e
cause of his misfortunes. In the royal harem there were, together with
the daughters of Cyrus, relatives of all the Persian nobility, and the
order issued to stop all their communications with the outer world had
excited suspicion: the avowals which had escaped Cambyses before the
catastrophe were now called to mind, and it was not long before those
in high places became convinced that they had been the dupes of an
audacious imposture. A conspiracy broke out, under the leadership of the
chiefs of the seven clans, among whom was numbered Darius, the son of
Hystaspes, who was connected, according to a genealogy more or less
authentic, with the family of the Achaemenides:* the conspirators
surprised Gaumata in his palace of Sikayauvatish, which was situated in
the district of Nisaya, not far from Ecbatana, and assassinated him on
the 10th of Bagayadish, 521 B.C.

* The passage in the Behistun inscription, in which Darius
sets forth his own genealogy, has received various
interpretations. That of Oppert seems still the most
probable, that the text indicates two parallel branches of
Achaemenides, which nourished side by side until Cambyses
died and Darius ascended the throne. Such a genealogy,
however, appears to be fictitious, invented solely for the
purpose of connecting Darius with the ancient royal line,
with which in reality he could claim no kinship, or only a
very distant connection.

[Illustration: 159.jpg DARIUS, SON OF HYSTASPES]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from M. Dieulafoy.

The exact particulars of this scene were never known, but popular
imagination soon supplied the defect, furnishing a full and complete
account of all that took place. In the first place, Phaedime, daughter
of Otanes, one of the seven, furnished an authentic proof of the fraud
which had been perpetrated. Her father had opportunely recalled the
marvellous resemblance between Smerdis and the Magian, and remembered
at the same time that the latter had been deprived of his ears in
punishment for some misdeed: he therefore sent certain instructions to
Phffidime, who, when she made the discovery, at the peril of her life,
that her husband had no ears, communicated the information to the
disaffected nobles. The conspirators thereupon resolved to act without
delay; but when they arrived at the palace, they were greeted with an
extraordinary piece of intelligence. The Magi, disquieted by some v