own, but we
may perhaps connect it with the rebellion of Terituchmes, a son-in-law
of the king. The story of Terituchmes, which belongs to this period,
deserves at any rate to be told, as illustrating, in a very remarkable
way, the corruption, cruelty, and dissoluteness of the Persian Court at
the time to which we have now come. Terituchmes was the son of Idernes,
a Persian noble of high rank, probably a descendant of the conspirator
Hydarnes. On the death of his father, he succeeded to his satrapy, as
to a hereditary fief, and being high in favor with Darius Nothus, he
received in marriage that monarch's daughter, Amestris. Having, however,
after his marriage become enamored of his own half-sister, Roxana, and
having persuaded her to an incestuous commerce, he grew to detest his
wife, and as he could not rid himself of her without making an enemy of
the king, he entered into a conspiracy with 300 others, and planned to
raise a rebellion. The bond of a common crime, cruel and revolting in
its character, was to secure the fidelity of the rebels one to another.
Amestris was to be placed in a sack, and each conspirator in turn was
to plunge his sword into her body. It is not clear whether this intended
murder was executed or no. Hoping to prevent it, Darius commissioned
a certain Udiastes, who was in the service of Terituchmes, to save his
daughter by any means that might be necessary; and Udiastes, collecting
a band, set upon Terituchmes and slew him after a strenuous resistance.
After this, his mother, brothers, and sisters were apprehended by the
order of Parysatis, the queen, who caused Roxana to be hewn in pieces,
and the other unfortunates to be buried alive. It was with great
difficulty that Arsaces, the heir-apparent, afterwards Artaxerxes
Mnemon, preserved his own wife, Statira, from the massacre. It happened
that she was sister to Terituchmes, and, though wholly innocent of his
offence, she would have been involved in the common destruction of her
family had not her husband with tears and entreaties begged her life of
his parents. The son of Terituchmes maintained himself for a while in
his father's government; but Parysatis succeeded in having him taken off
by poison.

The character of Darius Nothus is seen tolerably clearly in the account
of his reign which has been here given. He was at once weak and wicked.
Contrary to his sworn word, he murdered his brothers, Secydianus and
Arsites. He broke faith with Pissu