of
hostility between Greece and Persia, a period of exactly half a century,
commencing B.C. 499 and. ending B.C. 449, in the seventeenth year of
Artaxerxes.

It was probably not many years after the conclusion of this peace that
a rebellion broke out in Syria. Megabyzus, the satrap of that important
province, offended at the execution of Inarus, in violation of the
promise which he had himself made to him, raised a revolt against
his sovereign, defeated repeatedly the armies sent to reduce him to
obedience, and finally treated with Artaxerxes as to the terms on which
he would consent to be reconciled. Thus was set an example, if not of
successful insurrection, yet at any rate of the possibility of rebelling
with impunity--an example which could not fail to have a mischievous
effect on the future relations of the monarch with his satraps. It
would have been better for the Empire had Megabyzus suffered the fate
of Oroetes, instead of living to a good old age in high favor with the
monarch whose power he had weakened and defied.

Artaxerxes survived the "Peace of Callias" twenty-four years. His
relations with the Greeks continued friendly till his demise, though,
on the occasion of the revolt of Samos (B.C. 440), Pissuthnes, satrap of
Sardis, seems to have transgressed the terms of the treaty, and to
have nearly brought about a renewal of hostilities. It was probably
in retaliation for the aid given to the revolted Samians, that the
Athenians, late in the reign of Artaxerxes, made an expedition against
Caunus, which might have had important consequences, if the Caunians
had not been firm in their allegiance. A revolt of Lycia and Caria under
Zopyrus, the son of Megabyzus, assisted by the Greeks, might have proved
even more difficult to subdue than the rebellion of Syria under his
father. Persia, however, escaped this danger; and Artaxerxes, no doubt,
saw with pleasure a few years later the Greeks turn their arms against
each other--Athens, his great enemy, being forced into a contest for
existence with the Peloponnesian confederacy under Sparta.

The character of Artaxerxes, though it receives the approval of Plutarch
and Diodorus, must be pronounced on the whole poor and contemptible.
His ready belief of the charge brought by Artabanus against his brother,
Darius, admits perhaps of excuse, owing to his extreme youth; but his
surrender of Inarus to Amestris on account of her importunity, his
readiness to condone the re