volt of Megabyzus, and his subjection
throughout almost the whole of his life to the evil influence of Amytis,
his sister, and Amestris, his mother--both persons of ill-regulated
lives--are indications of weakness and folly quite unpardonable in
a monarch. That he was mild in temperament, and even kind and
good-natured, is probable. But he had no other quality that deserves the
slightest commendation. In the whole course of his long reign he seems
never once to have adventured himself in the field against an enemy.
He made not a single attempt at conquest in any direction. We have no
evidence that he patronized either literature or the arts. His peace
with Athens was necessary perhaps, but disgraceful to Persia. The
disorders of the Court increased under his reign, from the license
(especially) which he allowed the Queen-mother, who sported with the
lives of his subjects. The decay of the Empire received a fatal impulse
from the impunity which he permitted to Megabyzus.

Like his father, Artaxerxes appears to have had but one legitimate wife.
This was a certain Damaspia, of whom nothing is known, except that she
died on the same day as her husband, and was the mother of his only
legitimate son, Xerxes. Seventeen other sons, who survived him, were
the issue of various concubines, chiefly--it would appear--Babylonians.
Xerxes II. succeeded to the throne on the death of his father (B.C.
425), but reigned forty-five days only, being murdered after a festival,
in which he had indulged too freely, by his half-brother, Secydianus or
Sogdianus. Secydianus enjoyed the sovereignty for little more than half
a year, when he was in his turn put to death by another, brother, Ochus,
who on ascending the throne took the name of Darius, and became known to
the Greeks as Darius Nothus.

Darius Nothus had in his father's lifetime been made satrap of Hyrcania,
and had married his aunt, Parysatis, a daughter of Xerxes. He had
already two children at his accession,--a daughter, Amestris, and a
son, Arsaces, who succeeded him as Artaxerxes. His reign, which lasted
nineteen years, was a constant scene of insurrections and revolts, some
of which were of great importance, since they had permanent and
very disastrous consequences. The earliest of all was raised by his
full-brother, Arsites, who rebelled in conjunction with a son of
Megabyzus, and, obtaining the support of a number of Greek mercenaries,
gained two victories over the forces dispat