democedes found himself, by means of another
+unexpected change of fortune, suddenly elevated to a height as lofty
+as his misery and degradation had been low. He was, however, a captive
+still.
+
+The Queen Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who has already been
+mentioned as the wife of Cambyses and of Smerdis the magian, was one
+of the wives of Darius. Her sister Antystone was another. A third was
+Phaedyma, the daughter of Otanes, the lady who had been so
+instrumental, in connection with Atossa, in the discovery of the
+magian imposture. It happened that, some time after the curing of
+Darius's sprain, Atossa herself was sick. Her malady was of such a
+nature, that for some time she kept it concealed, from a feeling of
+delicacy.[E] At length, terrified by the danger which threatened her,
+she sent for Democedes, and made her case known to him. He said that
+he could cure her, but she must first promise to grant him, if he did
+so, a certain favor which he should ask. She must promise beforehand
+to grant it, whatever it might be. It was nothing, he said, that
+should in any way compromise her honor.
+
+[Footnote E: It was a tumor of the breast, which became, at length, an
+open ulcer, and began to spread and enlarge in a very formidable
+manner.]
+
+Atossa agreed to these conditions, and Democedes undertook her case.
+Her malady was soon cured; and when she asked him what was the favor
+which he wished to demand, he replied,
+
+"Persuade Darius to form a plan for the invasion of Greece, and to
+send me, with a small company of attendants, to explore the country,
+and obtain for him all the necessary preliminary information. In this
+way I shall see my native land once more."
+
+Atossa was faithful in her promise. She availed herself of the first
+favorable opportunity, when it became her turn to visit the king, to
+direct his mind, by a dexterous conversation, toward the subject of
+the enlargement of his empire. He had vast forces and resources, she
+said, at his command, and might easily enter upon a career of conquest
+which would attract the admiration of the world. Darius replied that
+he had been entertaining some views of that nature. He had thought, he
+said, of attacking the Scythians: these Scythians were a group of
+semi-savage nations on the north of his dominions. Atossa represented
+to him that subduing the Scythians would be too easy a conquest, and
+that it would be a far nobler enterprise, and more worthy of his
+talents and his vast resources, to undertake an expedition into
+Europe, and attempt the conquest of Greece. "You have all the means at
+your command essential for the success of such an undertaking, and you
+have in your court a man who can give you, or can obtain for you, all
+the necessary information in respect to the country, to enable you to
+form the plan of your campaigns."
+
+The ambition of Darius was fired by these suggestions. He began
+immediately to form projects and schemes. In a day or two he organized
+a small party of Persian officers of distinction, in whom he had great
+confidence, to go on an exploring tour into Greece. They were provided
+with a suitable company of attendants, and with every thing necessary
+for their journey, and Democedes was directed to prepare to go with
+them as their guide. They were to travel simply as a party of Persian
+noblemen, on an excursion of curiosity and pleasure, concealing their
+true design; and as Democedes their guide, though born in Italy, was
+in all important points a Greek, and was well acquainted with the
+countries through which they were to pass, they supposed that they
+could travel every where without suspicion. Darius charged the
+Persians to keep a diligent watch over Democedes, and not to allow
+him, on any account to leave them, but to bring him back to Susa
+safely with them on their return.
+
+As for Democedes, he had no intention whatever of returning to Persia,
+though he kept his designs of making his escape entirely concealed.
+Darius, with seeming generosity, said to him, while he was making his
+preparations, "I recommend to you to take with you all your private
+wealth and treasures, to distribute, for presents, among your friends
+in Greece and Italy. I will bestow more upon you here on your return."
+Democedes regarded this counsel with great suspicion. He imagined that
+the king, in giving him this permission, wished to ascertain, by
+observing whether he would really take with him all his possessions,
+the existence of any secret determination in his mind not to come back
+to Susa. If this were Darius's plan, it was defeated by the sagacious
+vigilance and cunning of the physician. He told the king, in reply,
+that he preferred to leave his effects in Persia, that they might be
+ready for his use on his return. The king then ordered a variety of
+costly articles to be provided and given to Democedes, to be taken
+with him and presented to his friends in Greece and Italy. They
+consisted of vessels of gold and silver, pieces of Persian armor of
+beautiful workmanship, and articles of dress, expensive and splendid.
+These were all carefully packed, and the various other necessary
+preparations were made for the long journey.
+
+At length the expedition set out. They traveled by land westward,
+across the continent, till they reached the eastern shores of the
+Mediterranean Sea. The port at which they arrived was Sidon, the city
+so often mentioned in the Scriptures as a great pagan emporium of
+commerce. The city of Sidon was in the height of its glory at this
+time, being one of the most important ports of the Mediterranean for
+all the western part of Asia. Caravans of travelers came to it by
+land, bringing on the backs of camels the productions of Arabia,
+Persia, and all the East; and fleets of ships by sea, loaded with the
+corn, and wine, and oil of the Western nations.
+
+At Sidon the land journey of the expedition was ended. Here they
+bought two large and splendid ships, galleys of three banks of oars,
+to convey them to Greece. These galleys were for their own personal
+accommodation. There was a third vessel, called a transport, for the
+conveyance of their baggage, which consisted mainly of the packages of
+rich and costly presents which Darius had prepared. Some of these
+presents were for the friends of Democedes, as has been already
+explained, and others had been provided as gifts and offerings from
+the king himself to such distinguished personages as the travelers
+might visit on their route. When the vessels were ready, and the
+costly cargo was on board, the company of travelers embarked, and the
+little fleet put to sea.
+
+The Grecian territories are endlessly divided and indented by the
+seas, whose irregular and winding shores form promontories,
+peninsulas, and islands without number, which are accessible in every
+part by water. The Persian explorers cruised about among these coasts
+under Democedes's guidance, examining every thing, and noting
+carefully all the information which they could obtain, either by
+personal observation or by inquiring of others, which might be of
+service to Darius in his intended invasion. Democedes allowed them to
+take their own time, directing their course, however, steadily, though
+slowly, toward his own native town of Crotona. The expedition landed
+in various places, and were every where well received. It was not for
+the interest of Democedes that they should yet be intercepted. In
+fact, the name and power of Darius were very much feared, or, at
+least, very highly respected in all the Grecian territory, and the
+people were little inclined to molest a peaceful party of Persians
+traveling like ordinary tourists, and under the guidance, too, of a
+distinguished countryman of their own, whose name was, in some degree,
+a guarantee for the honesty and innocence of their intentions. At
+length, however, after spending some time in the Grecian seas, the
+little squadron moved still farther west, toward the coast of Italy,
+and arrived finally at Tarentum. Tarentum was the great port on the
+Grecian side of Italy. It was at the head of the spacious bay which
+sets up between the heel and the ball of the foot of the boot-shaped
+peninsula. Crotona, Democedes's native town, to which he was now
+desirous to return, was southwest of Tarentum, about two hundred miles
+along the shore.[F]
+
+[Footnote F: For the situation of these places, see the map at the
+commencement of chapter xi.]
+
+It was a very curious and extraordinary circumstance that, though the
+expedition had been thus far allowed to go and come as its leaders
+pleased, without any hinderance or suspicion, yet now, the moment that
+they touched a point from which Democedes could easily reach his home,
+the authorities on shore, in some way or other, obtained some
+intimation of the true character of their enterprise. The Prince of
+Tarentum seized the ships. He made the Persians themselves prisoners
+also, and shut them up; and, in order effectually to confine the
+ships, he took away the helms from them, so that they could not be
+steered, and were thus entirely disabled. The expedition being thus,
+for the time at least, broken up, Democedes said, coolly, that he
+would take the opportunity to make a little excursion along the coast,
+and visit his friends at Crotona!
+
+It was another equally suspicious circumstance in respect to the
+probability that this seizure was the result of Democedes's
+management, that, as soon as he was safely away, the Prince of
+Tarentum set his prisoners at liberty, releasing, at the same time,
+the ships from the seizure, and sending the helms on board. The
+Persians were indignant at the treatment which they had received, and
+set sail immediately along the coast toward Crotona in pursuit of
+Democedes. They found him in the market-place in Crotona, haranguing
+the people, and exciting, by his appearance and his discourse, a great
+and general curiosity. They attempted to seize him as a fugitive, and
+called upon the people of Crotona to aid them, threatening them with
+the vengeance of Darius if they refused. A part of the people were
+disposed to comply with this demand, while others rallied to defend
+their townsman. A great tumult ensued; but, in the end, the party of
+Democedes was victorious. He was not only thus personally rescued,
+but, as he informed the people that the transport vessel which
+accompanied the expedition contained property that belonged to him,
+they seized that too, and gave it up to Democedes, saying to the
+Persians that, though they must give up the transport, the galleys
+remained at their service to convey them back to their own country
+whenever they wished to go.
+
+The Persians had now no other alternative but to return home. They
+had, it is true, pretty nearly accomplished the object of their
+undertaking; but, if any thing remained to be done, they could not now
+attempt it with any advantage, as they had lost their guide, and a
+great portion of the effects which had been provided by Darius to
+enable them to propitiate the favor of the princes and potentates into
+whose power they might fall. They accordingly began to make
+preparations for sailing back again to Sidon, while Democedes
+established himself in great magnificence and splendor in Crotona.
+When, at length, the Persians were ready to sail, Democedes wished
+them a very pleasant voyage, and desired them to give his best
+respects to Darius, and inform him that he could not return at present
+to Persia, as he was making arrangements to be married!
+
+The disasters which had befallen these Persian reconnoiterers thus far
+were only the beginning of their troubles. Their ships were driven by
+contrary winds out of their course, and they were thrown at last upon
+the coast of Iapygia, a country occupying the heel of Italy. Here they
+were seized by the inhabitants and made slaves. It happened that there
+was living in this wild country at that time a man of wealth and of
+cultivation, who had been exiled from Tarentum on account of some
+political offenses. His name was Cillus. He heard the story of these
+unhappy foreigners, and interested himself in their fate. He thought
+that, by rescuing them from their captivity and sending them home, he
+should make Darius his friend, and secure, perhaps, his aid in
+effecting his own restoration to his native land. He accordingly paid
+the ransom which was demanded for the captives, and set them free. He
+then aided them in making arrangements for their return to Persia, and
+the unfortunate messengers found their way back at last to the court
+of Darius, without their guide, without any of the splendid
+appointments with which they had gone forth, but stripped of every
+thing, and glad to escape with their lives.
+
+They had some cause to fear, too, the anger of Darius, for the
+insensate wrath of a tyrant is awakened as often by calamity as by
+crime. Darius, however, was in this instance graciously disposed. He
+received the unfortunate commissioners in a favorable manner. He took
+immediate measures for rewarding Cillus for having ransomed them. He
+treasured up, too, the information which they had obtained respecting
+Greece, though he was prevented by circumstances, which we will
+proceed to describe, from immediately putting into execution his plans
+of invasion and conquest there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE REVOLT OF BABYLON.
+
+B.C. 516-514
+
+City of Babylon.--The captive Jews.--Wickedness of the
+Babylonians.--Causes of discontent.--Preparations of the Babylonians
+for revolt.--Their secrecy.--Time chosen for revolt.--Story of
+Syloson.--Syloson's red cloak.--He gives it to Darius.--Syloson goes
+to Susa.--Interview with Darius.--Request of Syloson.--Darius grants
+it.--Citadel of Samos.--Measures of Maeandrius.--Hypocrisy
+of Maeandrius.--His brother Charilaus.--Reproaches of
+Charilaus.--Character of Maeandrius.--Attack of Charilaus.--Slaughter
+of the Samians.--Revolt of Babylon.--Insults and jeers of the
+Babylonians.--Ancient mode of warfare.--Modern warfare.--Taunt of the
+Babylonians.--Fabricating prodigies.--The mule of Zopyrus.--Interview
+with Darius.--Desperate plan of Zopyrus.--He mutilates
+himself.--Darius's astonishment.--Final arrangements.--Zopyrus
+leaves the Persian camp.--Success of Zopyrus's stratagem.--His
+piteous story.--The three victories.--Zopyrus intrusted with power
+in Babylon.--Zopyrus admits the Persians.--Fall of Babylon.
+
+
+The city of Babylon, originally the capital of the Assyrian empire,
+was conquered by Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, when he
+annexed the Assyrian empire to his dominions. It was a vast and a very
+magnificent and wealthy city; and Cyrus made it, for a time, one of
+his capitals.
+
+When Cyrus made this conquest of Babylon, he found the Jews in
+captivity there. They had been made captive by Nebuchadnezzar, a
+previous king of Babylon, as is related in the Scriptures. The holy
+prophets of Judea had predicted that after seventy years the captives
+should return, and that Babylon itself should afterward be destroyed.
+The first prediction was fulfilled by the victory of Cyrus. It
+devolved on Darius to execute the second of these solemn and
+retributive decrees of heaven.
+
+Although Darius was thus the instrument of divine Providence in the
+destruction of Babylon, he was unintentionally and unconsciously so.
+In the terrible scenes connected with the siege and the storming of
+the ill-fated city, it was the impulse of his own hatred and revenge
+that he was directly obeying; he was not at all aware that he was, at
+the same time, the messenger of the divine displeasure. The wretched
+Babylonians, in the storming and destruction of their city, were
+expiating a double criminality. Their pride, their wickedness, their
+wanton cruelty toward the Jews, had brought upon them the condemnation
+of God, while their political treason and rebellion, or, at least,
+what was considered treason and rebellion aroused the implacable
+resentment of their king.
+
+The Babylonians had been disposed to revolt even in the days of Cyrus.
+They had been accustomed to consider their city as the most noble and
+magnificent capital in the world, and they were displeased that Cyrus
+did not make it the seat and center of his empire. Cyrus preferred
+Susa; and Babylon, accordingly, though he called it one of his
+capitals, soon fell to the rank of a provincial city. The nobles and
+provincial leaders that remained there began accordingly to form plans
+for revolting from the Persian dominion, with a view of restoring
+their city to its ancient position and renown.
+
+They had a very favorable opportunity for maturing their plans, and
+making their preparations for the execution of them during the time of
+the magian usurpation; for while the false Smerdis was on the throne,
+being shut up and concealed in his palace at Susa, the affairs of the
+provinces were neglected; and when Darius and his accomplices
+discovered the imposture and put Smerdis to death, there was
+necessarily required, after so violent a revolution, a considerable
+time before the affairs of the empire demanding attention at the
+capital could be settled, so as to allow the government to turn their
+thoughts at all toward the distant dependencies. The Babylonians
+availed themselves of all these opportunities to put their city in the
+best condition for resisting the Persian power. They strengthened
+their defenses, and accumulated great stores of provisions, and took
+measures for diminishing that part of the population which would be
+useless in war. These measures were all concerted and carried into
+effect in the most covert and secret manner; and the tidings came at
+last to Susa that Babylon had openly revolted, before the government
+of Darius was aware even of the existence of any disaffection.
+
+The time which the Babylonians chose for their rebellion at last was
+one when the movable forces which Darius had at command were at the
+west, engaged in a campaign on the shores of Asia Minor. Darius had
+sent them there for the purpose of restoring a certain exile and
+wanderer named Syloson to Samos, and making him the monarch of it.
+Darius had been induced thus to interpose in Syloson's behalf by the
+following very extraordinary circumstances.
+
+Syloson was the brother of Polycrates, whose unhappy history has
+already been given. He was exiled from Samos some time before Darius
+ascended the throne, and he became, consequently, a sort of soldier of
+fortune, serving, like other such adventurers, wherever there was the
+greatest prospect of glory and pay. In this capacity he followed the
+army of Cambyses into Egypt in the memorable campaign described in the
+first chapter of this volume. It happened, also, that Darius himself,
+who was then a young noble in the Persian court, and yet of no
+particular distinction, as there was then no reason to imagine that he
+would ever be elevated to the throne, was also in Cambyses's army, and
+the two young men became acquainted with one another there.
+
+While the army was at Memphis, an incident occurred in which these two
+personages were actors, which, though it seemed unimportant at the
+time, led, in the end, to vast and momentous results. The incident was
+this:
+
+Syloson had a very handsome red cloak, which, as he appeared in it one
+day, walking in the great square at Memphis, strongly attracted the
+admiration of Darius. Darius asked Syloson if he would sell him the
+cloak. Syloson said that he would not sell it, but would give it to
+him. He thought, probably, that Darius would decline receiving it as a
+present. If he did entertain that idea, it seems he was mistaken.
+Darius praised him for his generosity, and accepted the gift.
+
+Syloson was then sorry that he had made so inconsiderate an offer, and
+regretted very much the loss of his cloak. In process of time, the
+campaign of Cambyses in Egypt was ended, and Darius returned to
+Persia, leaving Syloson in the west. At length the conspiracy was
+formed for dethroning Smerdis the magian, as has already been
+described, and Darius was designated to reign in his stead. As the
+news of the young noble's elevation spread into the western world, it
+reached Syloson. He was much pleased at receiving the intelligence,
+and he saw immediately that there was a prospect of his being able to
+derive some advantage, himself, from the accession of his old
+fellow-soldier to the throne.
+
+He immediately proceeded to Susa. He applied at the gates of the
+palace for admission to the presence of the king. The porter asked him
+who he was. He replied that he was a Greek who had formerly done
+Darius a service, and he wished to see him. The porter carried the
+message to the king. The king could not imagine who the stranger
+should be. He endeavored in vain to recall to mind any instance in
+which he had received a favor from a Greek. At length he ordered the
+attendant to call the visitor in.
+
+Syloson was accordingly conducted into the king's presence. Darius
+looked upon him, but did not know him. He directed the interpreters to
+inquire what the service was which he had rendered the king, and when
+he had rendered it. The Greek replied by relating the circumstance of
+the cloak. Darius recollected the cloak, though he had forgotten the
+giver. "Are you, indeed," said he, "the man who made me that present?
+I thought then that you were very generous to me, and you shall see
+that I do not undervalue the obligation now. I am at length,
+fortunately, in a situation to requite the favor, and I will give you
+such an abundance of gold and silver as shall effectually prevent your
+being sorry for having shown a kindness to Darius Hystaspes."
+
+Syloson thanked the king in reply, but said that he did not wish for
+gold and silver. Darius asked him what reward he did desire. He
+replied that he wished Samos to be restored to him: "Samos," said he,
+"was the possession of my brother. When he went away from the island,
+he left it temporarily in the hands of Maeandrius, an officer of his
+household. It still remains in the possession of this family, while I,
+the rightful heir, am a homeless wanderer and exile, excluded from my
+brother's dominions by one of his slaves."
+
+Darius immediately determined to accede to Syloson's request. He
+raised an army and put it under the command of Otanes, who, it will be
+recollected, was one of the seven conspirators that combined to
+dethrone Smerdis the magian. He directed Otanes to accompany Syloson
+to Samos, and to put him in possession of the island. Syloson was
+particularly earnest in his request that no unnecessary violence
+should be used, and no blood shed, or vindictive measures of any kind
+adopted. Darius promised to comply with these desires, and gave his
+orders to Otanes accordingly.
+
+Notwithstanding this, however, the expedition resulted in the almost
+total destruction of the Samian population, in the following manner.
+There was a citadel at Samos, to which the inhabitants retired when
+they learned that Otanes had embarked his troops in ships on the
+coast, and was advancing toward the island. Maeandrius was vexed and
+angry at the prospect of being deprived of his possessions and his
+power; and, as the people hated him on account of his extortion and
+tyranny, he hated them in return, and cared not how much suffering his
+measures might be the means of bringing upon them. He had a
+subterranean and secret passage from the citadel to the shore of the
+sea, where, in a secluded cove, were boats or vessels ready to take
+him away. Having made these arrangements to secure his own safety, he
+proceeded to take such a course and adopt such measures as should tend
+most effectually to exasperate and offend the Persians, intending to
+escape, himself, at the last moment, by this subterranean retreat,
+and to leave the inhabitants of the island at the mercy of their
+infuriated enemies.
+
+He had a brother whom he had shut up in a dungeon, and whose mind,
+naturally depraved, and irritated by his injuries, was in a state of
+malignant and furious despair. Maeandrius had pretended to be willing
+to give up the island to the Persians. He had entered into
+negotiations with them for this purpose, and the Persians considered
+the treaty as in fact concluded. The leaders and officers of the army
+had assembled, accordingly, before the citadel in a peaceful attitude,
+waiting merely for the completion of the forms of surrender, when
+Charilaus, Maeandrius's captive brother, saw them, by looking out
+between the bars of his window, in the tower in which he was confined.
+He sent an urgent message to Maeandrius, requesting to speak to him.
+Maeandrius ordered the prisoner to be brought before him. The haggard
+and wretched-looking captive, rendered half insane by the combined
+influence of the confinement he had endured, and of the wild
+excitement produced by the universal panic and confusion which reigned
+around him, broke forth against his brother in the boldest and most
+violent invectives. He reproached him in the most bitter terms for
+being willing to yield so ingloriously, and without a struggle, to an
+invading foe, whom he might easily repel. "You have courage and energy
+enough, it seems," said he, "to make war upon an innocent and
+defenseless brother, and to keep him for years in chains and in a
+dungeon, but when an actual enemy appears, though he comes to despoil
+you of all your possessions, and to send you into hopeless exile, and
+though, if you had the ordinary courage and spirit of a man, you could
+easily drive him away, yet you dare not face him. If you are too
+cowardly and mean to do your duty yourself, give me your soldiers, and
+I will do it for you. I will drive these Persians back into the sea
+with as much pleasure as it would give me to drive you there!"
+
+Such a nature as that of Maeandrius can not be stung into a proper
+sense of duty by reproaches like these. There seem to have been in his
+heart no moral sensibilities of any kind, and there could be, of
+course, no compunctions for the past, and no awakening of new and
+better desires for the future. All the effect which was produced upon
+his mind by these bitter denunciations was to convince him that to
+comply with his brother's request would be to do the best thing now in
+his power for widening, and extending, and making sure the misery and
+mischief which were impending. He placed his troops, therefore, under
+his brother's orders; and while the infuriated madman sallied forth at
+the head of them to attack the astonished Persians on one side of the
+citadel, Maeandrius made his escape through the under-ground passage on
+the other. The Persians were so exasperated at what appeared to them
+the basest treachery, that, as soon as they could recover their arms
+and get once more into battle array, they commenced a universal
+slaughter of the Samians. They spared neither age, sex, nor condition;
+and when, at last, their vengeance was satisfied, and they put the
+island into Syloson's hands, and withdrew, he found himself in
+possession of an almost absolute solitude.
+
+[Illustration: THE BABYLONIANS DERIDING DARIUS.]
+
+It was while Otanes was absent on this enterprise, having with him a
+large part of the disposable forces of the king, that the Babylonians
+revolted. Darius was greatly incensed at hearing the tidings.
+Sovereigns are always greatly incensed at a revolt on the part of
+their subjects. The circumstances of the case, whatever they may be,
+always seem to them to constitute a peculiar aggravation of the
+offense. Darius was indignant that the Babylonians had attempted to
+take advantage of his weakness by rebelling when his armies were
+away. If they had risen when his armies were around him, he would
+have been equally indignant with them for having dared to brave his
+power.
+
+He assembled all the forces at his disposal, and advanced to Babylon.
+The people of the city shut their gates against him, and derided him.
+They danced and capered on the walls, making all sorts of gestures
+expressive of contempt and defiance, accompanied with shouts and
+outcries of ridicule and scorn. They had great confidence in the
+strength of their defenses, and then, besides this, they probably
+regarded Darius as a sort of usurper, who had no legitimate title to
+the throne, and who would never be able to subdue any serious
+resistance which might be offered to the establishment of his power.
+It was from these considerations that they were emboldened to be
+guilty of the folly of taunting and insulting their foes from the city
+walls.
+
+Such incidents as this, of personal communications between masses of
+enemies on the eve of a battle, were very common in ancient warfare,
+though impossible in modern times. In those days, when the missiles
+employed were thrown chiefly by the strength of the human arm alone,
+the combatants could safely draw near enough together for each side to
+hear the voices and to see the gesticulations of the other. Besiegers
+could advance sufficiently close to a castle or citadel to parley
+insultingly with the garrison upon the walls, and yet be safe from the
+showers of darts and arrows which were projected toward them in
+return. But all this is now changed. The reach of cannon, and even of
+musketry, is so long, that combatants, approaching a conflict, are
+kept at a very respectful distance apart, until the time arrives in
+which the actual engagement is to begin. They reconnoiter each other
+with spy-glasses from watch-towers on the walls, or from eminences in
+the field, but they can hold no communication except by a formal
+embassy, protected by a flag of truce, which, with its white and
+distant fluttering, as it slowly advances over the green fields, warns
+the gunners at the battery or on the bastion to point their artillery
+another way.
+
+The Babylonians, on the walls of their city, reproached and taunted
+their foes incessantly. "Take our advice," said they, "and go back
+where you came from. You will only lose your time in besieging
+Babylon. When mules have foals, you will take the city, and not till
+then."
+
+The expression "when mules have foals" was equivalent in those days to
+our proverbial phrase, "when the sky falls," being used to denote any
+thing impossible or absurd, inasmuch as mules, like other hybrid
+animals, do not produce young. It was thought in those times
+absolutely impossible that they should do so; but it is now well known
+that the case is not impossible, though very rare.
+
+It seems to have added very much to the interest of an historical
+narrative in the minds of the ancient Greeks, to have some prodigy
+connected with every great event; and, in order to gratify this
+feeling, the writers appear in some instances to have fabricated a
+prodigy for the occasion, and in others to have elevated some unusual,
+though by no means supernatural circumstance, to the rank and
+importance of one. The prodigy connected with this siege of Babylon
+was the foaling of a mule. The mule belonged to a general in the army
+of Darius, named Zopyrus. It was after Darius had been prosecuting the
+siege of the city for a year and a half, without any progress
+whatever toward the accomplishment of his end. The army began to
+despair of success. Zopyrus, with the rest, was expecting that the
+siege would be indefinitely prolonged, or, perhaps, absolutely
+abandoned, when his attention was strongly attracted to the phenomenon
+which had happened in respect to the mule. He remembered the taunt of
+the Babylonian on the wall, and it seemed to him that the whole
+occurrence portended that the time had now arrived when some way might
+be devised for the capture of the city.
+
+Portents and prophecies are often the causes of their own fulfillment,
+and this portent led Zopyrus to endeavor to devise some means to
+accomplish the end in view. He went first, however, to Darius, to
+converse with him upon the subject, with a view of ascertaining how
+far he was really desirous of bringing the siege to a termination. He
+wished to know whether the object was of sufficient importance in
+Darius's mind to warrant any great sacrifice on his own part to effect
+it.
+
+He found that it was so. Darius was extremely impatient to end the
+siege and to capture the city; and Zopyrus saw at once that, if he
+could in any way be the means of accomplishing the work, he should
+entitle himself, in the highest possible degree, to the gratitude of
+the king.
+
+He determined to go himself into Babylon as a pretended deserter from
+Darius, with a view to obtaining an influence and a command within the
+city, which should enable him afterward to deliver it up to the
+besiegers; and, in order to convince the Babylonians that his
+desertion was real, he resolved to mutilate himself in a manner so
+dreadful as would effectually prevent their imagining that the
+injuries which he suffered were inflicted by any contrivance of his
+own. He accordingly cut off his hair and his ears, and mutilated his
+face in a manner too shocking to be here detailed, inflicting injuries
+which could never be repaired. He caused himself to be scourged, also,
+until his whole body was covered with cuts and contusions. He then
+went, wounded and bleeding as he was, into the presence of Darius, to
+make known his plans.
+
+Darius expressed amazement and consternation at the terrible
+spectacle. He leaped from his throne and rushed toward Zopyrus,
+demanding who had dared to maltreat one of his generals in such a
+manner. When Zopyrus replied that he had himself done the deed, the
+king's astonishment was greater than before. He told Zopyrus that he
+was insane. Some sudden paroxysm of madness had come over him. Zopyrus
+replied that he was not insane; and he explained his design. His plan,
+he said, was deliberately and calmly formed, and it should be steadily
+and faithfully executed. "I did not make known my design to you," said
+he, "before I had taken the preliminary steps, for I knew that you
+would prevent my taking them. It is now too late for that, and nothing
+remains but to reap, if possible, the advantage which may be derived
+from what I have done."
+
+He then arranged with Darius the plans which he had formed, so far as
+he needed the co-operation of the king in the execution of them. If he
+could gain a partial command in the Babylonian army, he was to make a
+sally from the city gates on a certain day, and attack a portion of
+the Persian army, which Darius was to leave purposely exposed, in
+order that he might gain credit with the Babylonians by destroying
+them. From this he supposed that the confidence which the Babylonians
+would repose in him would increase, and he might consequently receive
+a greater command. Thus he might, by acting in concert with Darius
+without, gradually gain such an ascendency within the city as finally
+to have power to open the gates and let the besiegers in. Darius was
+to station a detachment of a thousand men near a certain gate, leaving
+them imperfectly armed, on the tenth day after Zopyrus entered the
+city. These Zopyrus was to destroy. Seven days afterward, two thousand
+more were to be stationed in a similar manner at another point; and
+these were also to be destroyed by a second sally. Twenty days after
+this, four thousand more were to be similarly exposed. Thus seven
+thousand innocent and defenseless men would be slaughtered, but that,
+as Zopyrus said, would be "of no consequence." The lives of men were
+estimated by heroes and conquerors in those days only at their
+numerical value in swelling the army roll.
+
+These things being all arranged, Zopyrus took leave of the King to go
+to Babylon. As he left the Persian camp, he began to run, looking
+round behind him continually, as if in flight. Some men, too,
+pretended to pursue him. He fled toward one of the gates of the city.
+The sentinels on the walls saw him coming. When he reached the gate,
+the porter inside of it talked with him through a small opening, and
+heard his story. The porter then reported the case to the superior
+officers, and they commanded that the fugitive should be admitted.
+When conducted into the presence of the magistrates, he related a
+piteous story of the cruel treatment which he had received from
+Darius, and of the difficulty which he had experienced in making his
+escape from the tyrant's hands. He uttered, too, dreadful imprecations
+against Darius, and expressed the most eager determination to be
+revenged. He informed the Babylonians, moreover, that he was well
+acquainted with all Darius's plans and designs, and with the
+disposition which he had made of his army; and that, if they would, in
+a few days, when his wounds should have in some measure healed, give
+him a small command, he would show them, by actual trial, what he
+could do to aid their cause.
+
+They acceded to this proposition, and furnished Zopyrus, at the end of
+ten days, with a moderate force. Zopyrus, at the head of this force,
+sallied forth from the gate which had been previously agreed upon
+between him and Darius, and fell upon the unfortunate thousand that
+had been stationed there for the purpose of being destroyed. They were
+nearly defenseless, and Zopyrus, though his force was inferior, cut
+them all to pieces before they could be re-enforced or protected, and
+then retreated safely into the city again. He was received by the
+Babylonians with the utmost exultation and joy. He had no difficulty
+in obtaining, seven days afterward, the command of a larger force,
+when, sallying forth from another gate, as had been agreed upon by
+Darius, he gained another victory, destroying, on this occasion, twice
+as many Persians as before. These exploits gained the pretended
+deserter unbounded fame and honor within the city. The populace
+applauded him with continual acclamations; and the magistrates invited
+him to their councils, offered him high command, and governed their
+own plans and measures by his advice. At length, on the twentieth day,
+he made his third sally, at which time he destroyed and captured a
+still greater number than before. This gave him such an influence and
+position within the city, in respect to its defense, that he had no
+difficulty in getting intrusted with the keys of certain gates--those,
+namely, by which he had agreed that the army of Darius should be
+admitted.
+
+When the time arrived, the Persians advanced to the attack of the city
+in that quarter, and the Babylonians rallied as usual on the walls to
+repel them. The contest had scarcely begun before they found that the
+gates were open, and that the columns of the enemy were pouring in.
+The city was thus soon wholly at the mercy of the conqueror. Darius
+dismantled the walls, carried off the brazen gates, and crucified
+three thousand of the most distinguished inhabitants; then
+establishing over the rest a government of his own, he withdrew his
+troops and returned to Susa. He bestowed upon Zopyrus, at Susa, all
+possible rewards and honors. The marks of his wounds and mutilations
+could never be effaced, but Darius often said that he would gladly
+give up twenty Babylons to be able to efface them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE INVASION OF SCYTHIA.
+
+B.C. 513
+
+Darius's authority fully established throughout his
+dominions.--The Scythians.--Ancient account of them.--Pictures of
+savage life.--Their diversity.--Social instincts of man.--Their
+universality.--Moral sentiments of mankind.--Religious
+depravity.--Advice of Artabanus.--Emissaries sent forward.--The
+petition of Oebazus.--Darius's wanton cruelty.--Place of
+rendezvous.--The fleet of galleys.--Darius's march through Asia
+Minor.--Monuments.--Arrival at the Bosporus.--The bridge of
+boats.--Reward of Mandrocles.--The group of statuary.--The Cyanean
+Islands.--Darius makes an excursion to them.--The two
+monuments.--Inscriptions on them.--The troops cross the
+bridge.--Movements of the fleet.--The River Tearus.--Its wonderful
+sources.--The cairn.--Primitive mode of census-taking.--Instinctive
+feeling of dependence on a supernatural power.--Strange religious
+observance.--Arrival at the Danube.--Orders to destroy the
+bridge.--Counsel of the Grecian general.--The bridge is
+preserved.--Guard left to protect it.--Singular mode of
+reckoning.--Probable reason for employing it.--Darius's determination
+to return before the knots should be all untied.
+
+
+In the reigns of ancient monarchs and conquerors, it often happened
+that the first great transaction which called forth their energies was
+the suppression of a rebellion within their dominions, and the second,
+an expedition against some ferocious and half-savage nations beyond
+their frontiers. Darius followed this general example. The suppression
+of the Babylonian revolt established his authority throughout the
+whole interior of his empire. If that vast, and populous, and wealthy
+city was found unable to resist his power, no other smaller province
+or capital could hope to succeed in the attempt. The whole empire of
+Asia, therefore, from the capital at Susa, out to the extreme limits
+and bounds to which Cyrus had extended it, yielded without any further
+opposition to his sway. He felt strong in his position, and being
+young and ardent in temperament, he experienced a desire to exercise
+his strength. For some reason or other, he seems to have been not
+quite prepared yet to grapple with the Greeks, and he concluded,
+accordingly, first to test his powers in respect to foreign invasion
+by a war upon the Scythians. This was an undertaking which required
+some courage and resolution; for it was while making an incursion into
+the country of the Scythians that Cyrus, his renowned predecessor, and
+the founder of the Persian empire, had fallen.
+
+The term Scythians seems to have been a generic designation, applied
+indiscriminately to vast hordes of half-savage tribes occupying those
+wild and inhospitable regions of the north, that extended along the
+shores of the Black and Caspian Seas, and the banks of the Danube. The
+accounts which are given by the ancient historians of the manners and
+customs of these people, are very inconsistent and contradictory; as,
+in fact, the accounts of the characters of savages, and of the habits
+and usages of savage life, have always been in every age. It is very
+little that any one cultivated observer can really know, in respect to
+the phases of character, the thoughts and feelings, the sentiments,
+the principles and the faith, and even the modes of life, that prevail
+among uncivilized aborigines living in forests, or roaming wildly over
+uninclosed and trackless plains. Of those who have the opportunity to
+observe them, accordingly, some extol, in the highest degree, their
+rude but charming simplicity, their truth and faithfulness, the
+strength of their filial and conjugal affection, and their superiority
+of spirit in rising above the sordid sentiments and gross vices of
+civilization. They are not the slaves, these writers say, of appetite
+and passion. They have no inordinate love of gain; they are patient in
+enduring suffering, grateful for kindness received, and inflexibly
+firm in their adherence to the principles of honor and duty. Others,
+on the other hand, see in savage life nothing but treachery, cruelty,
+brutality, and crime. Man in his native state, as they imagine, is but
+a beast, with just intelligence enough to give effect to his
+depravity. Without natural affection, without truth, without a sense
+of justice, or the means of making law a substitute for it, he lives
+in a scene of continual conflict, in which the rights of the weak and
+the defenseless are always overborne by brutal and tyrannical power.
+
+The explanation of this diversity is doubtless this, that in savage
+life, as well as in every other state of human society, all the
+varieties of human conduct and character are exhibited; and the
+attention of each observer is attracted to the one or to the other
+class of phenomena, according to the circumstances in which he is
+placed when he makes his observations, or the mood of mind which
+prevails within him when he records them. There must be the usual
+virtues of social life, existing in a greater or less degree, in all
+human communities; for such principles as a knowledge of the
+distinction of right and wrong, the idea of property and of individual
+rights, the obligation resting on every one to respect them, the sense
+of justice, and of the ill desert of violence and cruelty, are all
+_universal instincts of the human soul_, as universal and as essential
+to humanity as maternal or filial affection, or the principle of
+conjugal love. They were established by the great Author of nature as
+constituent elements in the formation of man. Man could not continue
+to exist, as a gregarious animal, without them. It would accordingly
+be as impossible to find a community of men without these moral
+sentiments generally prevalent among them, as to find vultures or
+tigers that did not like to pursue and take their prey, or deer
+without a propensity to fly from danger. The laws and usages of
+civilized society are the expression and the result of these
+sentiments, not the origin and foundation of them; and violence,
+cruelty, and crime are the exceptions to their operation, very few, in
+all communities, savage or civilized, in comparison with the vast
+preponderance of cases in which they are obeyed.
+
+This view of the native constitution of the human character, which it
+is obvious, on very slight reflection, must be true, is not at all
+opposed, as it might at first appear to be, by the doctrine of the
+theological writers in the Christian Church in respect to the native
+depravity of man; for the depravity here referred to is a religious
+depravity, an alienation of the heart from God, and a rebellious and
+insubmissive spirit in respect to his law. Neither the Scriptures nor
+the theological writers who interpret them ever call in question the
+universal existence and prevalence of those instincts that are
+essential to the social welfare of man.
+
+But we must return to the Scythians.
+
+The tribes which Darius proposed to attack occupied the countries
+north of the Danube. His route, therefore, for the invasion of their
+territories would lead him through Asia Minor, thence across the
+Hellespont or the Bosporus into Thrace, and from Thrace across the
+Danube. It was a distant and dangerous expedition.
+
+Darius had a brother named Artabanus. Artabanus was of opinion that
+the enterprise which the king was contemplating was not only distant
+and dangerous, but that the country of the Scythians was of so little
+value that the end to be obtained by success would be wholly
+inadequate to compensate for the exertions, the costs, and the hazards
+which he must necessarily incur in the prosecution of it. But Darius
+was not to be dissuaded. He thanked his brother for his advice, but
+ordered the preparations for the expedition to go on.
+
+He sent emissaries forward, in advance, over the route that his army
+was destined to take, transmitting orders to the several provinces
+which were situated on the line of his march to prepare the way for
+the passage of his troops. Among other preparations, they were to
+construct a bridge of boats across the Bosporus at Chalcedon. This
+work was intrusted to the charge and superintendence of an engineer of
+Samos named Mandrocles. The people of the provinces were also to
+furnish bodies of troops, both infantry and cavalry, to join the army
+on its march.
+
+The soldiers that were enlisted to go on this remote and dangerous
+expedition joined the army, as is usual in such cases, some willingly,
+from love of adventure, or the hope of opportunities for plunder, and
+for that unbridled indulgence of appetite and passion which soldiers
+so often look forward to as a part of their reward; others from hard
+compulsion, being required to leave friends and home, and all that
+they held dear, under the terror of a stern and despotic edict which
+they dared not disobey. It was even dangerous to ask for exemption.
+
+As an instance of this, it is said that there was a Persian named
+Oebazus, who had three sons that had been drafted into the army.
+Oebazus, desirous of not being left wholly alone in his old age,
+made a request to the king that he would allow one of the sons to
+remain at home with his father. Darius appeared to receive this
+petition favorably. He told Oebazus that the request was so very
+modest and considerate that he would grant more than he asked. He
+would allow all three of his sons to remain with him. Oebazus
+retired from the king's presence overjoyed at the thought that his
+family was not to be separated at all. Darius ordered his guards to
+kill the three young men, and to send the dead bodies home, with a
+message to their father that his sons were restored to him, released
+forever from all obligation to serve the king.
+
+The place of general rendezvous for the various forces which were to
+join in the expedition, consisting of the army which marched with
+Darius from Susa, and also of the troops and ships which the maritime
+provinces of Asia Minor were to supply on the way, was on the shores
+of the Bosporus, at the point where Mandrocles had constructed the
+bridge.[G] The people of Ionia, a region situated in Asia Minor, on
+the shores of the AEgean Sea, had been ordered to furnish a fleet of
+galleys, which they were to build and equip, and then send to the
+bridge. The destination of this fleet was to the Danube. It was to
+pass up the Bosporus into the Euxine Sea, now called the Black Sea,
+and thence into the mouth of the river. After ascending the Danube to
+a certain point, the men were to land and build a bridge across that
+river, using, very probably, their galleys for this purpose. In the
+mean time, the army was to cross the Bosporus by the bridge which had
+been erected there by Mandrocles, and pursue their way toward the
+Danube by land, through the kingdom of Thrace. By this arrangement, it
+was supposed that the bridge across the Danube would be ready by the
+time that the main body of the army arrived on the banks of the river.
+The idea of thus building in Asia Minor a bridge for the Danube, in
+the form of a vast fleet of galleys, to be sent round through the
+Black Sea to the mouths of the river, and thence up the river to its
+place of destination, was original and grand. It strikingly marks the
+military genius and skill which gave the Greeks so extended a fame,
+for it was by the Greeks that the exploit was to be performed.
+
+[Footnote G: For the track of Darius on this expedition, see the map
+at the commencement of this volume.]
+
+Darius marched magnificently through Asia Minor, on his way to the
+Bosporus, at the head of an army of seventy thousand men. He moved
+slowly, and the engineers and architects that accompanied him built
+columns and monuments here and there, as he advanced, to commemorate
+his progress. These structures were covered with inscriptions, which
+ascribed to Darius, as the leader of the enterprise, the most
+extravagant praise. At length the splendid array arrived at the place
+of rendezvous on the Bosporus, where there was soon presented to view
+a very grand and imposing scene.
+
+The bridge of boats was completed, and the Ionian fleet, consisting of
+six hundred galleys, was at anchor near it in the stream. Long lines
+of tents were pitched upon the shore, and thousands of horsemen and of
+foot soldiers were drawn up in array, their banners flying, and their
+armor glittering in the sun, and all eager to see and to welcome the
+illustrious sovereign who had come, with so much pomp and splendor, to
+take them under his command. The banks of the Bosporus were
+picturesque and high, and all the eminences were crowded with
+spectators, to witness the imposing magnificence of the spectacle.
+
+Darius encamped his army on the shore, and began to make the
+preparations necessary for the final departure of the expedition. He
+had been thus far within his own dominions. He was now, however, to
+pass into another quarter of the globe, to plunge into new and unknown
+dangers, among hostile, savage, and ferocious tribes. It was right
+that he should pause until he had considered well his plans, and
+secured attention to every point which could influence success.
+
+He first examined the bridge of boats. He was very much pleased with
+the construction of it. He commended Mandrocles for his skill and
+fidelity in the highest terms, and loaded him with rewards and honors.
+Mandrocles used the money which Darius thus gave him in employing an
+artist to form a piece of statuary which should at once commemorate
+the building of the bridge and give to Darius the glory of it. The
+group represented the Bosporus with the bridge thrown over it, and the
+king on his throne reviewing his troops as they passed over the
+structure. This statuary was placed, when finished, in a temple in
+Greece, where it was universally admired. Darius was very much pleased
+both with the idea of this sculpture on the part of Mandrocles, and
+with the execution of it by the artist. He gave the bridge builder new
+rewards; he recompensed the artist, also, with similar munificence. He
+was pleased that they had contrived so happy a way of at the same time
+commemorating the bridging of the Bosporus and rendering exalted honor
+to him.
+
+The bridge was situated about the middle of the Bosporus; and as the
+strait itself is about eighteen miles long, it was nine miles from the
+bridge to the Euxine Sea. There is a small group of islands near the
+mouth of this strait, where it opens into the sea, which were called
+in those days the Cyanean Islands. They were famed in the time of
+Darius for having once been floating islands, and enchanted. Their
+supernatural properties had disappeared, but there was one attraction
+which still pertained to them. They were situated beyond the limits of
+the strait, and the visitor who landed upon them could take his
+station on some picturesque cliff or smiling hill, and extend his view
+far and wide over the blue waters of the Euxine Sea.
+
+Darius determined to make an excursion to these islands while the
+fleet and the army were completing their preparations at the bridge.
+He embarked, accordingly, on board a splendid galley, and, sailing
+along the Bosporus till he reached the sea, he landed on one of the
+islands. There was a temple there, consecrated to one of the Grecian
+deities. Darius, accompanied by his attendants and followers, ascended
+to this temple, and, taking a seat which had been provided for him
+there, he surveyed the broad expanse of water which extended like an
+ocean before him, and contemplated the grandeur of the scene with the
+greatest admiration and delight.
+
+At length he returned to the bridge, where he found the preparations
+for the movement of the fleet and of the army nearly completed. He
+determined, before leaving the Asiatic shores, to erect a monument to
+commemorate his expedition, on the spot from which he was to take his
+final departure. He accordingly directed two columns of white marble
+to be reared, and inscriptions to be cut upon them, giving such
+particulars in respect to the expedition as it was desirable thus to
+preserve. These inscriptions contained his own name in very
+conspicuous characters as the leader of the enterprise; also an
+enumeration of the various nations that had contributed to form his
+army, with the numbers which each had furnished. There was a record of
+corresponding particulars, too, in respect to the fleet. The
+inscriptions were the same upon the two columns, except that upon the
+one it was written in the Assyrian tongue, which was the general
+language of the Persian empire, and upon the other in the Greek. Thus
+the two monuments were intended, the one for the Asiatic, and the
+other for the European world.
+
+At length the day of departure arrived. The fleet set sail, and the
+immense train of the army put itself in motion to cross the
+bridge.[H] The fleet went on through the Bosporus to the Euxine, and
+thence along the western coast of that sea till it reached the mouths
+of the Danube. The ships entered the river by one of the branches
+which form the delta of the stream, and ascended for two days. This
+carried them above the ramifications into which the river divides
+itself at its mouth, to a spot where the current was confined to a
+single channel, and where the banks were firm. Here they landed, and
+while one part of the force which they had brought were occupied in
+organizing guards and providing defenses to protect the ground, the
+remainder commenced the work of arranging the vessels of the fleet,
+side by side, across the stream, to form the bridge.
+
+[Footnote H: See Frontispiece.]
+
+In the mean time, Darius, leading the great body of the army, advanced
+from the Bosporus by land. The country which the troops thus traversed
+was Thrace. They met with various adventures as they proceeded, and
+saw, as the accounts of the expedition state, many strange and
+marvelous phenomena. They came, for example, to the sources of a very
+wonderful river, which flows west and south toward the AEgean Sea. The
+name of the river was the Tearus. It came from thirty-eight springs,
+all issuing from the same rock, some hot and some cold. The waters of
+the stream which was produced by the mingling of these fountains were
+pure, limpid, and delicious, and were possessed of remarkable
+medicinal properties, being efficacious for the cure of various
+diseases. Darius was so much pleased with this river, that his army
+halted to refresh themselves with its waters, and he caused one of his
+monuments to be erected on the spot, the inscription of which
+contained not only the usual memorials of the march, but also a
+tribute to the salubrity of the waters of this magical stream.
+
+At one point in the course of the march through Thrace, Darius
+conceived the idea of varying the construction of his line of
+monuments by building a cairn. A cairn is a heap of stones, such as is
+reared in the mountains of Scotland and of Switzerland by the
+voluntary additions of every passer by, to commemorate a spot marked
+as the scene of some accident or disaster. As each guide finishes the
+story of the incident in the hearing of the party which he conducts,
+each tourist who has listened to it adds his stone to the heap, until
+the rude structure attains sometimes to a very considerable size.
+Darius, fixing upon a suitable spot near one of his encampments,
+commanded every soldier in the army to bring a stone and place it on
+the pile. A vast mound rose rapidly from these contributions, which,
+when completed, not only commemorated the march of the army, but
+denoted, also, by the immense number of the stones entering into the
+composition of the pile, the countless multitude of soldiers that
+formed the expedition.
+
+There was a story told to Darius, as he was traversing these regions,
+of a certain king, reigning over some one of the nations that occupied
+them, who wished to make an enumeration of the inhabitants of his
+realm. The mode which he adopted was to require every man in his
+dominions to send him an arrow head. When all the arrow heads were in,
+the vast collection was counted by the official arithmeticians, and
+the total of the population was thus attained. The arrow heads were
+then laid together in a sort of monumental pile. It was, perhaps, this
+primitive mode of census-taking which suggested to Darius the idea of
+his cairn.
+
+There was a tribe of barbarians through whose dominions Darius passed
+on his way from the Bosporus to the Danube, that observed a custom in
+their religious worship, which, though in itself of a shocking
+character, suggests reflections of salutary influence for our own
+minds. There is a universal instinct in the human heart, leading it
+strongly to feel the need of help from an unseen and supernatural
+world in its sorrows and trials; and it is almost always the case that
+rude and savage nations, in their attempts to obtain this spiritual
+aid, connect the idea of personal privation and suffering on their
+part, self inflicted if necessary, as a means of seeking it. It seems
+as if the instinctive conviction of personal guilt, which associates
+itself so naturally and so strongly in the minds of men with all
+conceptions of the unseen world and of divine power, demands something
+like an expiation as an essential prerequisite to obtaining audience
+and acceptance with the King of Heaven. The tribe of savages above
+referred to manifested this feeling by a dreadful observance. Once in
+every five years they were accustomed to choose by lot, with solemn
+ceremonies, one of their number, to be sent as a legate or embassador
+to their god. The victim, when chosen, was laid down upon the ground
+in the midst of the vast assembly convened to witness the rite, while
+officers designated for the purpose stood by, armed with javelins.
+Other men, selected for their great personal strength, then took the
+man from the ground by the hands and feet, and swinging him to and fro
+three times to gain momentum, they threw him with all their force into
+the air, and the armed men, when he came down, caught him on the
+points of their javelins. If he was killed by this dreadful
+impalement, all was right. He would bear the message of the wants and
+necessities of the tribe to their god, and they might reasonably
+expect a favorable reception. If, on the other hand, he did not die,
+he was thought to be rejected by the god as a wicked man and an
+unsuitable messenger. The unfortunate convalescent was, in such cases,
+dismissed in disgrace, and another messenger chosen.
+
+The army of Darius reached the banks of the Danube at last, and they
+found that the fleet of the Ionians had attained the point agreed upon
+before them, and were awaiting their arrival. The vessels were soon
+arranged in the form of a bridge across the stream, and as there was
+no enemy at hand to embarrass them, the army soon accomplished the
+passage. They were now fairly in the Scythian country, and
+immediately began their preparations to advance and meet the foe.
+Darius gave orders to have the bridge broken up, and the galleys
+abandoned and destroyed, as he chose rather to take with him the whole
+of his force, than to leave a guard behind sufficient to protect this
+shipping. These orders were about to be executed, when a Grecian
+general, who was attached to one of the bodies of troops which were
+furnished from the provinces of Asia Minor, asked leave to speak to
+the king. The king granted him an audience, when he expressed his
+opinion as follows:
+
+"It seems to me to be more prudent, sire, to leave the bridge as it
+is, under the care of those who have constructed it, as it may be that
+we shall have occasion to use it on our return. I do not recommend the
+preservation of it as a means of securing a retreat, for, in case we
+meet the Scythians at all, I am confident of victory; but our enemy
+consists of wandering hordes who have no fixed habitation, and their
+country is entirely without cities or posts of any kind which they
+will feel any strong interest in defending, and thus it is possible
+that we may not be able to find any enemy to combat. Besides, if we
+succeed in our enterprise as completely as we can desire, it will be
+important, on many accounts, to preserve an open and free
+communication with the countries behind us."
+
+The king approved of this counsel, and countermanded his orders for
+the destruction of the bridge. He directed that the Ionian forces that
+had accompanied the fleet should remain at the river to guard the
+bridge. They were to remain thus on guard for two months, and then, if
+Darius did not return, and if they heard no tidings of him, they were
+at liberty to leave their post, and to go back, with their galleys, to
+their own land again.
+
+Two months would seem to be a very short time to await the return of
+an army going on such an expedition into boundless and trackless
+wilds. There can, however, scarcely be any accidental error in the
+statement of the time, as the mode which Darius adopted to enable the
+guard thus left at the bridge to keep their reckoning was a very
+singular one, and it is very particularly described. He took a cord,
+it is said, and tied sixty knots in it. This cord he delivered to the
+Ionian chiefs who were to be left in charge of the bridge, directing
+them to untie one of the knots every day. When the cord should
+become, by this process, wholly free, the detachment were also at
+liberty. They might thereafter, at any time, abandon the post
+intrusted to them, and return to their homes.
+
+We can not suppose that military men, capable of organizing a force of
+seventy thousand troops for so distant an expedition, and possessed of
+sufficient science and skill to bridge the Bosporus and the Danube,
+could have been under any necessity of adopting so childish a method
+as this as a real reliance in regulating their operations. It must be
+recollected, however, that, though the commanders in these ancient
+days were intelligent and strong-minded men, the common soldiers were
+but children both in intellect and in ideas; and it was the custom of
+all great commanders to employ outward and visible symbols to
+influence and govern them. The sense of loneliness and desertion which
+such soldiers would naturally feel in being left in solitude on the
+banks of the river, would be much diminished by seeing before them a
+marked and definite termination to the period of their stay, and to
+have, in the cord hanging up in their camp, a visible token that the
+remnant of time that remained was steadily diminishing day by day;
+while, in the mean time, Darius was fully determined that, long before
+the knots should be all untied, he would return to the river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE RETREAT FROM SCYTHIA.
+
+B.C. 513
+
+Motive for Darius's invasion.--The foundation of government.--Darius
+without justification in invading Scythia.--Alarm of the
+Scythians.--Condition of the tribes.--Men metamorphosed into
+wolves.--Story of the Amazons.--Adventures of the Amazons.--Two of
+them captured.--The corps of cavaliers.--Their maneuvers.--Success
+of the cavaliers.--Matrimonial alliances.--The Amazons rule their
+husbands.--They establish a separate tribe.--The Scythians send an
+embassy to the neighboring tribes.--Habits of the Scythians.--Their
+mode of warfare.--Message to Indathyrsus.--His reply.--The Scythian
+cavalry.--Their attacks on the Persians.--Braying of the Persian
+asses.--Scythians sent to the bridge.--Agreement with the
+Ionians.--The Scythians change their policy.--The Scythians' strange
+presents.--Various interpretations.--Opinions of the Persian
+officers.--The Scythians draw up their forces.--The armies prepare
+for battle.--Hunting the hare.--The Persians resolve to
+retreat.--Stratagem and secret flight.--Surrender of the
+camp.--Difficulties of the retreat.--The bridge partially
+destroyed.--Darius arrives at the Danube.--The bridge repaired.--The
+army returns to Asia.
+
+
+The motive which dictated Darius's invasion of Scythia seems to have
+been purely a selfish and domineering love of power. The attempts of a
+stronger and more highly civilized state to extend its dominion over a
+weaker and more lawless one, are not, however, necessarily and always
+of this character. Divine Providence, in making men gregarious in
+nature, has given them an instinct of organization, which is as
+intrinsic and as essential a characteristic of the human soul as
+maternal love or the principle of self-preservation. The right,
+therefore, of organizations of men to establish law and order among
+themselves, and to extend these principles to other communities around
+them, so far as such interpositions are really promotive of the
+interests and welfare of those affected by them, rests on precisely
+the same foundation as the right of the father to govern the child.
+This foundation is the existence and universality of an instinctive
+principle implanted by the Creator in the human heart; a principle
+which we are bound to submit to, both because it is a fundamental and
+constituent element in the very structure of man, and because its
+recognition and the acknowledgment of its authority are absolutely
+essential to his continued existence. Wherever law and order,
+therefore, among men do not exist, it may be properly established and
+enforced by any neighboring organization that has power to do it, just
+as wherever there is a group of children they may be justly controlled
+and governed by their father. It seems equally unnecessary to invent a
+fictitious and wholly imaginary _compact_ to justify the jurisdiction
+in the one case as in the other.
+
+If the Scythians, therefore, had been in a state of confusion and
+anarchy, Darius might justly have extended his own well-regulated and
+settled government over them, and, in so doing, would have promoted
+the general good of mankind. But he had no such design. It was a
+desire for personal aggrandizement, and a love of fame and power,
+which prompted him. He offered it as a pretext to justify his
+invasion, that the Scythians, in former years, had made incursions
+into the Persian dominions; but this was only a pretext. The
+expedition was a wanton attack upon neighbors whom he supposed unable
+to resist him, simply for the purpose of adding to his own already
+gigantic power.
+
+When Darius commenced his march from the river, the Scythians had
+heard rumors of his approach. They sent, as soon as they were aware of
+the impending danger, to all the nations and tribes around them, in
+order to secure their alliance and aid. These people were all
+wandering and half-savage tribes, like the Scythians themselves,
+though each seems to have possessed its own special and distinctive
+mark of barbarity. One tribe were accustomed to carry home the heads
+of the enemies which they had slain in battle, and each one, impaling
+his own dreadful trophy upon a stake, would set it up upon his
+house-top, over the chimney, where they imagined that it would have
+the effect of a charm, and serve as a protection for the family.
+Another tribe lived in habits of promiscuous intercourse, like the
+lower orders of animals; and so, as the historian absurdly states,
+being, in consequence of this mode of life, all connected together by
+the ties of consanguinity, they lived in perpetual peace and good
+will, without any envy, or jealousy, or other evil passion. A third
+occupied a region so infested with serpents that they were once driven
+wholly out of the country by them. It was said of these people that,
+once in every year, they were all metamorphosed into wolves, and,
+after remaining for a few days in this form, they were transformed
+again into men. A fourth tribe painted their bodies blue and red, and
+a fifth were cannibals.
+
+The most remarkable, however, of all the tales related about these
+northern savages was the story of the Sauromateans and their Amazonian
+wives. The Amazons were a nation of masculine and ferocious women, who
+often figure in ancient histories and legends. They rode on horseback
+astride like men, and their courage and strength in battle were such
+that scarcely any troops could subdue them. It happened, however, upon
+one time, that some Greeks conquered a body of them somewhere upon the
+shores of the Euxine Sea, and took a large number of them prisoners.
+They placed these prisoners on board of three ships, and put to sea.
+The Amazons rose upon their captors and threw them overboard, and thus
+obtained possession of the ships. They immediately proceeded toward
+the shore, and landed, not knowing where they were. It happened to be
+on the northwestern coast of the sea that they landed. Here they
+roamed up and down the country, until presently they fell in with a
+troop of horses. These they seized and mounted, arming themselves, at
+the same time, either with the weapons which they had procured on
+board the ships, or fabricated, themselves, on the shore. Thus
+organized and equipped, they began to make excursions for plunder, and
+soon became a most formidable band of marauders. The Scythians of the
+country supposed that they were men, but they could learn nothing
+certain respecting them. Their language, their appearance, their
+manners, and their dress were totally new, and the inhabitants were
+utterly unable to conceive who they were, and from what place they
+could so suddenly and mysteriously have come.
+
+At last, in one of the encounters which took place, the Scythians took
+two of these strange invaders prisoners. To their utter amazement,
+they found that they were women. On making this discovery, they
+changed their mode of dealing with them, and resolved upon a plan
+based on the supposed universality of the instincts of their sex.
+They enlisted a corps of the most handsome and vigorous young men that
+could be obtained, and after giving them instructions, the nature of
+which will be learned by the result, they sent them forth to meet the
+Amazons.
+
+The corps of Scythian cavaliers went out to seek their female
+antagonists with designs any thing but belligerent. They advanced to
+the encampment of the Amazons, and hovered about for some time in
+their vicinity, without, however, making any warlike demonstrations.
+They had been instructed to show themselves as much as possible to the
+enemy, but by no means to fight them. They would, accordingly, draw as
+near to the Amazons as was safe, and linger there, gazing upon them,
+as if under the influence of some sort of fascination. If the Amazons
+advanced toward them, they would fall back, and if the advance
+continued, they would retreat fast enough to keep effectually out of
+the way. Then, when the Amazons turned, they would turn too, follow
+them back, and linger near them, around their encampment, as before.
+
+The Amazonians were for a time puzzled with this strange demeanor, and
+they gradually learned to look upon the handsome horsemen at first
+without fear, and finally even without hostility. At length, one day,
+one of the young horsemen, observing an Amazon who had strayed away
+from the rest, followed and joined her. She did not repel him. They
+were not able to converse together, as neither knew the language of
+the other. They established a friendly intercourse, however, by looks
+and signs, and after a time they separated, each agreeing to bring one
+of their companions to the place of rendezvous on the following day.
+
+A friendly intercommunication being thus commenced, the example spread
+very rapidly; matrimonial alliances began to be formed, and, in a
+word, a short time only elapsed before the two camps were united and
+intermingled, the Scythians and the Amazons being all paired together
+in the most intimate relations of domestic life. Thus, true to the
+instincts of their sex, the rude and terrible maidens decided, when
+the alternative was fairly presented to them, in favor of husbands and
+homes, rather than continuing the life they had led, of independence,
+conflict, and plunder. It is curious to observe that the means by
+which they were won, namely, a persevering display of admiration and
+attentions, steadily continued, but not too eagerly and impatiently
+pressed, and varied with an adroit and artful alternation of advances
+and retreats, were precisely the same as those by which, in every age,
+the attempt is usually made to win the heart of woman from hatred and
+hostility to love.
+
+We speak of the Amazonians as having been won; but they were, in fact,
+themselves the conquerors of their captors, after all; for it
+appeared, in the end, that in the future plans and arrangements of the
+united body, they ruled their Scythian husbands, and not the Scythians
+them. The husbands wished to return home with their wives, whom, they
+said, they would protect and maintain in the midst of their countrymen
+in honor and in peace. The Amazons, however, were in favor of another
+plan. Their habits and manners were such, they said, that they should
+not be respected and beloved among any other people. They wished that
+their husbands, therefore, would go home and settle their affairs, and
+afterward return and join their wives again, and then that all
+together should move to the eastward, until they should find a
+suitable place to settle in by themselves. This plan was acceded to by
+the husbands, and was carried into execution; and the result was the
+planting of a new nation, called the Sauromateans, who thenceforth
+took their place among the other barbarous tribes that dwelt upon the
+northern shores of the Euxine Sea.
+
+Such was the character of the tribes and nations that dwelt in the
+neighborhood of the Scythian country. As soon as Darius had passed the
+river, the Scythians sent embassadors to all their people, proposing
+to them to form a general alliance against the invader. "We ought to
+make common cause against him," said they; "for if he subdues one
+nation, it will only open the way for an attack upon the rest. Some of
+us are, it is true, more remote than others from the immediate danger,
+but it threatens us all equally in the end."
+
+The embassadors delivered their message, and some of the tribes
+acceded to the Scythian proposals. Others, however, refused. The
+quarrel, they said, was a quarrel between Darius and the Scythians
+alone, and they were not inclined to bring upon themselves the
+hostility of so powerful a sovereign by interfering. The Scythians
+were very indignant at this refusal; but there was no remedy, and they
+accordingly began to prepare to defend themselves as well as they
+could, with the help of those nations that had expressed a willingness
+to join them.
+
+The habits of the Scythians were nomadic and wandering, and their
+country was one vast region of verdant and beautiful, and yet, in a
+great measure, of uncultivated and trackless wilds. They had few towns
+and villages, and those few were of little value. They adopted,
+therefore, the mode of warfare which, in such a country and for such a
+people, is always the wisest to be pursued. They retreated slowly
+before Darius's advancing army, carrying off or destroying all such
+property as might aid the king in respect to his supplies. They
+organized and equipped a body of swift horsemen, who were ordered to
+hover around Darius's camp, and bring intelligence to the Scythian
+generals of every movement. These horsemen, too, were to harass the
+flanks and the rear of the army, and to capture or destroy every man
+whom they should find straying away from the camp. By this means they
+kept the invading army continually on the alert, allowing them no
+peace and no repose, while yet they thwarted and counteracted all the
+plans and efforts which the enemy made to bring on a general battle.
+
+As the Persians advanced in pursuit of the enemy, the Scythians
+retreated, and in this retreat they directed their course toward the
+countries occupied by those nations that had refused to join in the
+alliance. By this artful management they transferred the calamity and
+the burden of the war to the territories of their neighbors. Darius
+soon found that he was making no progress toward gaining his end. At
+length he concluded to try the effect of a direct and open challenge.
+
+He accordingly sent embassadors to the Scythian chief, whose name was
+Indathyrsus, with a message somewhat as follows:
+
+"Foolish man! how long will you continue to act in this absurd and
+preposterous manner? It is incumbent on you to make a decision in
+favor of one thing or the other. If you think that you are able to
+contend with me, stop, and let us engage. If not, then acknowledge me
+as your superior, and submit to my authority."
+
+The Scythian chief sent back the following reply:
+
+"We have no inducement to contend with you in open battle on the
+field, because you are not doing us any injury, nor is it at present
+in your power to do us any. We have no cities and no cultivated fields
+that you can seize or plunder. Your roaming about our country,
+therefore, does us no harm, and you are at liberty to continue it as
+long as it gives you any pleasure. There is nothing on our soil that
+you can injure, except one spot, and that is the place where the
+sepulchres of our fathers lie. If you were to attack that spot--which
+you may perhaps do, if you can find it--you may rely upon a battle. In
+the mean time, you may go elsewhere, wherever you please. As to
+acknowledging your superiority, we shall do nothing of the kind. We
+defy you."
+
+Notwithstanding the refusal of the Scythians to give the Persians
+battle, they yet made, from time to time, partial and unexpected
+onsets upon their camp, seizing occasions when they hoped to find
+their enemies off their guard. The Scythians had troops of cavalry
+which were very efficient and successful in these attacks. These
+horsemen were, however, sometimes thrown into confusion and driven
+back by a very singular means of defense. It seems that the Persians
+had brought with them from Europe, in their train, a great number of
+asses, as beasts of burden, to transport the tents and the baggage of
+the army. These asses were accustomed, in times of excitement and
+danger, to set up a very terrific braying. It was, in fact, all that
+they could do. Braying at a danger seems to be a very ridiculous mode
+of attempting to avert it, but it was a tolerably effectual mode,
+nevertheless, in this case at least; for the Scythian horses, who
+would have faced spears and javelins, and the loudest shouts and
+vociferations of human adversaries without any fear, were appalled and
+put to flight at hearing the unearthly noises which issued from the
+Persian camp whenever they approached it. Thus the mighty monarch of
+the whole Asiatic world seemed to depend for protection against the
+onsets of these rude and savage troops on the braying of his asses!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While these things were going on in the interior of the country, the
+Scythians sent down a detachment of their forces to the banks of the
+Danube, to see if they could not, in some way or other, obtain
+possession of the bridge. They learned here what the orders were which
+Darius had given to the Ionians who had been left in charge, in
+respect to the time of their remaining at their post. The Scythians
+told them that if they would govern themselves strictly by those
+orders, and so break up the bridge and go down the river with their
+boats as soon as the two months should have expired, they should not
+be molested in the mean time. The Ionians agreed to this. The time was
+then already nearly gone, and they promised that, so soon as it should
+be fully expired, they would withdraw.
+
+The Scythian detachment sent back word to the main army acquainting
+them with these facts, and the army accordingly resolved on a change
+in their policy. Instead of harassing and distressing the Persians as
+they had done, to hasten their departure, they now determined to
+improve the situation of their enemies, and encourage them in their
+hopes, so as to protract their stay. They accordingly allowed the
+Persians to gain the advantage over them in small skirmishes, and they
+managed, also, to have droves of cattle fall into their hands, from
+time to time, so as to supply them with food. The Persians were quite
+elated with these indications that the tide of fortune was about to
+turn in their favor.
+
+While things were in this state, there appeared one day at the Persian
+camp a messenger from the Scythians, who said that he had some
+presents from the Scythian chief for Darius. The messenger was
+admitted, and allowed to deliver his gifts. The gifts proved to be a
+bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. The Persians asked the bearer
+of these strange offerings what the Scythians meant by them. He
+replied that he had no explanations to give. His orders were, he said,
+to deliver the presents and then return; and that they must,
+accordingly, find out the meaning intended by the exercise of their
+own ingenuity.
+
+When the messenger had retired, Darius and the Persians consulted
+together, to determine what so strange a communication could mean.
+They could not, however, come to any satisfactory decision. Darius
+said that he thought the three animals might probably be intended to
+denote the three kingdoms of nature to which the said animals
+respectively belonged, viz., the earth, the air, and the water; and as
+the giving up of weapons was a token of submission, the whole might
+mean that the Scythians were now ready to give up the contest, and
+acknowledge the right of the Persians to supreme and universal
+dominion.
+
+The officers, however, did not generally concur in this opinion. They
+saw no indications, they said, of any disposition on the part of the
+Scythians to surrender. They thought it quite as probable that the
+communication was meant to announce to those who received it threats
+and defiance, as to express conciliation and submission. "It may
+mean," said one of them, "that, unless you can fly like a bird into
+the air, or hide like a mouse in the ground, or bury yourselves, like
+the frog, in morasses and fens, you can not escape our arrows."
+
+There was no means of deciding positively between these contradictory
+interpretations, but it soon became evident that the former of the two
+was very far from being correct; for, soon after the present was
+received, the Scythians were seen to be drawing up their forces in
+array, as if preparing for battle. The two months had expired, and
+they had reason to suppose that the party at the bridge had withdrawn,
+as they had promised to do. Darius had been so far weakened by his
+harassing marches, and the manifold privations and sufferings of his
+men, that he felt some solicitude in respect to the result of a
+battle, now that it seemed to be drawing near, although such a trial
+of strength had been the object which he had been, from the beginning,
+most eager to secure.
+
+The two armies were encamped at a moderate distance from each other,
+with a plain, partly wooded, between them. While in this position, and
+before any hostile action was commenced by either party, it was
+observed from the camp of Darius that suddenly a great tumult arose
+from the Scythian lines. Men were seen rushing in dense crowds this
+way and that over the plain, with shouts and outcries, which, however,
+had in them no expression of anger or fear, but rather one of gayety
+and pleasure. Darius demanded what the strange tumult meant. Some
+messengers were sent out to ascertain the cause, and on their return
+they reported that the Scythians were hunting a hare, which had
+suddenly made its appearance. The hare had issued from a thicket, and
+a considerable portion of the army, officers and soldiers, had
+abandoned their ranks to enjoy the sport of pursuing it, and were
+running impetuously, here and there, across the plain, filling the air
+with shouts of hilarity.
+
+"They do indeed despise us," said Darius, "since, on the eve of a
+battle, they can lose all thoughts of us and of their danger, and
+abandon their posts to hunt a hare!"
+
+That evening a council of war was held. It was concluded that the
+Scythians must be very confident and strong in their position, and
+that, if a general battle were to be hazarded, it would be very
+doubtful what would be the result. The Persians concluded unanimously,
+therefore, that the wisest plan would be for them to give up the
+intended conquest, and retire from the country. Darius accordingly
+proceeded to make his preparations for a secret retreat.
+
+He separated all the infirm and feeble portion of the army from the
+rest, and informed them that he was going that night on a short
+expedition with the main body of the troops, and that, while he was
+gone, they were to remain and defend the camp. He ordered the men to
+build the camp fires, and to make them larger and more numerous than
+common, and then had the asses tied together in an unusual situation,
+so that they should keep up a continual braying. These sounds, heard
+all the night, and the light of the camp fires, were to lead the
+Scythians to believe that the whole body of the Persians remained, as
+usual, at the encampment, and thus to prevent all suspicion of their
+flight.
+
+Toward midnight, Darius marched forth in silence and secrecy, with all
+the vigorous and able-bodied forces under his command, leaving the
+weary, the sick, and the infirm to the mercy of their enemies. The
+long column succeeded in making good their retreat, without exciting
+the suspicions of the Scythians. They took the route which they
+supposed would conduct them most directly to the river.
+
+When the troops which remained in the camp found, on the following
+morning, that they had been deceived and abandoned, they made signals
+to the Scythians to come to them, and, when they came, the invalids
+surrendered themselves and the camp to their possession. The Scythians
+then, immediately, leaving a proper guard to defend the camp, set out
+to follow the Persian army. Instead, however, of keeping directly upon
+their track, they took a shorter course, which would lead them more
+speedily to the river. The Persians, being unacquainted with the
+country, got involved in fens and morasses, and other difficulties of
+the way, and their progress was thus so much impeded that the
+Scythians reached the river before them.
+
+They found the Ionians still there, although the two months had fully
+expired. It is possible that the chiefs had received secret orders
+from Darius not to hasten their departure, even after the knots had
+all been untied; or perhaps they chose, of their own accord, to await
+their sovereign's return. The Scythians immediately urged them to be
+gone. "The time has expired," they said, "and you are no longer under
+any obligation to wait. Return to your own country, and assert your
+own independence and freedom, which you can safely do if you leave
+Darius and his armies here."
+
+The Ionians consulted together on the subject, doubtful, at first,
+what to do. They concluded that they would not comply with the
+Scythian proposals, while yet they determined to pretend to comply
+with them, in order to avoid the danger of being attacked. They
+accordingly began to take the bridge to pieces, commencing on the
+Scythian side of the stream. The Scythians, seeing the work thus going
+on, left the ground, and marched back to meet the Persians. The
+armies, however, fortunately for Darius, missed each other, and the
+Persians arrived safely at the river, after the Scythians had left it.
+They arrived in the night, and the advanced guard, seeing no
+appearance of the bridge on the Scythian side, supposed that the
+Ionians had gone. They shouted long and loud on the shore, and at
+length an Egyptian, who was celebrated for the power of his voice,
+succeeded in making the Ionians hear. The boats were immediately
+brought back to their positions, the bridge was reconstructed, and
+Darius's army recrossed the stream.
+
+The Danube being thus safely crossed, the army made the best of its
+way back through Thrace, and across the Bosporus into Asia, and thus
+ended Darius's great expedition against the Scythians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE STORY OF HISTIAEUS.
+
+B.C. 504
+
+Histiaeus at the bridge on the Danube.--Darius's anxiety.--Darius's
+gratitude.--Scythia abandoned.--Darius sends for Histiaeus.--Petition
+of Histiaeus.--Histiaeus organizes a colony.--The Paeonians.--Baseness
+of the Paeonian chiefs.--Their stratagem.--The Paeonian
+maiden.--Multiplicity of her avocations.--Darius and the maiden.--He
+determines to make the Paeonians slaves.--Capture of the
+Paeonians.--Megabyzus discovers Histiaeus's city.--Histiaeus
+sent for.--Darius revokes his gift.--Histiaeus goes to
+Susa.--Artaphernes.--Island of Naxos.--Civil war there.--Action of
+Aristagoras.--Co-operation of Artaphernes.--Darius consulted.--His
+approval.--Preparations.--Sailing of the expedition.--Plan of the
+commander.--Difficulty in the fleet.--Cruel discipline.--Dissension
+between the commanders.--The expedition fails.--Chagrin of
+Aristagoras.--He resolves to revolt.--Position of Histiaeus.--His
+uneasiness.--Singular mode of communication.--Its success.--Revolt
+of Aristagoras.--Feigned indignation of Histiaeus.--The Ionian
+rebellion.--Its failure.--Death of Histiaeus.
+
+
+The nature of the government which was exercised in ancient times by a
+royal despot like Darius, and the character of the measures and
+management to which he was accustomed to resort to gain his political
+ends, are, in many points, very strikingly illustrated by the story of
+Histiaeus.
+
+Histiaeus was the Ionian chieftain who had been left in charge of the
+bridge of boats across the Danube when Darius made his incursion into
+Scythia. When, on the failure of the expedition, Darius returned to
+the river, knowing, as he did, that the two months had expired, he
+naturally felt a considerable degree of solicitude lest he should find
+the bridge broken up and the vessels gone, in which case his situation
+would be very desperate, hemmed in, as he would have been, between the
+Scythians and the river. His anxiety was changed into terror when his
+advanced guard arrived at the bank and found that no signs of the
+bridge were to be seen. It is easy to imagine what, under these
+circumstances, must have been the relief and joy of all the army, when
+they heard friendly answers to their shouts, coming, through the
+darkness of the night, over the waters of the river, assuring them
+that their faithful allies were still at their posts, and that they
+themselves would soon be in safety.
+
+Darius, though he was governed by no firm and steady principles of
+justice, was still a man of many generous impulses. He was grateful
+for favors, though somewhat capricious in his modes of requiting them.
+He declared to Histiaeus that he felt under infinite obligations to him
+for his persevering fidelity, and that, as soon as the army should
+have safely arrived in Asia, he would confer upon him such rewards as
+would evince the reality of his gratitude.
+
+On his return from Scythia, Darius brought back the whole of his army
+over the Danube, thus abandoning entirely the country of the
+Scythians; but he did not transport the whole body across the
+Bosporus. He left a considerable detachment of troops, under the
+command of one of his generals, named Megabyzus, in Thrace, on the
+European side, ordering Megabyzus to establish himself there, and to
+reduce all the countries in that neighborhood to his sway. Darius
+then proceeded to Sardis, which was the most powerful and wealthy of
+his capitals in that quarter of the world. At Sardis, he was, as it
+were, at home again, and he accordingly took an early opportunity to
+send for Histiaeus, as well as some others who had rendered him special
+services in his late campaign, in order that he might agree with them
+in respect to their reward. He asked Histiaeus what favor he wished to
+receive.
+
+Histiaeus replied that he was satisfied, on the whole, with the
+position which he already enjoyed, which was that of king or governor
+of Miletus, an Ionian city, south of Sardis, and on the shores of the
+AEgean Sea.[I] He should be pleased, however, he said, if the king
+would assign him a certain small territory in Thrace, or, rather, on
+the borders between Thrace and Macedonia, near the mouth of the River
+Strymon. He wished to build a city there. The king immediately granted
+this request, which was obviously very moderate and reasonable. He did
+not, perhaps, consider that this territory, being in Thrace, or in its
+immediate vicinity, came within the jurisdiction of Megabyzus, whom
+he had left in command there, and that the grant might lead to some
+conflict between the two generals. There was special danger of
+jealousy and disagreement between them, for Megabyzus was a Persian,
+and Histiaeus was a Greek.
+
+[Footnote I: For these places, see the map at the commencement of the
+next chapter.]
+
+Histiaeus organized a colony, and, leaving a temporary and provisional
+government at Miletus, he proceeded along the shores of the AEgean Sea
+to the spot assigned him, and began to build his city. As the locality
+was beyond the Thracian frontier, and at a considerable distance from
+the head-quarters of Megabyzus, it is very probable that the
+operations of Histiaeus would not have attracted the Persian general's
+attention for a considerable time, had it not been for a very
+extraordinary and peculiar train of circumstances, which led him to
+discover them. The circumstances were these:
+
+There was a nation or tribe called the Paeonians, who inhabited the
+valley of the Strymon, which river came down from the interior of the
+country, and fell into the sea near the place where Histiaeus was
+building his city. Among the Paeonian chieftains there were two who
+wished to obtain the government of the country, but they were not
+quite strong enough to effect their object. In order to weaken the
+force which was opposed to them, they conceived the base design of
+betraying their tribe to Darius, and inducing him to make them
+captives. If their plan should succeed, a considerable portion of the
+population would be taken away, and they could easily, they supposed,
+obtain ascendency over the rest. In order to call the attention of
+Darius to the subject, and induce him to act as they desired, they
+resorted to the following stratagem. Their object seems to have been
+to lead Darius to undertake a campaign against their countrymen, by
+showing him what excellent and valuable slaves they would make.
+
+These two chieftains were brothers, and they had a very beautiful
+sister; her form was graceful and elegant, and her countenance lovely.
+They brought this sister with them to Sardis when Darius was there.
+They dressed and decorated her in a very careful manner, but yet in a
+style appropriate to the condition of a servant; and then, one day,
+when the king was sitting in some public place in the city, as was
+customary with Oriental sovereigns, they sent her to pass along the
+street before him, equipped in such a manner as to show that she was
+engaged in servile occupations. She had a jar, such as was then used
+for carrying water, poised upon her head, and she was leading a horse
+by means of a bridle hung over her arm. Her hands, being thus not
+required either for the horse or for the vessel, were employed in
+spinning, as she walked along, by means of a distaff and spindle.
+
+The attention of Darius was strongly attracted to the spectacle. The
+beauty of the maiden, the novelty and strangeness of her costume, the
+multiplicity of her avocations, and the ease and grace with which she
+performed them, all conspired to awaken the monarch's curiosity. He
+directed one of his attendants to follow her and see where she should
+go. The attendant did so. The girl went to the river. She watered her
+horse, filled her jar and placed it on her head, and then, hanging the
+bridle on her arm again, she returned through the same streets, and
+passed the king's palace as before, spinning as she walked along.
+
+The interest and curiosity of the king was excited more than ever by
+the reappearance of the girl and by the report of his messenger. He
+directed that she should be stopped and brought into his presence. She
+came; and her brothers, who had been watching the whole scene from a
+convenient spot near at hand, joined her and came too. The king asked
+them who they were. They replied that they were Paeonians. He wished to
+know where they lived. "On the banks of the River Strymon," they
+replied, "near the confines of Thrace." He next asked whether all the
+women of their country were accustomed to labor, and were as
+ingenious, and dexterous, and beautiful as their sister. The brothers
+replied that they were.
+
+Darius immediately determined to make the whole people slaves. He
+accordingly dispatched a courier with the orders. The courier crossed
+the Hellespont, and proceeded to the encampment of Megabyzus in
+Thrace. He delivered his dispatches to the Persian general, commanding
+him to proceed immediately to Paeonia, and there to take the whole
+community prisoners, and bring them to Darius in Sardis. Megabyzus,
+until this time, had known nothing of the people whom he was thus
+commanded to seize. He, however, found some Thracian guides who
+undertook to conduct him to their territory; and then, taking with him
+a sufficient force, he set out on the expedition. The Paeonians heard
+of his approach. Some prepared to defend themselves; others fled to
+the mountains. The fugitives escaped, but those who attempted to
+resist were taken. Megabyzus collected the unfortunate captives,
+together with their wives and children, and brought them down to the
+coast to embark them for Sardis. In doing this, he had occasion to
+pass by the spot where Histiaeus was building his city, and it was
+then, for the first time, that Megabyzus became acquainted with the
+plan. Histiaeus was building a wall to defend his little territory on
+the side of the land. Ships and galleys were going and coming on the
+side of the sea. Every thing indicated that the work was rapidly and
+prosperously advancing.
+
+Megabyzus did not interfere with the work; but, as soon as he arrived
+at Sardis with his captives, and had delivered them to the king, he
+introduced the subject of Histiaeus's city, and represented to Darius
+that it would be dangerous to the Persian interests to allow such an
+enterprise to go on. "He will establish a strong post there," said
+Megabyzus, "by means of which he will exercise a great ascendency over
+all the neighboring seas. The place is admirably situated for a naval
+station, as the country in the vicinity abounds with all the materials
+for building and equipping ships. There are also mines of silver in
+the mountains near, from which he will obtain a great supply of
+treasure. By these means he will become so strong in a short period of
+time, that, after you have returned to Asia, he will revolt from your
+authority, carrying with him, perhaps, in his rebellion, all the
+Greeks of Asia Minor."
+
+The king said that he was sorry that he had made the grant, and that
+he would revoke it without delay.
+
+Megabyzus recommended that the king should not do this in an open or
+violent manner, but that he should contrive some way to arrest the
+progress of the undertaking without any appearance of suspicion or
+displeasure.
+
+Darius accordingly sent for Histiaeus to come to him at Sardis, saying
+that there was a service of great importance on which he wished to
+employ him. Histiaeus, of course, obeyed such a summons with eager
+alacrity. When he arrived, Darius expressed great pleasure at seeing
+him once more, and said that he had constant need of his presence and
+his counsels. He valued, above all price, the services of so faithful
+a friend, and so sagacious and trusty an adviser. He was now, he said,
+going to Susa, and he wished Histiaeus to accompany him as his privy
+counselor and confidential friend. It would be necessary, Darius
+added, that he should give up his government of Miletus, and also the
+city in Thrace which he had begun to build; but he should be exalted
+to higher honors and dignities at Susa in their stead. He should have
+apartments in the king's palace, and live in great luxury and
+splendor.
+
+Histiaeus was extremely disappointed and chagrined at this
+announcement. He was obliged, however, to conceal his vexation and
+submit to his fate. In a few days after this, he set out, with the
+rest of Darius's court, for the Persian capital, leaving a nephew,
+whose name was Aristagoras, as governor of Miletus in his stead.
+Darius, on the other hand, committed the general charge of the whole
+coast of Asia Minor to Artaphernes, one of his generals. Artaphernes
+was to make Sardis his capital. He had not only the general command of
+all the provinces extending along the shore, but also of all the
+ships, and galleys, and other naval armaments which belonged to Darius
+on the neighboring seas. Aristagoras, as governor of Miletus, was
+under his general jurisdiction. The two officers were, moreover,
+excellent friends. Aristagoras was, of course, a Greek, and
+Artaphernes a Persian.
+
+Among the Greek islands situated in the AEgean Sea, one of the most
+wealthy, important, and powerful at that time, was Naxos. It was
+situated in the southern part of the sea, and about midway between the
+shores of Asia Minor and Greece. It happened that, soon after Darius
+had returned from Asia Minor to Persia, a civil war broke out in that
+island, in which the common people were on one side and the nobles on
+the other. The nobles were overcome in the contest, and fled from the
+island. A party of them landed at Miletus, and called upon Aristagoras
+to aid them in regaining possession of the island.
+
+Aristagoras replied that he would very gladly do it if he had the
+power, but that the Persian forces on the whole coast, both naval and
+military, were under the command of Artaphernes at Sardis. He said,
+however, that he was on very friendly terms with Artaphernes, and that
+he would, if the Naxians desired it, apply to him for his aid. The
+Naxians seemed very grateful for the interest which Aristagoras took
+in their cause, and said that they would commit the whole affair to
+his charge.
+
+There was, however, much less occasion for gratitude than there
+seemed, for Aristagoras was very far from being honest and sincere in
+his offers of aid. He perceived, immediately on hearing the fugitives'
+story, that a very favorable opportunity was opening for him to add
+Naxos, and perhaps even the neighboring islands, to his own
+government. It is always a favorable opportunity to subjugate a people
+when their power of defense and of resistance is neutralized by
+dissensions with one another. It is a device as old as the history of
+mankind, and one resorted to now as often as ever, for ambitious
+neighbors to interpose in behalf of the weaker party, in a civil war
+waged in a country which they wish to make their own, and, beginning
+with a war against a part, to end by subjugating the whole. This was
+Aristagoras's plan. He proposed it to Artaphernes, representing to him
+that a very favorable occasion had occurred for bringing the Greek
+islands of the AEgean Sea under the Persian dominion. Naxos once
+possessed, all the other islands around it would follow, he said, and
+a hundred ships would make the conquest sure.
+
+Artaphernes entered very readily and very warmly into the plan. He
+said that he would furnish two hundred instead of one hundred
+galleys. He thought it was necessary, however, first to consult
+Darius, since the affair was one of such importance; and besides, it
+was not best to commence the undertaking until the spring. He would
+immediately send a messenger to Darius to ascertain his pleasure, and,
+in the mean time, as he did not doubt that Darius would fully approve
+of the plan, he would have all necessary preparations made, so that
+every thing should be in readiness as soon as the proper season for
+active operations should arrive.
+
+Artaphernes was right in anticipating his brother's approval of the
+design. The messenger returned from Susa with full authority from the
+king for the execution of the project. The ships were built and
+equipped, and every thing was made ready for the expedition. The
+intended destination of the armament was, however, kept a profound
+secret, as the invaders wished to surprise the people of Naxos when
+off their guard. Aristagoras was to accompany the expedition as its
+general leader, while an officer named Megabates, appointed by
+Artaphernes for this purpose, was to take command of the fleet as a
+sort of admiral. Thus there were two commanders--an arrangement which
+almost always, in such cases, leads to a quarrel. It is a maxim in war
+that _one_ bad general is better than two good ones.
+
+The expedition sailed from Miletus; and, in order to prevent the
+people of Naxos from being apprised of their danger, the report had
+been circulated that its destination was to be the Hellespont.
+Accordingly, when the fleet sailed, it turned its course to the
+northward, as if it were really going to the Hellespont. The plan of
+the commander was to stop after proceeding a short distance, and then
+to seize the first opportunity afforded by a wind from the north to
+come down suddenly upon Naxos, before the population should have time
+to prepare for defense. Accordingly, when they arrived opposite the
+island of Chios, the whole fleet came to anchor near the land. The
+ships were all ordered to be ready, at a moment's warning, for setting
+sail; and, thus situated, the commanders were waiting for the wind to
+change.
+
+Megabates, in going his rounds among the fleet while things were in
+this condition, found one vessel entirely abandoned. The captain and
+crew had all left it, and had gone ashore. They were not aware,
+probably, how urgent was the necessity that they should be every
+moment at their posts. The captain of this galley was a native of a
+small town called Cnydus, and, as it happened, was a particular friend
+of Aristagoras. His name was Syclax. Megabates, as the commander of
+the fleet, was very much incensed at finding one of his subordinate
+officers so derelict in duty. He sent his guards in pursuit of him;
+and when Syclax was brought to his ship, Megabates ordered his head to
+be thrust out through one of the small port-holes intended for the
+oars, in the side of the ship, and then bound him in that
+position--his head appearing thus to view, in the sight of all the
+fleet, while his body remained within the vessel. "I am going to keep
+him at his post," said Megabates, "and in such a way that every one
+can _see_ that he is there."
+
+Aristagoras was much distressed at seeing his friend suffering so
+severe and disgraceful a punishment. He went to Megabates and
+requested the release of the prisoner, giving, at the same time, what
+he considered satisfactory reasons for his having been absent from his
+vessel. Megabates, however, was not satisfied, and refused to set
+Syclax at liberty. Aristagoras then told Megabates that he mistook his
+position in supposing that he was master of the expedition, and could
+tyrannize over the men in that manner, as he pleased. "I will have you
+understand," said he, "that I am the commander in this campaign, and
+that Artaphernes, in making you the sailing-master of the fleet, had
+no intention that you should set up your authority over mine." So
+saying, he went away in a rage, and released Syclax from his durance
+with his own hands.
+
+It was now the turn of Megabates to be enraged. He determined to
+defeat the expedition. He sent immediately a secret messenger to warn
+the Naxians of their enemies' approach. The Naxians immediately made
+effectual preparations to defend themselves. The end of it was, that
+when the fleet arrived, the island was prepared to receive it, and
+nothing could be done. Aristagoras continued the siege four months;
+but inasmuch as, during all this time, Megabates did every thing in
+his power to circumvent and thwart every plan that Aristagoras formed,
+nothing was accomplished. Finally, the expedition was broken up, and
+Aristagoras returned home, disappointed and chagrined, all his hopes
+blasted, and his own private finances thrown into confusion by the
+great pecuniary losses which he himself had sustained. He had
+contributed very largely, from his own private funds, in fitting out
+the expedition, fully confident of success, and of ample reimbursement
+for his expenses as the consequence of it.
+
+He was angry with himself, and angry with Megabates, and angry with
+Artaphernes. He presumed, too, that Megabates would denounce him to
+Artaphernes, and, through him, to Darius, as the cause of the failure
+of the expedition. A sudden order might come at any moment, directing
+that he should be beheaded. He began to consider the expediency of
+revolting from the Persian power, and making common cause with the
+Greeks against Darius. The danger of such a step was scarcely less
+than that of remaining as he was. While he was pondering these
+momentous questions in his mind, he was led suddenly to a decision by
+a very singular circumstance, the proper explaining of which requires
+the story to return, for a time, to Histiaeus at Susa.
+
+Histiaeus was very ill at ease in the possession of his forced
+elevation and grandeur at Susa. He enjoyed great distinction there, it
+is true, and a life of ease and luxury, but he wished for independence
+and authority. He was, accordingly, very desirous to get back to his
+former sphere of activity and power in Asia Minor. After revolving in
+his mind the various plans which occurred to him for accomplishing
+this purpose, he at last decided on inducing Aristagoras to revolt in
+Ionia, and then attempting to persuade Darius to send him on to quell
+the revolt. When once in Asia Minor, he would join the rebellion, and
+bid Darius defiance.
+
+The first thing to be done was to contrive some safe and secret way to
+communicate with Aristagoras. This he effected in the following
+manner: There was a man in his court who was afflicted with some
+malady of the eyes. Histiaeus told him that if he would put himself
+under _his_ charge he could effect a cure. It would be necessary, he
+said, that the man should have his head shaved and scarified; that is,
+punctured with a sharp instrument, previously dipped in some medicinal
+compound. Then, after some further applications should have been made,
+it would be necessary for the patient to go to Ionia, in Asia Minor,
+where there was a physician who would complete the cure.
+
+The patient consented to this proposal. The head was shaved, and
+Histiaeus, while pretending to scarify it, pricked into the skin--as
+sailors tattoo anchors on their arms--by means of a needle and a
+species of ink which had probably no great medicinal virtue, the words
+of a letter to Aristagoras, in which he communicated to him fully,
+though very concisely, the particulars of his plan. He urged
+Aristagoras to revolt, and promised that, if he would do so, he would
+come on, himself, as soon as possible, and, under pretense of marching
+to suppress the rebellion, he would really join and aid it.
+
+As soon as he had finished pricking this treasonable communication
+into the patient's skin, he carefully enveloped the head in bandages,
+which, he said, must on no account be disturbed. He kept the man shut
+up, besides, in the palace, until the hair had grown, so as
+effectually to conceal the writing, and then sent him to Ionia to have
+the cure perfected. On his arrival at Ionia he was to find
+Aristagoras, who would do what further was necessary. Histiaeus
+contrived, in the mean time, to send word to Aristagoras by another
+messenger, that, as soon as such a patient should present himself,
+Aristagoras was to shave his head. He did so, and the communication
+appeared. We must suppose that the operations on the part of
+Aristagoras for the purpose of completing the cure consisted,
+probably, in pricking in more ink, so as to confuse and obliterate the
+writing.
+
+Aristagoras was on the eve of throwing off the Persian authority when
+he received this communication. It at once decided him to proceed. He
+organized his forces and commenced his revolt. As soon as the news of
+this rebellion reached Susa, Histiaeus feigned great indignation, and
+earnestly entreated Darius to commission him to go and suppress it. He
+was confident, he said, that he could do it in a very prompt and
+effectual manner. Darius was at first inclined to suspect that
+Histiaeus was in some way or other implicated in the movement; but
+these suspicions were removed by the protestations which Histiaeus
+made, and at length he gave him leave to proceed to Miletus,
+commanding him, however, to return to Susa again as soon as he should
+have suppressed the revolt.
+
+When Histiaeus arrived in Ionia he joined Aristagoras, and the two
+generals, leaguing with them various princes and states of Greece,
+organized a very extended and dangerous rebellion, which it gave the
+troops of Darius infinite trouble to subdue. We can not here give an
+account of the incidents and particulars of this war. For a time the
+rebels prospered, and their cause seemed likely to succeed; but at
+length the tide turned against them. Their towns were captured, their
+ships were taken and destroyed, their armies cut to pieces. Histiaeus
+retreated from place to place, a wretched fugitive, growing more and
+more distressed and destitute every day. At length, as he was flying
+from a battle field, he arrested the arm of a Persian, who was
+pursuing him with his weapon upraised, by crying out that he was
+Histiaeus the Milesian. The Persian, hearing this, spared his life, but
+took him prisoner, and delivered him to Artaphernes. Histiaeus begged
+very earnestly that Artaphernes would send him to Darius alive, in
+hopes that Darius would pardon him in consideration of his former
+services at the bridge of the Danube. This was, however, exactly what
+Artaphernes wished to prevent; so he crucified the wretched Histiaeus
+at Sardis, and then packed his head in salt and sent it to Darius.
+
+[Illustration: GRECIAN EMPIRE.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE INVASION OF GREECE AND THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.
+
+B.C. 512-490
+
+Great battles.--Progress of the Persian empire.--Condition of
+the Persian empire.--Plans of Darius.--Persian power in
+Thrace.--Attempted negotiation with Macedon.--The seven
+commissioners.--Their rudeness at the feast.--Stratagem of
+Amyntas's son.--The commissioners killed.--Artifice of the
+prince.--Darius's anger against the Athenians.--Civil dissensions
+in Greece.--The tyrants.--Periander.--His message to a neighboring
+potentate.--Periander's intolerable tyranny.--His wife
+Melissa.--The ghost of Melissa.--A great sacrifice.--The reason
+of Periander's rudeness to the assembly of females.--Labda the
+cripple.--Prediction in respect to her progeny.--Conspiracy
+to destroy Labda's child.--Its failure.--The child
+secreted.--Fulfillment of the oracle.--Hippias of Athens.--His
+barbarous cruelty.--Hippias among the Persians.--Wars between the
+Grecian states.--Quarrel between Athens and AEgina.--The two wooden
+statues.--Incursion of the AEginetans.--They carry off the
+statues.--Attempt to recover the statues.--They fall upon their
+knees.--The Athenian fugitive.--He is murdered by the women.--The
+Persian army.--Its commander, Datis.--Sailing of the
+fleet.--Various conquests.--Landing of the Persians.--State of
+Athens.--The Greek army.--Miltiades and his colleagues.--Position
+of the armies.--Miltiades's plan of attack.--Onset of the
+Greeks.--Rout of the Persians.--Results of the battle.--Numbers
+slain.--The field of Marathon.--The mound.--Song of the Greek.
+
+
+In the history of a great military conqueror, there seems to be often
+some one great battle which in importance and renown eclipses all the
+rest. In the case of Hannibal it was the battle of Cannae, in that of
+Alexander the battle of Arbela. Caesar's great conflict was at
+Pharsalia, Napoleon's at Waterloo. Marathon was, in some respects,
+Darius's Waterloo. The place is a beautiful plain, about twelve miles
+north of the great city of Athens. The battle was the great final
+contest between Darius and the Greeks, which, both on account of the
+awful magnitude of the conflict, and the very extraordinary
+circumstances which attended it, has always been greatly celebrated
+among mankind.
+
+The whole progress of the Persian empire, from the time of the first
+accession of Cyrus to the throne, was toward the westward, till it
+reached the confines of Asia on the shores of the AEgean Sea. All the
+shores and islands of this sea were occupied by the states and the
+cities of Greece. The population of the whole region, both on the
+European and Asiatic shores, spoke the same language, and possessed
+the same vigorous, intellectual, and elevated character. Those on the
+Asiatic side had been conquered by Cyrus, and their countries had been
+annexed to the Persian empire. Darius had wished very strongly, at the
+commencement of his reign, to go on in this work of annexation, and
+had sent his party of commissioners to explore the ground, as is
+related in a preceding chapter. He had, however, postponed the
+execution of his plans, in order first to conquer the Scythian
+countries north of Greece, thinking, probably, that this would make
+the subsequent conquest of Greece itself more easy. By getting a firm
+foothold in Scythia, he would, as it were, turn the flank of the
+Grecian territories, which would tend to make his final descent upon
+them more effectual and sure.
+
+This plan, however, failed; and yet, on his retreat from Scythia,
+Darius did not withdraw his armies wholly from the European side of
+the water. He kept a large force in Thrace, and his generals there
+were gradually extending and strengthening their power, and preparing
+for still greater conquests. They attempted to extend their dominion,
+sometimes by negotiations, and sometimes by force, and they were
+successful and unsuccessful by turns, whichever mode they employed.
+
+One very extraordinary story is told of an attempted negotiation with
+Macedon, made with a view of bringing that kingdom, if possible, under
+the Persian dominion, without the necessity of a resort to force. The
+commanding general of Darius's armies in Thrace, whose name, as was
+stated in the last chapter, was Megabyzus, sent seven Persian officers
+into Macedon, not exactly to summon the Macedonians, in a peremptory
+manner, to surrender to the Persians, nor, on the other hand, to
+propose a voluntary alliance, but for something between the two. The
+communication was to be in the form of a proposal, and yet it was to
+be made in the domineering and overbearing manner with which the
+tyrannical and the strong often make proposals to the weak and
+defenseless.
+
+The seven Persians went to Macedon, which, as will be seen from the
+map, was west of Thrace, and to the northward of the other Grecian
+countries. Amyntas, the king of Macedon, gave them a very honorable
+reception. At length, one day, at a feast to which they were invited
+in the palace of Amyntas, they became somewhat excited with wine, and
+asked to have the ladies of the court brought into the apartment. They
+wished "to see them," they said. Amyntas replied that such a procedure
+was entirely contrary to the usages and customs of their court; but
+still, as he stood somewhat in awe of his visitors, or, rather, of the
+terrible power which the delegation represented, and wished by every
+possible means to avoid provoking a quarrel with them, he consented to
+comply with their request. The ladies were sent for. They came in,
+reluctant and blushing, their minds excited by mingled feelings of
+indignation and shame.
+
+The Persians, becoming more and more excited and imperious under the
+increasing influence of the wine, soon began to praise the beauty of
+these new guests in a coarse and free manner, which overwhelmed the
+ladies with confusion, and then to accost them familiarly and rudely,
+and to behave toward them, in other respects, with so much impropriety
+as to produce great alarm and indignation among all the king's
+household. The king himself was much distressed, but he was afraid to
+act decidedly. His son, a young man of great energy and spirit,
+approached his father with a countenance and manner expressive of high
+excitement, and begged him to retire from the feast, and leave him,
+the son, to manage the affair. Amyntas reluctantly allowed himself to
+be persuaded to go, giving his son many charges, as he went away, to
+do nothing rashly or violently. As soon as the king was gone, the
+prince made an excuse for having the ladies retire for a short time,
+saying that they should soon return. The prince conducted them to
+their apartment, and then selecting an equal number of tall and
+smooth-faced boys, he disguised them to represent the ladies, and gave
+each one a dagger, directing him to conceal it beneath his robe. These
+counterfeit females were then introduced to the assembly in the place
+of those who had retired. The Persians did not detect the deception.
+It was evening, and, besides, their faculties were confused with the
+effects of the wine. They approached the supposed ladies as they had
+done before, with rude familiarity; and the boys, at a signal made by
+the prince when the Persians were wholly off their guard, stabbed and
+killed every one of them on the spot.
+
+Megabyzus sent an embassador to inquire what became of his seven
+messengers; but the Macedonian prince contrived to buy this messenger
+off by large rewards, and to induce him to send back some false but
+plausible story to satisfy Megabyzus. Perhaps Megabyzus would not have
+been so easily satisfied had it not been that the great Ionian
+rebellion, under Aristagoras and Histiaeus, as described in the last
+chapter, broke out soon after, and demanded his attention in another
+quarter of the realm.
+
+The Ionian rebellion postponed, for a time, Darius's designs on
+Greece, but the effect of it was to make the invasion more certain and
+more terrible in the end; for Athens, which was at that time one of
+the most important and powerful of the Grecian cities, took a part in
+that rebellion against the Persians. The Athenians sent forces to aid
+those of Aristagoras and Histiaeus, and, in the course of the war, the
+combined army took and burned the city of Sardis. When this news
+reached Darius, he was excited to a perfect phrensy of resentment and
+indignation against the Athenians for coming thus into his own
+dominions to assist rebels, and there destroying one of his most
+important capitals. He uttered the most violent and terrible threats
+against them, and, to prevent his anger from getting cool before the
+preparations should be completed for vindicating it, he made an
+arrangement, it was said, for having a slave call out to him every day
+at table, "Remember the Athenians!"
+
+It was a circumstance favorable to Darius's designs against the states
+of Greece that they were not united among themselves. There was no
+general government under which the whole naval and military force of
+that country could be efficiently combined, so as to be directed, in a
+concentrated and energetic form, against a common enemy. On the other
+hand, the several cities formed, with the territories adjoining them,
+so many separate states, more or less connected, it is true, by
+confederations and alliances, but still virtually independent, and
+often hostile to each other. Then, besides these external and
+international quarrels, there was a great deal of internal dissension.
+The monarchical and the democratic principle were all the time
+struggling for the mastery. Military despots were continually rising
+to power in the various cities, and after they had ruled, for a time,
+over their subjects with a rod of iron, the people would rise in
+rebellion and expel them from their thrones. These revolutions were
+continually taking place, attended, often, by the strangest and most
+romantic incidents, which evinced, on the part of the actors in them,
+that extraordinary combination of mental sagacity and acumen with
+childish and senseless superstition so characteristic of the times.
+
+It is not surprising that the populace often rebelled against the
+power of these royal despots, for they seem to have exercised their
+power, when their interests or their passions excited them to do it,
+in the most tyrannical and cruel manner. One of them, it was said, a
+king of Corinth, whose name was Periander, sent a messenger, on one
+occasion, to a neighboring potentate--with whom he had gradually come
+to entertain very friendly relations--to inquire by what means he
+could most certainly and permanently secure the continuance of his
+power. The king thus applied to gave no direct reply, but took the
+messenger out into his garden, talking with him by the way about the
+incidents of his journey, and other indifferent topics. He came, at
+length, to a field where grain was growing, and as he walked along, he
+occupied himself in cutting off, with his sword, every head of the
+grain which raised itself above the level of the rest. After a short
+time he returned to the house, and finally dismissed the messenger
+without giving him any answer whatever to the application that he had
+made. The messenger returned to Periander, and related what had
+occurred. "I understand his meaning," said Periander. "I must contrive
+some way to remove all those who, by their talents, their influence,
+or their power, rise above the general level of the citizens."
+Periander began immediately to act on this recommendation. Whoever,
+among the people of Corinth, distinguished himself above the rest, was
+marked for destruction. Some were banished, some were slain, and some
+were deprived of their influence, and so reduced to the ordinary
+level, by the confiscation of their property, the lives and fortunes
+of all the citizens of the state being wholly in the despot's hands.
+
+This same Periander had a wife whose name was Melissa. A very
+extraordinary tale is related respecting her, which, though mainly
+fictitious, had a foundation, doubtless, in fact, and illustrates very
+remarkably the despotic tyranny and the dark superstition of the
+times. Melissa died and was buried; but her garments, for some reason
+or other, were not burned, as was usual in such cases. Now, among the
+other oracles of Greece, there was one where departed spirits could be
+consulted. It was called the oracle of the dead. Periander, having
+occasion to consult an oracle in order to find the means of recovering
+a certain article of value which was lost, sent to this place to call
+up and consult the ghost of Melissa. The ghost appeared, but refused
+to answer the question put to her, saying, with frightful solemnity,
+
+"I am cold; I am cold; I am naked and cold. My clothes were not
+burned; I am naked and cold."
+
+When this answer was reported to Periander, he determined to make a
+great sacrifice and offering, such as should at once appease the
+restless spirit. He invited, therefore, a general assembly of the
+women of Corinth to witness some spectacle in a temple, and when they
+were convened, he surrounded them with his guards, seized them,
+stripped them of most of their clothing, and then let them go free.
+The clothes thus taken were then all solemnly burned, as an expiatory
+offering, with invocations to the shade of Melissa.
+
+The account adds, that when this was done, a second messenger was
+dispatched to the oracle of the dead, and the spirit, now clothed and
+comfortable in its grave, answered the inquiry, informing Periander
+where the lost article might be found.
+
+The rude violence which Periander resorted to in this case seems not
+to have been dictated by any particular desire to insult or injure the
+women of Corinth, but was resorted to simply as the easiest and most
+convenient way of obtaining what he needed. He wanted a supply of
+valuable and costly female apparel, and the readiest mode of obtaining
+it was to bring together an assembly of females dressed for a public
+occasion, and then disrobe them. The case only shows to what an
+extreme and absolute supremacy the lofty and domineering spirit of
+ancient despotism attained.
+
+It ought, however, to be related, in justice to these abominable
+tyrants, that they often evinced feelings of commiseration and
+kindness; sometimes, in fact, in very singular ways. There was, for
+example, in one of the cities, a certain family that had obtained the
+ascendency over the rest of the people, and had held it for some time
+as an established aristocracy, taking care to preserve their rank and
+power from generation to generation, by intermarrying only with one
+another. At length, in one branch of the family, there grew up a young
+girl named Labda, who had been a cripple from her birth, and, on
+account of her deformity, none of the nobles would marry her. A man of
+obscure birth, however, one of the common people, at length took her
+for his wife. His name was Eetion. One day, Eetion went to Delphi to
+consult an oracle, and as he was entering the temple, the Pythian[J]
+called out to him, saying that a stone should proceed from Labda which
+should overwhelm tyrants and usurpers, and free the state. The nobles,
+when they heard of this, understood the prediction to mean that the
+destruction of their power was, in some way or other, to be effected
+by means of Labda's child, and they determined to prevent the
+fulfillment of the prophecy by destroying the babe itself so soon as
+it should be born.
+
+[Footnote J: For a full account of these oracles, see the history of
+Cyrus the Great.]
+
+They accordingly appointed ten of their number to go to the place
+where Eetion lived and kill the child. The method which they were to
+adopt was this: They were to ask to see the infant on their arrival at
+the house, and then it was agreed that whichever of the ten it was to
+whom the babe was handed, he should dash it down upon the stone floor
+with all his force, by which means it would, as they supposed,
+certainly be killed.
+
+This plan being arranged, the men went to the house, inquired, with
+hypocritical civility, after the health of the mother, and desired to
+see the child. It was accordingly brought to them. The mother put it
+into the hands of one of the conspirators, and the babe looked up into
+his face and smiled. This mute expression of defenseless and confiding
+innocence touched the murderer's heart. He could not be such a monster
+as to dash such an image of trusting and happy helplessness upon the
+stones. He looked upon the child, and then gave it into the hands of
+the one next to him, and he gave it to the next, and thus it passed
+through the hands of all the ten. No one was found stern and
+determined enough to murder it, and at last they gave the babe back to
+its mother and went away.
+
+The sequel of this story was, that the conspirators, when they reached
+the gate, stopped to consult together, and after many mutual
+criminations and recriminations, each impugning the courage and
+resolution of the rest, and all joining in special condemnation of the
+man to whom the child had at first been given, they went back again,
+determined, in some way or other, to accomplish their purpose. But
+Labda had, in the mean time, been alarmed at their extraordinary
+behavior, and had listened, when they stopped at the gate, to hear
+their conversation. She hastily hid the babe in a corn measure; and
+the conspirators, after looking in every part of the house in vain,
+gave up the search, supposing that their intended victim had been
+hastily sent away. They went home, and not being willing to
+acknowledge that their resolution had failed at the time of trial,
+they agreed to say that their undertaking had succeeded, and that the
+child had been destroyed. The babe lived, however, and grew up to
+manhood, and then, in fulfillment of the prediction announced by the
+oracle, he headed a rebellion against the nobles, deposed them from
+their power, and reigned in their stead.
+
+One of the worst and most reckless of the Greek tyrants of whom we
+have been speaking was Hippias of Athens. His father, Pisistratus, had
+been hated all his life for his cruelties and his crimes; and when he
+died, leaving two sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, a conspiracy was
+formed to kill the sons, and thus put an end to the dynasty.
+Hipparchus was killed, but Hippias escaped the danger, and seized the
+government himself alone. He began to exercise his power in the most
+cruel and wanton manner, partly under the influence of resentment and
+passion, and partly because he thought his proper policy was to strike
+terror into the hearts of the people as a means of retaining his
+dominion. One of the conspirators by whom his brother had been slain,
+accused Hippias's warmest and best friends as his accomplices in that
+deed, in order to revenge himself on Hippias by inducing him to
+destroy his own adherents and supporters. Hippias fell into the snare;
+he condemned to death all whom the conspirator accused, and his
+reckless soldiers executed his friends and foes together. When any
+protested their innocence, he put them to the torture to make them
+confess their guilt. Such indiscriminate cruelty only had the effect
+to league the whole population of Athens against the perpetrator of
+it. There was at length a general insurrection against him, and he was
+dethroned. He made his escape to Sardis, and there tendered his
+services to Artaphernes, offering to conduct the Persian armies to
+Greece, and aid them in getting possession of the country, on
+condition that, if they succeeded, the Persians would make him the
+governor of Athens. Artaphernes made known these offers to Darius, and
+they were eagerly accepted. It was, however, very impolitic to accept
+them. The aid which the invaders could derive from the services of
+such a guide, were far more than counterbalanced by the influence
+which his defection and the espousal of his cause by the Persians
+would produce in Greece. It banded the Athenians and their allies
+together in the most enthusiastic and determined spirit of resistance,
+against a man who had now added the baseness of treason to the wanton
+wickedness of tyranny.
+
+Besides these internal dissensions between the people of the several
+Grecian states and their kings, there were contests between one state
+and another, which Darius proposed to take advantage of in his
+attempts to conquer the country. There was one such war in particular,
+between Athens and the island of AEgina, on the effects of which, in
+aiding him in his operations against the Athenians, Darius placed
+great reliance. AEgina was a large and populous island not far from
+Athens. In accounting for the origin of the quarrel between the two
+states, the Greek historians relate the following marvelous story:
+
+AEgina, as will be seen from the map, was situated in the middle of a
+bay, southwest from Athens. On the other side of the bay, opposite
+from Athens, there was a city, near the shore, called Epidaurus. It
+happened that the people of Epidaurus were at one time suffering from
+famine, and they sent a messenger to the oracle at Delphi to inquire
+what they should do to obtain relief. The Pythian answered that they
+must erect two statues to certain goddesses, named Damia and Auxesia,
+and that then the famine would abate. They asked whether they were to
+make the statues of brass or of marble. The priestess replied, "Of
+neither, but of wood." They were, she said, to use for the purpose the
+wood of the garden olive.
+
+This species of olive was a sacred tree, and it happened that, at this
+time, there were no trees of the kind that were of sufficient size for
+the purpose intended except at Athens; and the Epidaurians,
+accordingly, sent to Athens to obtain leave to supply themselves with
+wood for the sculptor by cutting down one of the trees from the sacred
+grove. The Athenians consented to this, on condition that the
+Epidaurians would offer a certain yearly sacrifice at two temples in
+Athens, which they named. This sacrifice, they seemed to imagine,
+would make good to the city whatever of injury their religious
+interests might suffer from the loss of the sacred tree. The
+Epidaurians agreed to the condition; the tree was felled; blocks from
+it, of proper size, were taken to Epidaurus, and the statues were
+carved. They were set up in the city with the usual solemnities, and
+the famine soon after disappeared.
+
+Not many years after this, a war, for some cause or other, broke out
+between Epidaurus and AEgina. The people of AEgina crossed the water in
+a fleet of galleys, landed at Epidaurus, and, after committing various
+ravages, they seized these images, and bore them away in triumph as
+trophies of their victory. They set them up in a public place in the
+middle of their own island, and instituted games and spectacles around
+them, which they celebrated with great festivity and parade. The
+Epidaurians, having thus lost their statues, ceased to make the annual
+offering at Athens which they had stipulated for, in return for
+receiving the wood from which the statues were carved. The Athenians
+complained. The Epidaurians replied that they had continued to make
+the offering as long as they had kept the statues; but that now, the
+statues being in other hands, they were absolved from the obligation.
+The Athenians next demanded the statues themselves of the people of
+AEgina. They refused to surrender them. The Athenians then invaded the
+island, and proceeded to the spot where the statues had been erected.
+They had been set up on massive and heavy pedestals. The Athenians
+attempted to get them down, but could not separate them from their
+fastenings. They then changed their plan, and undertook to move the
+pedestals too, by dragging them with ropes. They were arrested in this
+undertaking by an earthquake, accompanied by a solemn and terrible
+sound of thunder, which warned them that they were provoking the anger
+of Heaven.
+
+The statues, too, miraculously fell on their knees, and remained fixed
+in that posture!
+
+The Athenians, terrified at these portentous signs, abandoned their
+undertaking and fled toward the shore. They were, however, intercepted
+by the people of AEgina, and some allies whom they had hastily summoned
+to their aid, and the whole party was destroyed except one single man.
+He escaped.
+
+This single fugitive, however, met with a worse fate than that of his
+comrades. He went to Athens, and there the wives and sisters of the
+men who had been killed thronged around him to hear his story. They
+were incensed that he alone had escaped, as if his flight had been a
+sort of betrayal and desertion of his companions. They fell upon him,
+therefore, with one accord, and pierced and wounded him on all sides
+with a sort of pin, or clasp, which they used as a fastening for their
+dress. They finally killed him.
+
+The Athenian magistrates were unable to bring any of the perpetrators
+of this crime to conviction and punishment; but a law was made, in
+consequence of the occurrence, forbidding the use of that sort of
+fastening for the dress to all the Athenian women forever after. The
+people of AEgina, on the other hand, rejoiced and gloried in the deed
+of the Athenian women, and they made the clasps which were worn upon
+their island of double size, in honor of it.
+
+The war, thus commenced between Athens and AEgina, went on for a long
+time, increasing in bitterness and cruelty as the injuries increased
+in number and magnitude which the belligerent parties inflicted on
+each other.
+
+Such was the state of things in Greece when Darius organized his great
+expedition for the invasion of the country. He assembled an immense
+armament, though he did not go forth himself to command it. He placed
+the whole force under the charge of a Persian general named Datis. A
+considerable part of the army which Datis was to command was raised in
+Persia; but orders had been sent on that large accessions to the army,
+consisting of cavalry, foot soldiers, ships, and seamen, and every
+other species of military force, should be raised in all the provinces
+of Asia Minor, and be ready to join it at various places of
+rendezvous.
+
+Darius commenced his march at Susa with the troops which had been
+collected there, and proceeded westward till he reached the
+Mediterranean at Cilicia, which is at the northeast corner of that
+sea. Here large re-enforcements joined him; and there was also
+assembled at this point an immense fleet of galleys, which had been
+provided to convey the troops to the Grecian seas. The troops
+embarked, and the fleet advanced along the southern shores of Asia
+Minor to the AEgean Sea, where they turned to the northward toward the
+island of Samos, which had been appointed as a rendezvous. At Samos
+they were joined by still greater numbers coming from Ionia, and the
+various provinces and islands on that coast that were already under
+the Persian dominion. When they were ready for their final departure,
+the immense fleet, probably one of the greatest and most powerful
+which had then ever been assembled, set sail, and steered their course
+to the northwest, among the islands of the AEgean Sea. As they moved
+slowly on, they stopped to take possession of such islands as came in
+their way. The islanders, in some cases, submitted to them without a
+struggle. In others, they made vigorous but perfectly futile attempts
+to resist. In others still, the terrified inhabitants abandoned their
+homes, and fled in dismay to the fastnesses of the mountains. The
+Persians destroyed the cities and towns whose inhabitants they could
+not conquer, and took the children from the most influential families
+of the islands which they did subdue, as hostages to hold their
+parents to their promises when their conquerors should have gone.
+
+[Illustration: THE INVASION OF GREECE.]
+
+The mighty fleet advanced thus, by slow degrees, from conquest to
+conquest, toward the Athenian shores. The vast multitude of galleys
+covered the whole surface of the water, and as they advanced,
+propelled each by a triple row of oars, they exhibited to the
+fugitives who had gained the summits of the mountains the appearance
+of an immense swarm of insects, creeping, by an almost imperceptible
+advance, over the smooth expanse of the sea.
+
+The fleet, guided all the time by Hippias, passed on, and finally
+entered the strait between the island of Euboea and the main land to
+the northward of Athens. Here, after some operations on the island,
+the Persians finally brought their ships into a port on the Athenian
+side, and landed. Hippias made all the arrangements, and superintended
+the disembarkation.
+
+In the mean time, all was confusion and dismay in the city of Athens.
+The government, as soon as they heard of the approach of this terrible
+danger, had sent an express to the city of Sparta, asking for aid. The
+aid had been promised, but it had not yet arrived. The Athenians
+gathered together all the forces at their command on the northern side
+of the city, and were debating the question, with great anxiety and
+earnestness, whether they should shut themselves up within the walls,
+and await the onset of their enemies there, or go forth to meet them
+on the way. The whole force which the Greeks could muster consisted
+of but about ten thousand men, while the Persian host contained over a
+hundred thousand. It seemed madness to engage in a contest on an open
+field against such an overwhelming disparity of numbers. A majority of
+voices were, accordingly, in favor of remaining within the
+fortifications of the city, and awaiting an attack.
+
+The command of the army had been intrusted, not to one man, but to a
+commission of three generals, a sort of triumvirate, on whose joint
+action the decision of such a question devolved. Two of the three were
+in favor of taking a defensive position; but the third, the celebrated
+Miltiades, was so earnest and so decided in favor of attacking the
+enemy themselves, instead of waiting to be attacked, that his opinion
+finally carried the day, and the other generals resigned their portion
+of authority into his hands, consenting that he should lead the Greek
+army into battle, if he dared to take the responsibility of doing so.
+
+The two armies were at this time encamped in sight of each other on
+the plain of Marathon, between the mountain and the sea. They were
+nearly a mile apart. The countless multitude of the Persians extended
+as far as the eye could reach, with long lines of tents in the
+distance, and thousands of horsemen on the plain, all ready for the
+charge. The Greeks, on the other hand, occupied a small and isolated
+spot, in a compact form, without cavalry, without archers, without, in
+fact, any weapons suitable either for attack or defense, except in a
+close encounter hand to hand. Their only hope of success depended on
+the desperate violence of the onset they were to make upon the vast
+masses of men spread out before them. On the one side were immense
+numbers, whose force, vast as it was, must necessarily be more or less
+impeded in its operations, and slow. It was to be overpowered,
+therefore, if overpowered at all, by the utmost fierceness and
+rapidity of action--by sudden onsets, unexpected and furious assaults,
+and heavy, vigorous, and rapid blows. Miltiades, therefore, made all
+his arrangements with reference to that mode of warfare. Such soldiers
+as the Greeks, too, were admirably adapted to execute such designs,
+and the immense and heterogeneous mass of Asiatic nations which
+covered the plain before them was exactly the body for such an
+experiment to be made upon. Glorying in their numbers and confident of
+victory, they were slowly advancing, without the least idea that the
+little band before them could possibly do them any serious harm. They
+had actually brought with them, in the train of the army, some blocks
+of marble, with which they were going to erect a monument of their
+victory, on the field of battle, as soon as the conflict was over!
+
+At length the Greeks began to put themselves in motion. As they
+advanced, they accelerated their march more and more, until just
+before reaching the Persian lines, when they began to run. The
+astonishment of the Persians at this unexpected and daring onset soon
+gave place, first to the excitement of personal conflict, and then to
+universal terror and dismay; for the headlong impetuosity of the
+Greeks bore down all opposition, and the desperate swordsmen cut their
+way through the vast masses of the enemy with a fierce and desperate
+fury that nothing could withstand. Something like a contest continued
+for some hours; but, at the end of that time, the Persians were flying
+in all directions, every one endeavoring, by the track which he found
+most practicable for himself, to make his way to the ships on the
+shore. Vast multitudes were killed in this headlong flight; others
+became entangled in the morasses and fens, and others still strayed
+away, and sought, in their terror, a hopeless refuge in the defiles of
+the mountains. Those who escaped crowded in confusion on board their
+ships, and pushed off from the shore, leaving the whole plain covered
+with their dead and dying companions.
+
+The Greeks captured an immense amount of stores and baggage, which
+were of great cost and value. They took possession, too, of the marble
+blocks which the Persians had brought to immortalize their victory,
+and built with them a monument, instead, to commemorate their defeat.
+They counted the dead. Six thousand Persians, and only two hundred
+Greeks, were found. The bodies of the Greeks were collected together,
+and buried on the field, and an immense mound was raised over the
+grave. This mound has continued to stand at Marathon to the present
+day.
+
+The battle of Marathon was one of those great events in the history of
+the human race which continue to attract, from age to age, the
+admiration of mankind. They who look upon war, in all its forms, as
+only the perpetration of an unnatural and atrocious crime, which rises
+to dignity and grandeur only by the very enormity of its guilt, can
+not but respect the courage, the energy, and the cool and determined
+resolution with which the little band of Greeks went forth to stop the
+torrent of foes which all the nations of a whole continent had
+combined to pour upon them. The field has been visited in every age by
+thousands of travelers, who have upon the spot offered their tribute
+of admiration to the ancient heroes that triumphed there. The plain is
+found now, as of old, overlooking the sea, and the mountains inland,
+towering above the plain. The mound, too, still remains, which was
+reared to consecrate the memory of the Greeks who fell. They who visit
+it stand and survey the now silent and solitary scene, and derive from
+the influence and spirit of the spot new strength and energy to meet
+the great difficulties and dangers of life which they themselves have
+to encounter. The Greeks themselves, of the present day,
+notwithstanding the many sources of discouragement and depression with
+which they have to contend, must feel at Marathon some rising spirit
+of emulation in contemplating the lofty mental powers and the
+undaunted spirit of their sires. Byron makes one of them sing,
+
+          "The mountains look on Marathon,
+            And Marathon looks on the sea;
+          And musing there an hour alone,
+          I dreamed that Greece might still be free;
+          For, standing on the Persians' grave,
+          I could not deem myself a slave."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE DEATH OF DARIUS.
+
+B.C. 490-485
+
+The Persian fleet sails southward.--Fate of Hippias.--Omens.--The
+dream and the sneeze.--Hippias falls in battle.--Movements of the
+Persian fleet.--The Persian fleet returns to Asia.--Anxiety of
+Datis.--Datis finds a stolen statue.--Island of Delos.--Account of
+the sacred island.--Its present condition.--Disposition of the
+army.--Darius's reception of Datis.--Subsequent history of
+Miltiades.--His great popularity.--Miltiades's influence
+at Athens.--His ambitious designs.--Island and city of
+Paros.--Appearance of the modern town.--Miltiades's proposition to
+the Athenians.--They accept it.--Miltiades marches against
+Paros.--Its resistance.--Miltiades is discouraged.--The captive
+priestess.--Miltiades's interview with the priestess.--Her
+instructions.--Miltiades attempts to enter the temple of Ceres.--He
+dislocates a limb.--Miltiades returns to Athens.--He is
+impeached.--Miltiades is condemned.--He dies of his wound.--The fine
+paid.--Proposed punishment of Timo.--Timo saved by the Delphic
+oracle.--Another expedition against Greece.--Preparations.--Necessity
+for settling the succession.--Darius's two sons.--Their claims to the
+throne.--Xerxes declared heir.--Death of Darius.--Character of
+Darius.--Ground of his renown.
+
+
+The city of Athens and the plain of Marathon are situated upon a
+peninsula. The principal port by which the city was ordinarily
+approached was on the southern shore of the peninsula, though the
+Persians had landed on the northern side. Of course, in their retreat
+from the field of battle, they fled to the north. When they were
+beyond the reach of their enemies and fairly at sea, they were at
+first somewhat perplexed to determine what to do. Datis was extremely
+unwilling to return to Darius with the news of such a defeat. On the
+other hand, there seemed but little hope of any other result if he
+were to attempt a second landing.
+
+Hippias, their Greek guide, was killed in the battle. He expected to
+be killed, for his mind, on the morning of the battle, was in a state
+of great despondency and dejection. Until that time he had felt a
+strong and confident expectation of success, but his feelings had then
+been very suddenly changed. His confidence had arisen from the
+influence of a dream, his dejection from a cause more frivolous still;
+so that he was equally irrational in his hope and in his despair.
+
+The omen which seemed to him to portend success to the enterprise in
+which he had undertaken to act as guide, was merely that he dreamed
+one night that he saw, and spent some time in company with, his
+mother. In attempting to interpret this dream in the morning, it
+seemed to him that Athens, his native city, was represented by his
+mother, and that the vision denoted that he was about to be restored
+to Athens again. He was extremely elated at this supernatural
+confirmation of his hopes, and would have gone into the battle certain
+of victory, had it not been that another circumstance occurred at the
+time of the landing to blast his hopes. He had, himself, the general
+charge of the disembarkation. He stationed the ships at their proper
+places near the shore, and formed the men upon the beach as they
+landed. While he was thus engaged, standing on the sand, he suddenly
+sneezed. He was an old man, and his teeth--those that remained--were
+loose. One of them was thrown out in the act of sneezing, and it fell
+into the sand. Hippias was alarmed at this occurrence, considering it
+a bad omen. He looked a long time for the tooth in vain, and then
+exclaimed that all was over. The joining of his tooth to his mother
+earth was the event to which his dream referred, and there was now no
+hope of any further fulfillment of it. He went on mechanically, after
+this, in marshaling his men and preparing for battle, but his mind was
+oppressed with gloomy forebodings. He acted, in consequence, feebly
+and with indecision; and when the Greeks explored the field on the
+morning after the battle, his body was found among the other mutilated
+and ghastly remains which covered the ground.
+
+As the Persian fleet moved, therefore, along the coast of Attica, they
+had no longer their former guide. They were still, however, very
+reluctant to leave the country. They followed the shore of the
+peninsula until they came to the promontory of Sunium, which forms the
+southeastern extremity of it. They doubled this cape, and then
+followed the southern shore of the peninsula until they arrived at the
+point opposite to Athens on that side. In the mean time, however, the
+Spartan troops which had been sent for to aid the Athenians in the
+contest, but which had not arrived in time to take part in the
+battle, reached the ground; and the indications which the Persians
+observed, from the decks of their galleys, that the country was
+thoroughly aroused, and was every where ready to receive them,
+deterred them from making any further attempts to land. After
+lingering, therefore, a short time near the shore, the fleet directed
+its course again toward the coasts of Asia.
+
+The mind of Datis was necessarily very ill at ease. He dreaded the
+wrath of Darius; for despots are very prone to consider military
+failures as the worst of crimes. The expedition had not, however, been
+entirely a failure. Datis had conquered many of the Greek islands, and
+he had with him, on board his galleys, great numbers of prisoners, and
+a vast amount of plunder which he had obtained from them. Still, the
+greatest and most important of the objects which Darius had
+commissioned him to accomplish had been entirely defeated, and he
+felt, accordingly, no little anxiety in respect to the reception which
+he was to expect at Susa.
+
+One night he had a dream which greatly disturbed him. He awoke in the
+morning with an impression upon his mind, which he had derived from
+the dream, that some temple had been robbed by his soldiers in the
+course of his expedition, and that the sacrilegious booty which had
+been obtained was concealed somewhere in the fleet. He immediately
+ordered a careful search to be instituted, in which every ship was
+examined. At length they found, concealed in one of the galleys, a
+golden statue of Apollo. Datis inquired what city it had been taken
+from. They answered from Delium. Delium was on the coast of Attica,
+near the place where the Persians had landed, at the time of their
+advance on Marathon. Datis could not safely or conveniently go back
+there to restore it to its place. He determined, therefore, to deposit
+it at Delos for safe keeping, until it could be returned to its proper
+home.
+
+Delos was a small but very celebrated island near the center of the
+AEgean Sea, and but a short distance from the spot where the Persian
+fleet was lying when Datis made this discovery. It was a sacred
+island, devoted to religious rites, and all contention, and violence,
+and, so far as was possible, all suffering and death, were excluded
+from it. The sick were removed from it; the dead were not buried
+there; armed ships and armed men laid aside their hostility to each
+other when they approached it. Belligerent fleets rode at anchor,
+side by side, in peace, upon the smooth waters of its little port, and
+an enchanting picture of peace, tranquillity, and happiness was seen
+upon its shores. A large natural fountain, or spring, thirty feet in
+diameter, and inclosed partly by natural rocks and partly by an
+artificial wall, issued from the ground in the center of the island,
+and sent forth a beautiful and fertilizing rill into a rich and happy
+valley, through which it meandered, deviously, for several miles,
+seeking the sea. There was a large and populous city near the port,
+and the whole island was adorned with temples, palaces, colonnades,
+and other splendid architectural structures, which made it the
+admiration of all mankind. All this magnificence and beauty have,
+however, long since passed away. The island is now silent, deserted,
+and desolate, a dreary pasture, where cattle browse and feed, with
+stupid indifference, among the ancient ruins. Nothing living remains
+of the ancient scene of grandeur and beauty but the fountain. That
+still continues to pour up its clear and pellucid waters with a
+ceaseless and eternal flow.
+
+It was to this Delos that Datis determined to restore the golden
+statue. He took it on board his own galley, and proceeded with it,
+himself, to the sacred island. He deposited it in the great temple of
+Apollo, charging the priests to convey it, as soon as a convenient
+opportunity should occur, to its proper destination at Delium.
+
+The Persian fleet, after this business was disposed of, set sail
+again, and pursued its course toward the coasts of Asia, where at
+length the expedition landed in safety.
+
+The various divisions of the army were then distributed in the
+different provinces where they respectively belonged, and Datis
+commenced his march with the Persian portion of the troops, and with
+his prisoners and plunder, for Susa, feeling, however, very uncertain
+how he should be received on his arrival there. Despotic power is
+always capricious; and the character of Darius, which seems to have
+been naturally generous and kind, and was rendered cruel and
+tyrannical only through the influence of the position in which he had
+been placed, was continually presenting the most opposite and
+contradictory phases. The generous elements of it, fortunately for
+Datis, seemed to be in the ascendency when the remnant of the Persian
+army arrived at Susa. Darius received the returning general without
+anger, and even treated the prisoners with humanity.
+
+Before finally leaving the subject of this celebrated invasion, which
+was brought to an end in so remarkable a manner by the great battle of
+Marathon, it may be well to relate the extraordinary circumstances
+which attended the subsequent history of Miltiades, the great
+commander in that battle on the Greek side. Before the conflict, he
+seems to have had no official superiority over the other generals,
+but, by the resolute decision with which he urged the plan of giving
+the Persians battle, and the confidence and courage which he
+manifested in expressing his readiness to take the responsibility of
+the measure, he placed himself virtually at the head of the Greek
+command. The rest of the officers acquiesced in his pre-eminence, and,
+waiving their claims to an equal share of the authority, they allowed
+him to go forward and direct the operations of the day. If the day had
+been lost, Miltiades, even though he had escaped death upon the field,
+would have been totally and irretrievably ruined; but as it was won,
+the result of the transaction was that he was raised to the highest
+pinnacle of glory and renown.
+
+And yet in this, as in all similar cases, the question of success or
+of failure depended upon causes wholly beyond the reach of human
+foresight or control. The military commander who acts in such
+contingencies is compelled to stake every thing dear to him on results
+which are often as purely hazardous as the casting of a die.
+
+The influence of Miltiades in Athens after the Persian troops were
+withdrawn was paramount and supreme. Finding himself in possession of
+this ascendency, he began to form plans for other military
+undertakings. It proved, in the end, that it would have been far
+better for him to have been satisfied with the fame which he had
+already acquired.
+
+Some of the islands in the AEgean Sea he considered as having taken
+part with the Persians in the invasion, to such an extent, at least,
+as to furnish him with a pretext for making war upon them. The one
+which he had specially in view, in the first instance, was Paros.
+Paros is a large and important island situated near the center of the
+southern portion of the AEgean Sea. It is of an oval form, and is about
+twelve miles long. The surface of the land is beautifully diversified
+and very picturesque, while, at the same time, the soil is very
+fertile. In the days of Miltiades, it was very wealthy and populous,
+and there was a large city, called also Paros, on the western coast of
+the island, near the sea. There is a modern town built upon the site
+of the former city, which presents a very extraordinary appearance, as
+the dwellings are formed, in a great measure, of materials obtained
+from the ancient ruins. Marble columns, sculptured capitals, and
+fragments of what were once magnificent entablatures, have been used
+to construct plain walls, or laid in obscure and neglected
+pavements--all, however, still retaining, notwithstanding their
+present degradation, unequivocal marks of the nobleness of their
+origin. The quarries where the ancient Parian marble was obtained were
+situated on this island, not very far from the town. They remain to
+the present day in the same state in which the ancient workmen left
+them.
+
+In the time of Miltiades the island and the city of Paros were both
+very wealthy and very powerful. Miltiades conceived the design of
+making a descent upon the island, and levying an immense contribution
+upon the people, in the form of a fine, for what he considered their
+treason in taking part with the enemies of their countrymen. In order
+to prevent the people of Paros from preparing for defense, Miltiades
+intended to keep the object of his expedition secret for a time. He
+therefore simply proposed to the Athenians that they should equip a
+fleet and put it under his command. He had an enterprise in view, he
+said, the nature of which he could not particularly explain, but he
+was very confident of its success, and, if successful, he should
+return, in a short time, laden with spoils which would enrich the
+city, and amply reimburse the people for the expenses they would have
+incurred. The force which he asked for was a fleet of seventy vessels.
+
+So great was the popularity and influence which Miltiades had acquired
+by his victory at Marathon, that this somewhat extraordinary
+proposition was readily complied with. The fleet was equipped, and
+crews were provided, and the whole armament was placed under
+Miltiades's command. The men themselves who were embarked on board of
+the galleys did not know whither they were going. Miltiades promised
+them victory and an abundance of gold as their reward; for the rest,
+they must trust, he said, to him, as he could not explain the actual
+destination of the enterprise without endangering its success. The
+men were all satisfied with these conditions, and the fleet set sail.
+
+When it arrived on the coast of Paros, the Parians were, of course,
+taken by surprise, but they made immediate preparations for a very
+vigorous resistance. Miltiades commenced a siege, and sent a herald to
+the city, demanding of them, as the price of their ransom, an immense
+sum of money, saying, at the same time, that, unless they delivered up
+that sum, or, at least, gave security for the payment of it, he would
+not leave the place until the city was captured, and, when captured,
+it should be wholly destroyed. The Parians rejected the demand, and
+engaged energetically in the work of completing and strengthening
+their defenses. They organized companies of workmen to labor during
+the night, when their operations would not be observed, in building
+new walls, and re-enforcing every weak or unguarded point in the line
+of the fortifications. It soon appeared that the Parians were making
+far more rapid progress in securing their position than Miltiades was
+in his assaults upon it. Miltiades found that an attack upon a
+fortified island in the AEgean Sea was a different thing from
+encountering the undisciplined hordes of Persians on the open plains
+of Marathon. There it was a contest between concentrated courage and
+discipline on the one hand, and a vast expansion of pomp and parade on
+the other; whereas now he found that the courage and discipline on his
+part were met by an equally indomitable resolution on the part of his
+opponents, guided, too, by an equally well-trained experience and
+skill. In a word, it was Greek against Greek at Paros, and Miltiades
+began at length to perceive that his prospect of success was growing
+very doubtful and dim.
+
+This state of things, of course, filled the mind of Miltiades with
+great anxiety and distress; for, after the promises which he had made
+to the Athenians, and the blind confidence which he had asked of them
+in proposing that they should commit the fleet so unconditionally to
+his command, he could not return discomfited to Athens without
+involving himself in the most absolute disgrace. While he was in this
+perplexity, it happened that some of his soldiers took captive a
+Parian female, one day, among other prisoners. She proved to be a
+priestess, from one of the Parian temples. Her name was Timo. The
+thought occurred to Miltiades that, since all human means at his
+command had proved inadequate to accomplish his end, he might,
+perhaps, through this captive priestess, obtain some superhuman aid.
+As she had been in the service of a Parian temple, she would naturally
+have an influence with the divinities of the place, or, at least, she
+would be acquainted with the proper means of propitiating their favor.
+
+Miltiades, accordingly, held a private interview with Timo, and asked
+her what he should do to propitiate the divinities of Paros so far as
+to enable him to gain possession of the city. She replied that she
+could easily point out the way, if he would but follow her
+instructions. Miltiades, overjoyed, promised readily that he would do
+so. She then gave him her instructions secretly. What they were is not
+known, except so far as they were revealed by the occurrences that
+followed.
+
+There was a temple consecrated to the goddess Ceres near to the city,
+and so connected with it, it seems, as to be in some measure included
+within the defenses. The approach to this temple was guarded by a
+palisade. There were, however, gates which afforded access, except
+when they were fastened from within. Miltiades, in obedience to Timo's
+instructions, went privately, in the night, perhaps, and with very
+few attendants, to this temple. He attempted to enter by the gates,
+which he had expected, it seems, to find open. They were, however,
+fastened against him. He then undertook to scale the palisade. He
+succeeded in doing this, not, however, without difficulty, and then
+advanced toward the temple, in obedience to the instructions which he
+had received from Timo. The account states that the act, whatever it
+was, that Timo had directed him to perform, instead of being, as he
+supposed, a means of propitiating the favor of the divinity, was
+sacrilegious and impious; and Miltiades, as he approached the temple,
+was struck suddenly with a mysterious and dreadful horror of mind,
+which wholly overwhelmed him. Rendered almost insane by this
+supernatural remorse and terror, he turned to fly. He reached the
+palisade, and, in endeavoring to climb over it, his precipitation and
+haste caused him to fall. His attendants ran to take him up. He was
+helpless and in great pain. They found he had dislocated a joint in
+one of his limbs. He received, of course, every possible attention;
+but, instead of recovering from the injury, he found that the
+consequences of it became more and more serious every day. In a word,
+the great conqueror of the Persians was now wholly overthrown, and lay
+moaning on his couch as helpless as a child.
+
+He soon determined to abandon the siege of Paros and return to Athens.
+He had been about a month upon the island, and had laid waste the
+rural districts, but, as the city had made good its defense against
+him, he returned without any of the rich spoil which he had promised.
+The disappointment which the people of Athens experienced on his
+arrival, turned soon into a feeling of hostility against the author of
+the calamity. Miltiades found that the fame and honor which he had
+gained at Marathon were gone. They had been lost almost as suddenly as
+they had been acquired. The rivals and enemies who had been silenced
+by his former success were now brought out and made clamorous against
+him by his present failure. They attributed the failure to his own
+mismanagement of the expedition, and one orator, at length, advanced
+articles of impeachment against him, on a charge of having been bribed
+by the Persians to make his siege of Paros only a feint. Miltiades
+could not defend himself from these criminations, for he was lying, at
+the time, in utter helplessness, upon his couch of pain. The
+dislocation of the limb had ended in an open wound, which at length,
+having resisted all the attempts of the physicians to stop its
+progress, had begun to mortify, and the life of the sufferer was fast
+ebbing away. His son Cimon did all in his power to save his father
+from both the dangers that threatened him. He defended his character
+in the public tribunals, and he watched over his person in the cell in
+the prison. These filial efforts were, however, in both cases
+unavailing. Miltiades was condemned by the tribunal, and he died of
+his wound.
+
+The penalty exacted of him by the sentence was a very heavy fine. The
+sum demanded was the amount which the expedition to Paros had cost the
+city, and which, as it had been lost through the agency of Miltiades,
+it was adjudged that he should refund. This sentence, as well as the
+treatment in general which Miltiades received from his countrymen, has
+been since considered by mankind as very unjust and cruel. It was,
+however, only following out, somewhat rigidly, it is true, the
+essential terms and conditions of a military career. It results from
+principles inherent in the very nature of war, that we are never to
+look for the ascendency of justice and humanity in any thing
+pertaining to it. It is always power, and not right, that determines
+possession; it is success, not merit, that gains honors and rewards;
+and they who assent to the genius and spirit of military rule thus
+far, must not complain if they find that, on the same principle, it is
+failure and not crime which brings condemnation and destruction.
+
+When Miltiades was dead, Cimon found that he could not receive his
+father's body for honorable interment unless he paid the fine. He had
+no means, himself, of doing this. He succeeded, however, at length, in
+raising the amount, by soliciting contributions from the family
+friends of his father. He paid the fine into the city treasury, and
+then the body of the hero was deposited in its long home.
+
+The Parians were at first greatly incensed against the priestess Timo,
+as it seemed to them that she had intended to betray the city to
+Miltiades. They wished to put her to death, but they did not dare to
+do it. It might be considered an impious sacrilege to punish a
+priestess. They accordingly sent to the oracle at Delphi to state the
+circumstances of the case, and to inquire if they might lawfully put
+the priestess to death. She had been guilty, they said, of pointing
+out to an enemy the mode by which he might gain possession of their
+city; and, what was worse, she had, in doing so, attempted to admit
+him to those solemn scenes and mysteries in the temple which it was
+not lawful for any man to behold. The oracle replied that the
+priestess must not be punished, for she had done no wrong. It had been
+decreed by the gods that Miltiades should be destroyed, and Timo had
+been employed by them as the involuntary instrument of conducting him
+to his fate. The people of Paros acquiesced in this decision, and Timo
+was set free.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But to return to Darius. His desire to subdue the Greeks and to add
+their country to his dominions, and his determination to accomplish
+his purpose, were increased and strengthened, not diminished, by the
+repulse which his army had met with at the first invasion. He was
+greatly incensed against the Athenians, as if he considered their
+courage and energy in defending their country an audacious outrage
+against himself, and a crime. He resolved to organize a new
+expedition, still greater and more powerful than the other. Of this
+armament he determined to take the command himself in person, and to
+make the preparations for it on a scale of such magnitude as that the
+expedition should be worthy to be led by the great sovereign of half
+the world. He accordingly transmitted orders to all the peoples,
+nations, languages, and realms, in all his dominions, to raise their
+respective quotas of troops, horses, ships, and munitions of war, and
+prepare to assemble at such place of rendezvous as he should designate
+when all should be ready.
+
+Some years elapsed before these arrangements were matured, and when at
+last the time seemed to have arrived for carrying his plans into
+effect, he deemed it necessary, before he commenced his march, to
+settle the succession of his kingdom; for he had several sons, who
+might each claim the throne, and involve the empire in disastrous
+civil wars in attempting to enforce their claims, in case he should
+never return. The historians say that there was a law of Persia
+forbidding the sovereign to leave the realm without previously fixing
+upon a successor. It is difficult to see, however, by what power or
+authority such a law could have been enacted, or to believe that
+monarchs like Darius would recognize an abstract obligation to law of
+any kind, in respect to their own political action. There is a
+species of law regulating the ordinary dealings between man and man,
+that springs up in all communities, whether savage or civilized, from
+custom, and from the action of judicial tribunals, which the most
+despotic and absolute sovereigns feel themselves bound, so far as
+relates to the private affairs of their subjects, to respect and
+uphold; but, in regard to their own personal and governmental acts and
+measures, they very seldom know any other authority than the impulses
+of their own sovereign will.
+
+Darius had several sons, among whom there were two who claimed the
+right to succeed their father on the throne. One was the oldest son of
+a wife whom Darius had married before he became king. His name was
+Artobazanes. The other was the son of Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus,
+whom Darius had married _after_ his accession to the throne. His name
+was Xerxes. Artobazanes claimed that he was entitled to be his
+father's heir, since he was his oldest son. Xerxes, on the other hand,
+maintained that, at the period of the birth of Artobazanes, Darius was
+not a king. He was then in a private station, and sons could properly
+inherit only what their fathers possessed at the time when they were
+born. He himself, on the other hand, was the oldest son which his
+father had had, _being a king_, and he was, consequently, the true
+inheritor of the kingdom. Besides, being the son of Atossa, he was the
+grandson of Cyrus, and the hereditary rights, therefore, of that great
+founder of the empire had descended to him.
+
+Darius decided the question in favor of Xerxes, and then made
+arrangements for commencing his march, with a mind full of the elation
+and pride which were awakened by the grandeur of his position and the
+magnificence of his schemes. These schemes, however, he did not live
+to execute. He suddenly fell sick and died, just as he was ready to
+set out upon his expedition, and Xerxes, his son, reigned in his
+stead.
+
+Xerxes immediately took command of the vast preparations which his
+father had made, and went on with the prosecution of the enterprise.
+The expedition which followed deserves, probably, in respect to the
+numbers engaged in it, the distance which it traversed, the
+immenseness of the expenses involved, and the magnitude of its
+results, to be considered the greatest military undertaking which
+human ambition and power have ever attempted to effect. The narrative,
+however, both of its splendid adventures and of its ultimate fate,
+belongs to the history of Xerxes.
+
+The greatness of Darius was the greatness of position and not of
+character. He was the absolute sovereign of nearly half the world,
+and, as such, was held up very conspicuously to the attention of
+mankind, who gaze with a strong feeling of admiration and awe upon
+these vast elevations of power, as they do upon the summits of
+mountains, simply because they are high. Darius performed no great
+exploit, and he accomplished no great object while he lived; and he
+did not even leave behind him any strong impressions of personal
+character. There is in his history, and in the position which he
+occupies in the minds of men, greatness without dignity, success
+without merit, vast and long-continued power without effects
+accomplished or objects gained, and universal and perpetual renown
+without honor or applause. The world admire Caesar, Hannibal,
+Alexander, Alfred, and Napoleon for the deeds which they performed.
+They admire Darius only on account of the elevation on which he stood.
+In the same lofty position, they would have admired, probably, just as
+much, the very horse whose neighing placed him there.
+
+                         THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+1. Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors, and to
+ensure consistent spelling and punctuation in this etext; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the original book.
+
+2. The chapter summaries in this text were originally published as
+banners in the page headers, and have been moved to beginning of the
+chapter for the reader's convenience.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Darius the Great, by Jacob Abbott
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