, and he began to chafe at his bonds,
the eunuch sacrificed him to his own personal safety, and took his life
as he had done that of his father in the preceding year (336). So
many murders following each other in rapid succession had considerably
reduced the Achsemenian family, and Bagoas for a moment was puzzled
where to find a king: he at length decided in favour of Codomannos, who
according to some was a great-grandson of Darius II., but according to
others was not of the royal line, but had in his youth been employed as
a courier. He had distinguished himself in the hostilities against the
Casduians, and had been nominated satrap of Armenia by Ochus as a reward
for his bravery. He assumed at his accession the name of Darius; brave,
generous, clement, and possessed with an ardent desire to do right,
he was in every way the superior of his immediate predecessors, and he
deserved to have reigned at a time when the empire was less threatened.
Bagoas soon perceived that his new protege, whose conduct he had
reckoned on directing as he pleased, intended to govern for himself, and
he therefore attempted to get rid of him; Bagoas was, however, betrayed
by his accomplices, and compelled to drink the poison which he had
prepared for Darius. These revolutions had distracted the attention of
the court of Susa from the events which were taking place on the shores
of the AEgean, and Philip had taken advantage of them to carry into
effect the designs against Persia which he had been long meditating.
After having been victorious against the Greeks, he had despatched an
army of ten thousand men into Asia under the command of Parmenion and
Attains (336). We may ask if it were not he who formed the project of
universal conquest which was so soon to be associated with the name of
his son Alexander. He was for the moment content to excite revolt among
the cities of the AEgean littoral, and restore to them that liberty of
which they had been deprived for nearly a century. He himself followed
as soon as these lost children of Greece had established themselves
firmly in Asia. The story of his assassination on the eve of his
departure is well known (336), and of the difficulties which compelled
Alexander to suspend the execution of the plans which his father had
made. Darius attempted to make use of the respite thus afforded him by
fortune; he adopted the usual policy of liberally bribing one part of
Greece to take up arms against Macedonia--