Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/241

 DEATH OF KAMBYSES.- SMERDIS. 2*23 ol a son of Cyrus j 1 and thus the opportune death of KambysGa placed the false Smerdis without opposition at the head of the Persians, who all, or for the most part, believed themselves to be ruled by a genuine son of Cyrus. Kambyses had reigned for seven years and five months. For seven months did Smerdis reign without opposition, second- ed by his brother Patizeitb.es ; and if he manifested his distrust of the haughty Persians around him, by neither inviting them into his palace nor showing himself out of it, he at the same time studiously conciliated the favor of the subject provinces, by re- mission of tribute and of military service for three years. 2 Such a departure from the Persian principle of government was in itself sufficient to disgust the warlike and rapacious Achaemenids at Susa. But it seems that their suspicions as to his genuine character had never been entirely set at rest, and in the eighth month those suspicions were converted into certainty. Accord- ing to what seems to have been the Persian usage, he had taken to himself the entire harem of his predecessor, among whose wives was numbered Phasdyme, daughter of a distinguished Per- sian, named Otanes. At the instance of her father, Phasdyme undertook the dangerous task of feeling the head of Smerdis while he slept, and thus detected the absence of ears. 3 Otanes, possessed of the decisive information, lost no time in concerting, with rive other noble Achasmenids, means for ridding themselves of a king who was at once a Mede, a Magian, and a man without ears ; 4 Darius, son of Hystaspes, the satrap of Persis proper, arriving just in time to join the conspiracy as the seventh. How these seven noblemen slew Smerdis in his palace at Susa, how they subsequently debated among themselves whether they should establish in Persia a monarchy, an oligarchy, or a democracy, how, after the first of the three had been resolved upon, it was de- termined that the future king, whichever he might be, should be bound to take his wives only from the families of the seven ccn- 1 Herodot. iii, 64-66. 2 Herodot. iii, 67. 3 Herodot. iii, 68-69. 4 Herodot. iii, 69-73. apxojie'&a uev iovref Tlepaai, VTTO M^Jou uvdpof fiuyov, tnl TOVTOV UTO. OVK x ovr (- Compare the description of ttu insupportable repugnance of the Greek*
 * f Kyrene to be governed by the lame Battus (Herodot. iv, 16U