Cyrus
shall end his life."

65. So much only he said at that time; but about twenty days afterwards
he sent for the most honourable of the Persians who were with him, and
said to them as follows: "Persians, it has become necessary for me to
make known to you the thing which I was wont to keep concealed beyond
all other things. Being in Egypt I saw a vision in my sleep, which I
would I had never seen, and it seemed to me that a messenger came from
home and reported to me that Smerdis was sitting upon the royal throne
and had touched the heaven with his head. Fearing then lest I should be
deprived of my power by my brother, I acted quickly rather than wisely;
for it seems that it is not possible for man 55 to avert that which
is destined to come to pass. I therefore, fool that I was, sent away
Prexaspes to Susa to kill Smerdis; and when this great evil had been
done, I lived in security, never considering the danger that some other
man might at some time rise up against me, now that Smerdis had been
removed: and altogether missing the mark of that which was about to
happen, I have both made myself the murderer of my brother, when there
was no need, and I have been deprived none the less of the kingdom; for
it was in fact Smerdis the Magian of whom the divine power declared to
me beforehand in the vision that he should rise up against me. So then,
as I say, this deed has been done by me, and ye must imagine that ye
no longer have Smerdis the son of Cyrus alive: but it is in truth the
Magians who are masters of your kingdom, he whom I left as guardian of
my household and his brother Smerdis. The man then who ought above all
others to have taken vengeance on my behalf for the dishonour which I
have suffered from the Magians, has ended his life by an unholy death
received from the hands of those who were his nearest of kin; and since
he is no more, it becomes most needful for me, as the thing next best of
those which remain, 56 to charge you, O Persians, with that which dying
I desire should be done for me. This then I lay upon you, calling upon
the gods of the royal house to witness it,--upon you and most of all upon
those of the Achaemenidai who are present here,--that ye do not permit
the return of the chief power to the Medes, but that if they have
acquired it by craft, by craft they be deprived of it by you, or if they
have conquered it by any kind of force, by force and by a strong hand ye
recover it. And if ye do this,