Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/453

 ARTAXERXES. 445 court, which was so princely and splendid that Ostanes, the king's brother, said to him, " 0, Timagoras, do not forget the sumptuous table you have sat at here j it was not put before you for nothing;" which was indeed rather a reflection upon his treason than to remind him of the king's bounty. And indeed the Athenians con- demned Timagoras to death for taking bribes. But Artaxerxes gratified the Grecians in one thing in lieu of the many wherewith he plagued them, and that was by taking off Tisaphernes, their most hated and malicious enemy, whom he put to death ; Parysatis adding her influence to the charges made against him. For the king did not persist long m his wrath with his mother, but was reconciled to her, and sent for her, being assured that she had wisdom and courage fit for royal power, and there being now no cause discernible but that they might converse together without suspicion or ofience. And from thenceforward humoring the king in all things according to his heart's deshe, and finding fault with nothing that he did, she obtained great power with him, and was gratified in all her requests. She perceived he was desperately in love with Atossa, one of his own two daughters, and that he concealed and checked his pas.sion chiefly for fear of herself, though, if we may believe some writers, he had privately given way to it ^vith. the young girl already. As soon as Parysatis suspected it, she displayed a greater fondness for the young girl than before, and extolled both her virtue and beauty to him, as being truly imperial and majestic. In fine, she persuaded him to marry her and declare her to be his law- ful wife, overriding all the principles and the laws by which the Greeks hold themselves bound, and regarding him- self as divinely appointed for a law to the Persians, and the supreme arbitrator of good and evil. Some historians further affirm, in which number is Heraclides of Cuma,