personally brave, and quite willing to
expose himself, even in his old age, to dangers and hardships. But
he did not unnecessarily thrust himself into peril. He was content to
employ generals, where the task to be accomplished did not seem to be
beyond their powers; and he appears to have been quite free from an
unworthy jealousy of their successes. He was a man of kindly and warm
feeling--strongly attached to his friends; he was clement and even
generous towards conquered foes. When he thought the occasion required
it, he could be severe but his inclination was towards mildness and
indulgence. He excelled all the other Persian kings in the arts of
peace. To him, and him alone, the Empire owed its organization. He was
a skilful administrator, a good financier, and a wise and far-seeing
ruler. Of all the Persian princes he is the only one who can be called
"many-sided." He was organizer, general, statesman, administrator,
builder, patron of arts and literature, all in one. Without him Persia
would probably have sunk as rapidly as she rose, and would be known to
us only as one of the many meteor powers which have shot athwart the
horizon of the East.

Xerxes, the eldest son of Darius by Atossa, succeeded his father by
virtue of a formal act of choice. It was a Persian custom that the king,
before he went out of his dominions on an expedition, should nominate a
successor. Darius must have done this before his campaign in Thrace
and Scythia; and if Xerxes was then, as is probable, a mere boy, it is
impossible that he should have received the appointment. Artobazanes,
the eldest of all Darius's sons, whose mother, a daughter of Gobryas,
was married to Darius before he became king, was most likely then
nominated, and was thenceforth regarded as the heir-apparent. When,
however, towards the close of his reign Darius again proposed to head
a foreign expedition, an opportunity occurred of disturbing this
arrangement, of which Atossa, Darius's favorite wife, whose influence
over her husband was unbounded, determined to take advantage. According
to the law, a fresh signification of the sovereign's will was now
requisite; and Atossa persuaded Darius to make it in favor of Xerxes.
The pleas put forward were, first, that he was the eldest son of the
king, and secondly, that he was descended from Cyrus. This latter
argument could not fail to have weight. Backed by the influence of
Atossa, it prevailed over all other considerations; an