mad in consequence of this atrocity, though indeed he was not of sound mind before. His first crime he committed against his brother Smerdis, who was born of the same father and mother; him he sent back from Egypt to Persia through envy, because he alone of all the Persians had drawn the bow which the Ichthyophagi brought from the Ethiopian within two fingers' breadth of the other Persians no one was able to do this. After the departure of Smerdis for Persia, Cambyses saw the following vision in his sleep: he imagined that a messenger arrived from Persia, and informed him that Smerdis was seated on the royal throne, and touched the heavens with his head. Upon this, fearing for himself lest his brother should kill him, and reign, he sent Prexaspes, who was a man the most faithful to him of the Persians, to Persia, with orders to kill Smerdis; and he, having gone up to Susa, killed Smerdis; some say when he had taken him out to hunt, but others, that he led him to the Red Sea and drowned him. 31. This, they say, was the first of the crimes of Cambyses: the second he committed against his sister, who had accompanied him into Egypt, and whom he married, and who was his sister by both parents. He married her in the following way; for before, the Persians were on no account accustomed to intermarry with their sisters. Cambyses became enamored of one of his sisters, and then, being desirous of making her his wife, because he purposed doing what was not customary, he summoned the royal judges, and asked them if there was any law permitting one who wished to marry his sister. The royal judges are men chosen from among Persians, who continue in office until they die or are convicted of some injustice. They determine causes between the Persians, and are the interpreters of the ancient constitutions, and all questions are referred to them. When, therefore, Cambyses put the question, they gave an answer that was both just and safe, saying that they could find no law permitting a brother to marry his sister, but had discovered another law which permitted the king of Persia to do whatever he pleased. Thus they did not abrogate the law through fear of Cambyses; but, that they might not lose their lives by upholding the law, they found out another that favored his desire of marrying his sister; thereupon Cambyses married her of whom he was enamored, and shortly afterward he had another sister. The

youngest of these, then, who followed him into Egypt, he put to death. 32. With respect to her death, as well as that of Smerdis, a twofold account is given. The Greeks say that Cambyses made the whelp of a lion fight with a young dog, and that this wife was also looking on; and that the dog being over-matched, another puppy of the same litter broke his chain and came to his assistance, and thus the two dogs united got the better of the whelp. Cambyses was delighted at the sight, but she, sitting by him, shed tears. Cambyses, observing this, asked her why she wept. She answered that • she wept seeing the puppy come to the assistance of its brother, remembering Smerdis, and knowing that there was no one to avenge him. The Greeks say that for this speech she was put to death by Cambyses; but the Egyptians say that, as they were sitting at table, his wife took a lettuce, and stripped off its leaves, and then asked her husband "whether the lettuce stripped of its leaves, or thick with foliage, was the handsomer." He said, "When thick with foliage." Whereupon she remarked, "Then you have imitated this lettuce in dismembering the house of Cyrus." Whereupon he, being enraged, kicked her when she was with child, and she miscarried and died.

33. Thus madly did Cambyses behave toward his own family, whether on account of Apis, or from some other cause, from which, in many ways, misfortunes are wont to befall mankind; for Cambyses is said, even from infancy, to have been afflicted with a certain severe malady, which some called the sacred disease. In that case, it was not at all surprising that, when his body was so diseased, his mind should not be sound. 34. And toward the other Persians he behaved madly in the following instances: for it is reported that he said to Prexaspes, whom he highly honored, and whose office it was to bring messages to him, and whose son was cup-bearer to Cambyses, and this is no trifling honor: he is reported to have spoken as follows: "Prexaspes, what sort of a man do the Persians think me, and what remarks do they make about me?" He answered, "Sir, you are highly extolled in every other respect, but they say you are too much addicted to wine." Prexaspes said this of the Persians; but the king, enraged, answered as follows: "Do the Persians " Epilepsy.

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indeed say that, by being addicted to wine, I am beside myself, and am not in my senses? then their former words were not true.' For, on a former occasion, when the Persians and Croesus were sitting with him, Cambyses asked what sort of a man he appeared to be in comparison with his father Cyrus ; they answered that he was superior to his father, for that he held all that Cyrus possessed, and had acquired besides Egypt and the empire of the sea. Croesus, being present, not being pleased with this decision, spoke thus to Cambyses: "To me now, O son of Cyrus, you do not appear comparable to your father, for you have not yet such a son as he left behind him." Cambyses was delighted at hearing this, and commended the judgment of Croesus. 35. Therefore, remembering this, he said in anger to Prexaspes, "Observe now yourself whether the Persians have spoken the truth, or whether they who say such things are not out of their senses; for if I shoot that son of yours who stands under the portico, and hit him in the heart, the Persians will appear to have said nothing to the purpose; but if I miss, then say that the Persians have spoken truth, and that I am not of sound mind." Having said this and bent his bow, he hit the boy; and when the boy had fallen, he ordered them to open him and examine the wound; and when the arrow was found in the heart, he said to the boy's father, laughing, "Prexaspes, it has been clearly shown to you that I am not mad, but that the Persians are out of their senses. Now tell me, did you

But Prexaspes, perbeing in fear for his

ever see a man take so true an aim?" ceiving him to be out of his mind, and own life, said, “Sir, I believe that a god himself could not have shot so well." At that time he committed such an atrocity; and at another time, having, without any just cause, seized twelve Persians of the first rank, he had them buried alive up to the head.

36. While he was acting in this manner, Croesus the Lydian thought fit to admonish him in the following terms: "O king, do not yield entirely to your youthful impulses and anger, but possess and restrain yourself. It is a good thing to be provident, and wise to have forethought. You put men to death who are your own subjects, having seized them without any just cause; and you slay their children. If you persist in such a course, beware lest the Persians revolt from

you. Your father Cyrus strictly charged me to admonish you, and suggest whatever I might discover for your good.” He then manifested his good-will in giving this advice; but Cambyses answered, "Do you presume to give me advice, you, who so wisely managed your own country; and so well advised my father, when you persuaded him to pass the river Araxes, and advance against the Massagetæ, when they were willing to cross over into our territory? You have first ruined yourself by badly governing your own country, and then ruined Cyrus, who was persuaded by your advice. But you shall have no reason to rejoice; for I have long wanted to find a pretext against you." So saying, he took up his bow for the purpose of shooting him; but Croesus jumped up and ran out. Cambyses, when he was unable to shoot him, commanded his attendants to seize him, and put him to death. But the attendants, knowing his temper, concealed Croesus for the following reason, that if Cambyses should repent, and in、 quire for Croesus, they, by producing him, might receive re wards for preserving him alive; or if he should not repent, or regret him, then they would put him to death. Not long afterward Cambyses did regret Croesus, and the attendants, knowing this, acquainted him that he was still living; on which Cambyses said, "I am rejoiced that Croesus is still alive; they, however, who saved him, shall not escape with impunity, but I will have them put to death." And he made good his word.

37. He, then, committed many such mad actions, both against the Persians and his allies, while he staid at Memphis, both opening ancient sepulchres, and examining the dead bodies; he also entered the temple of Vulcan, and derided the image, for the image of Vulcan is very like the Phoenician Pataici, which the Phoenicians place at the prows of their triremes. For the benefit of any one who has not seen them, I will describe them; it is a representation of a pigmy. He likewise entered the temple of the Cabeiri (into which it is unlawful for any one except the priest to enter), and these images he burned, after he had ridiculed them in various ways: these also are like that of Vulcan; and they say that they are the sons of this latter. 38. It is then in every way clear to me that Cambyses was outrageously mad, otherwise he would not have attempted to deride things sacred and established

customs; for if any one should propose to all men to select the best institutions of all that exist, each, after considering them all, would choose their own; so certain is it that each thinks his own institutions by far the best. It is not, therefore, probable that any but a madman would make such things the subject of ridicule. That all men are of this mind respecting their own institutions may be inferred from many and various proofs, and among them by the following. Darius having summoned some Greeks under his sway, who were present, asked them "for what sum they would feed upon the dead bodies of their parents." They answered that they would not do it for any sum. Darius afterward having summoned some of the Indians called Callatians, who are accustomed to eat their parents, asked them, in the presence of the Greeks, and who were informed of what was said by an interpreter, "for what sum they would consent to burn their fathers when they die ;" but they, making loud exclamations, begged he would speak words of good omen. Such, then, is the effect of custom; and Pindar appears to me to have said rightly, "That custom is the king of all men."

39. While Cambyses was invading Egypt, the Lacedæmonians made an expedition against Samos and Polycrates, the son of Æaces, who had made an insurrection and seized on Samos. At first, having divided the state into three parts, he shared it with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson; but afterward, having put one of them to death, and expelled Syloson, the younger, he held the whole of Samos; and holding it, made a treaty of friendship with Amasis, king of Egypt, sending presents, and receiving others from him in return. In a very short time the power of Polycrates increased, and was noised abroad throughout Ionia and the rest of Greece; for wherever he turned his arms, every thing turned out prosperously. He had a hundred fifty-oared galleys, and a thousand archers; and he plundered all without distinction; for he said that he gratified a friend more by restoring what he had seized than by taking nothing at all. He accordingly took many of the islands, and many cities on the continent; he moreover overcame in a sea-fight, and took prisoners, the Lesbians, who came to assist the Milesians with all their forces: these, being put in chains, dug the whole trench that surrounds the walls of Samos. 40. Some