ed a victory
over the Persian army. As many as two hundred triremes were taken
or destroyed. They then sailed on towards Cyprus, where they met and
destroyed a squadron of eighty ships, which was on its way to reinforce
the fleet at the Eurymedon. Above a hundred vessels, 20,000 captives,
and a vast amount of plunder were the prize of this war; which had,
however, no further effect on the relations of the two powers.

In the following year the reign of Xerxes came to an end abruptly.
With this monarch seems to have begun those internal disorders of the
seraglio, which made the Court during more than a hundred and forty
years a perpetual scene of intrigues, assassinations, executions, and
conspiracies. Xerxes, who appears to have only one wife, Amestris,
the daughter (or grand-daughter) of the conspirator, Otanes, permitted
himself the free indulgence of illicit passion among the princesses
of the Court, the wives of his own near relatives. The most horrible
results followed. Amestris vented her jealous spite on those whom she
regarded as guilty of stealing from her the affections of her husband;
and to prevent her barbarities from producing rebellion, it was
necessary to execute the persons whom she had provoked, albeit they were
near relations of the monarch. The taint of incontinence spread among
the members of the royal family; and a daughter of the king, who was
married to one of the most powerful nobles, became notorious for
her excesses. Eunuchs rose into power, and fomented the evils which
prevailed. The king made himself bitter enemies among those whose
position was close to his person. At last, Artabanus, chief of the
guard, a courtier of high rank, and Aspamitres, a eunuch, who held the
office of chamberlain, conspired against their master, and murdered him
in his sleeping apartment, after he had reigned twenty years.

The character of Xerxes falls below that of any preceding monarch.
Excepting that he was not wholly devoid of a certain magnanimity, which
made him listen patiently to those who opposed his views or gave him
unpalatable advice and which prevented him from exacting vengeance on
some occasions, he had scarcely a trait whereon the mind can rest with
any satisfaction. Weak and easily led, puerile in his gusts of passion
and his complete abandonment of himself to them--selfish, fickle,
boastful, cruel, superstitious, licentious--he exhibits to us the
Oriental despot in the most contemptible of all h