But at

of provisions; which quickly caused a terrible famine in his army. He had still time, says Herodotus, to remedy this evil; but Cambyses would have thought it a dishonour to have desisted from his undertaking, and therefore he proceeded in his expedition. At first his army was obliged to live upon herbs, roots, and leaves of trees; but coming afterwards into a country entirely barren, they were reduced to the necessity of eating their beasts of burden. At last they were brought to such a cruel extremity, as to be obliged to eat one another; every tenth man, upon whom the lot fell, being doomed to serve as food for his companions; a food, says Seneca, more cruel and terrible that famine itself: Decimum quemque sortiti, alimentum habuerunt fame sævius.* Notwithstanding all this, the king still persisted in his design, or rather in his madness, nor did the miserable desolation of his army make him sensible of his error. length, beginning to be afraid of his own person, he ordered them to return. During all this dreadful famine among the troops (who would believe it?) there was no abatement of delicacies at his table, and the camels were still reserved which were loaded with every thing that was requisite to set out a sumptuous table. Servabantur illi interim generosæ aves, et instrumenta epularum camelis vehebantur, cùm sortirentur milites ejus quis malè peririt, quis pejùs viveret.† The remainder of his army, of which the greatest part was lost in his expedition, he brought back to Thebes; where he succeeded much better in the war he declared against the gods, whom he found more easy to be conquered than men. Thebes was full of temples whose riches and magnificence were almost incredible. All these Cambyses pillaged, and then set them on fire. The wealth of these temples must have been vastly great, since the very remains saved from the flames amounted to an immense sum, 300 talents of gold, and 2300 talents of silver. He likewise carried away at this time the famous circle of gold that encompassed the tomb of king Osymandyas, which was 365 cubits in circumference, and in which were represented all the motions of the several constellations.

From Thebes he went back to Memphis, where he dismissed all the Greeks, and sent them to their respective homes;|| but on his return into the city, finding it full of rejoicings, he fell into a great rage, supposing this exultation to be on account of the ill success of his expedition. He therefore called the magistrates before him, to know the meaning of these public rejoicings; and upon their telling him, that it was because they had found their god Apis, he would not believe them, but caused them to be put to death as impostors that insulted him and his misfortunes. He then sent for the priests, who made him the same answer: upon which he replied, that since their god was so kind and familiar as to appear among them, he would be acquainted with him, and therefore commanded him forth

with to be brought to him. But when, instead of a god, he saw a calf, he was strangely astonished, and falling again into a rage, he drew out his dagger, and run it into the thigh of the beast; and then upbraiding the priests for their stupidity in worshipping a brute for a god, he ordered them to be severely scourged, and all the Egyptians in Memphis, that should be found celebrating the feast of Apis, to be slain. The god was carried back to the temple, where he languished of his wound for some time, and then died. The Egyptians say,* that after this fact, which they reckon to have been the highest instance of impiety that ever was committed among them, Cambyses grew mad. But his actions showed him to have been mad long before, of which he continued to give various instances: among the rest are these following.

He had a brother, the only son of Cyrus besides himself, and born of the same mother: his name, according to Xenophon, was Tanaoxares, but Herodotus calls him Smerdis, and Justin, Mergis. He accompanied Cambyses in his Egyptian expedition: but being the only person among all the Persians that could draw the bow which had been brought from the king of Ethiopia, Cambyses from hence conceived such a jealousy against him, that he could bear him no longer in the army, but sent him back into Persia. And not long after, dreaming that a messenger had arrived to inform him that Smerdis sat on the throne, he conceived a suspicion that his brother aspired to the kingdom, and sent after him into Persia Prexaspes, one of his chief confidants, with orders to put him to death, which were accordingly executed.

This murder was the cause of another still more criminal. Cambyses had with him in the camp his youngest sister, whose name was Meroe. Herodotus acquaints us after what a strange manner this sister became his wife. As the princess was exceedingly beautiful, Cambyses absolutely resolved to marry her. To that end he called together all the judges of the Persian nation, to whom belonged the interpretation of their laws, to know of them whether there was any law that would allow a brother to marry a sister. The judges being unwilling on the one hand directly to authorize such an incestuous marriage, and on the other, fearing the king's violent temper, should they contradict him, endeavoured to find out a salvo, and gave him this crafty answer: That they had no law which permitted a brother to marry his sister, but they had. a law which allowed the king of Persia to do what he pleased. And this answer serving his purpose as well as a direct approbation, he solemnly married her, and hereby gave the first example of that incest, which was afterwards practised by most of his successors, and by some of them carried so far as to marry their own daughters, how repugnant soever it be to modesty and good order. This princess he carried with him in all his expeditions, and from Ibid. 31, 32.

Herod. 1. iii. c 30.

† Ibid.

her he gave the name of Meroe to an island in the Nile, between Egypt and Ethiopia, so far he advanced in his wild march against the Ethiopians. The circumstance that gave occasion to his murdering this princess was as follows. One day Cambyses was diverting himself in seeing a combat between a young lion and a young dog; the lion having the better, another dog, brother to him that was engaged, came to his assistance, and helped him to master the lion. This incident highly delighted Cambyses, but drew tears from Meroe, who being obliged to tell her husband the reason of her weeping, confessed, that this combat made her call to mind the fate of her brother Smerdis, who had not the same good fortune as that little dog. There needed no more than this to excite the rage of this brutal prince, who immediately gave her, notwithstanding her being with child, such a blow with his foot on the belly, that So abominable a marriage deserved no better

she died of it. an end.

He caused also several of the principal of his followers to be buried alive, and daily sacrificed some or other of them to his wild fury. He had obliged Prexaspes, one of his principal officers and his chief confidant, to declare to him what his Persian subjects thought and said of him. They admire, Sir, says Prexaspes, a great many excellent qualities which they see in you, but they are somewhat mortified at your immoderate love of wine.-I understand you, replied the king; that is, they pretend that wine deprives me of my reason. You shall be judge of that immediately. Upon which he began to drink excessively, pouring it down in larger quantities than ever he had done at any time before. Then ordering Prexaspes's son, who was his chief cup-bearer, to stand upright at the end of the room, with his left hand upon his head, he took his bow, and levelled it at him; and declaring that he aimed at his heart, let fly, and actually shot him in the heart. He then ordered his side to be opened, and showing Prexaspes the heart of his son, which the arrow had pierced, asked him in an exulting and scoffing manner, if he had not a steady hand? The wretched father, who ought not to have had either voice or life remaining after a stroke like this, was so mean-spirited as to reply, Apollo himself could not have shot better.

Seneca who copied this story from Herodotus, after having shown his detestation of the barbarous cruelty of the prince, condemns still more the cowardly and monstrous flattery of the father: Sceleratiùs telum illud laudatum est, quàm missum.

When Croesus took upon him to advise Cambyses against his conduct, which disgusted every one, and laid before him the ill consequences that might result from it, he ordered him to be put to death. And when those who received his orders, knowing he would repent of it the next day, deferred the execution, he caused them all to be put to death, because they had not obeyed his com† Herod. 1. iii. c. 36.

*Herod. l. iii. c. 34, 35. Sen. 1. iii. de Irâ. c. 14.

mands, though at the same time he expressed great joy that CroBus was alive.

It was about this time that Oretes, one of Cambyses's satrapæ, who had the government of Sardis, after a very strange and extraordinary manner brought about the death of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. The story of this Polycrates is of so singular a nature, that the reader will not be displeased if I repeat it here.

This Polycrates was a prince,* who through the whole course of his life had been uniformly prosperous and successful in all his affairs, and had never met with the least disappointment or unfortunate accident to disturb his felicity. Amasis king of Egypt, his friend and ally, thought himself obliged to send him a letter of admonition upon that subject. He declared to him, that he had alarming apprehensions concerning his condition; that such a long and uninterrupted course of prosperity was to be suspected; that some malignant, invidious god, who looks upon the fortune of men with a jealous eye, would certainly sooner or later bring ruin and destruction upon him; that, in order to prevent such a fatal stroke, he advised him to procure some misfortune to himself, by some voluntary loss, that he was persuaded would prove a sensible mortification to him.

The tyrant followed this advice. Having an emerald ring, which he highly esteemed, particularly for its curious workmanship, as he was walking upon the deck of one of his galleys with his courtiers, he threw it into the sea without any one's perceiving what he had done. Not many days after, some fishermen, having caught a fish of an extraordinary size, made a present of it to Polycrates. When the fish came to be opened, the king's ring was found in the belly of it. His surprise was very great, and his joy still greater.

When Amasis heard what had happened, he was very differently affected with it. He wrote another letter to Polycrates, telling him that, to avoid the mortification of seeing his friend and ally fall into some grievous calamity, he from that time renounced his friendship and alliance. A strange whimsical notion this! as if friendship was merely a name, or a title, destitute of all substance and reality.

Be that as it will, the thing, however, did really happen as the Egyptian king apprehended. Some years after, about the time Cambyses fell sick, Oretes, who, as I said before, was his governor at Sardis, not being able to bear the reproach which another satrap had made him in a private quarrel, of his not having yet conquered the Isle of Samos, which lay so near his government, and would be so commodious for his master; upon this resolved at any rate to destroy Polycrates, that he might get possession of the island. The way he took to effect his design was this. He wrote to Polycrates that, in consequence of information upon which he could depend, Cambyses intended to destroy him by assassination,

Herod. l. iii. c. 39-43.

† Ibid. 120-125.

he designed to withdraw to Samos, and there to secure his treasure and effects; for which end he was determined to deposit them in the hands of Polycrates, and at the same time make him a present of one half of it, which would enable him to conquer Ionia and the adjacent islands, a project he had long had in view. Oretes knew the tyrant loved money, and passionately coveted to enlarge his dominions. He therefore laid that double bait before him, by which he equally tempted his avarice and ambition. Polycrates, that he might not rashly engage in an affair of that importance, thought it proper to inform himself more surely of the truth of the matter, and to that end sent a messenger of his own to Sardis. Oretes had caused eight large chests to be filled with stones almost to the top, but had covered the stones with pieces of gold coin. These chests were packed up, and appeared ready to be sent on board ship: but they were opened before the messenger, on his arrival, and he supposed that they were filled with gold. As soon as he was returned home, Polycrates, impatient to go and seize his prey, set out for Sardis, contrary to the advice of all his friends; and took_along with him Democedes, a celebrated physician of Crotona. Immediately on his arrival, Oretes had him arrested, as an enemy to the state, and as such caused him to be hanged; in such an ignominious and shameful manner did he end a life which had been but one continued series of prosperity and good fortune.

Cambyses,* in the beginning of the eighth year of his reign, left Egypt, in order to return into Persia. When he came into Syria, he found a herald there, sent from Susa to the army to let them know that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, had been proclaimed king, and to command them all to obey him. This event had been brought about in the following manner: Cambyses, at his departure from Susa on his Egyptian expedition, had left the administration of affairs during his absence in the hands of Patisithes, one of the chief of the Magi. This Patisithes had a brother extremely like Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, and who perhaps for that reason was called by the same name. As soon as Patisithes was fully assured of the death of that prince, which had been concealed from the public, knowing, at the same time, that Cambyses indulged his extravagance to such a degree that he was grown insupportable, he placed his own brother upon the throne, giving out that he was the true Smerdis, the son of Cyrus; and immediately despatched heralds into all parts of the empire, to give notice of Smerdis's accession, and to require all the subjects thereof to pay him their obedience.

Cambyses caused the herald,f that came with these orders into Syria, to be arrested; and having strictly examined him in the presence of Prexaspes, who had received orders to kill his brother, he found that the true Smerdis was certainly dead, and he who had usurped the throne, was no other than Smerdis the Magian. Upon

*Herod. 1. iii. c. 61.

† Ibid, c. 62-64.