Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/429

 ARTAXERXES. The first Artaxerxes, among all the kings of Persia the most remarkable for a gentle and noble spirit, was sur- named the Long-handed,* his right hand being longer than his left, and was the son of Xerxes. The second, whose story I am now writing, who had the surname of the Mindful,* was the grandson of the former, by his daugh- ter Pary satis, who brought Darius four sons, the eldest Artaxerxes, the next Cyrus, and two younger than these, Ostanes and Oxathres. Cyrus took his name of the ancient Cyrus, as he, they say, had his from the sun, which, in the Persian language, is called Cyrus. Artaxerxes was at first called Arsicas; Dinon says Oarses; but it is ut- terly improbable that Ctesias (however otherwise he may have filled his books with a perfect farrago of incredi- ble and senseless fables) should be ignorant of the name of the king with whom he lived as his physician, atr tending upon himself, his wife, his mother, and his children. Cyrus, from his earliest youth, showed something of a headstrong and vehement character ; Artaxerxes, on the other side, was gentler in every thing, and of a nature more yielding and soft in its action. He mar- ried a beautiful and virtuous wife, at the desire of his (431)
 * Artaxerxes Longimanus aud Artaxerxes Mnemon.