ion.--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,