The History of Antiquity Volume Vi Part 9

[198] Herod. 3, 88; 7, 78.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE RISE OF DARIUS.

"The Persians, when they heard the words of Cambyses," so Herodotus continues his narrative, "did not believe that the Magians had possessed themselves of the throne; on the contrary, they thought that Cambyses had said what he had said of the death of Smerdis in order to deceive them, that the whole of Persia might rise against Smerdis. They believed that Smerdis the son of Cyrus was on the throne; for even Prexaspes solemnly denied that he had slain Smerdis; after the death of Cambyses it was dangerous for him to allow that he had put to death the son of Cyrus with his own hand. The Magian who had taken the name of Cambyses reigned in security and showed great mildness to all his subjects.

Immediately after he had got possession of the throne, he proclaimed freedom from military service and tribute for three years to all the nations over whom he reigned. But in the eighth month of his reign it was discovered who he was. Otanes, the son of Pharnaspes, was one of the first of the Persians in descent and wealth. He first conceived a suspicion of the Magian because he never went out of the citadel, nor allowed any of the leading Persians to approach him. Phaedyme, the daughter of Otanes, had been the wife of Cambyses, and with the rest of the wives she had pa.s.sed over to the Magian. Otanes caused the question to be put to his daughter, whether the man with whom she lay was Smerdis the son of Cyrus, or another. She replied that she had never seen Smerdis, and could not tell who he was. Then Otanes sent a second time: 'If you do not know Smerdis, ask Atossa, with whom you and she lie, for she will know her own brother.' The daughter answered: 'I cannot speak with Atossa, or see any other of the women, for since this man, whoever he is, came to the throne, he has kept us all apart, and sent one in one direction, and another in another.' When Otanes heard this, the matter became yet clearer. He sent a third message to his daughter, saying: 'My daughter, you are come of a n.o.ble race and must accept the risk which your father lays upon you. If this man is not Smerdis the son of Cyrus, but the person whom I suspect that he is, he must not go unpunished for a.s.sociating with you, and exercising dominion over the Persians. Do as follows: When you perceive that he is asleep, feel for his ears. If he has ears, be sure that he is the son of Cyrus, but if he has none he is Smerdis the Magian.' Phaedyme sent an answer to her father, saying that she would run the greatest risk in doing as he bade, for if the man had no ears, and she was found feeling for them, he would put her out of the way; however, she would do it. And when it came to her turn to go to the Magian, she did all that her father had bidden her; she lay with him, and when he was asleep she felt for his ears, and easily discovered that he had none. When Cyrus was king he had for some grave reason cut off this man's ears. When it was day she sent her father word how the matter stood."

"Otanes related all the circ.u.mstances to Aspathines and Gobryas, who were the first among the Persians and most worthy of confidence, and as they had also had their suspicions that the case was so, they listened to the proposals of Otanes. The three were of opinion that each should join with him the Persians whom he counted most worthy of confidence.

Otanes brought Intaphernes; Gobryas, Megabyzus; and Aspathines, Hydarnes. To these six at Susa, Darius the son of Hystaspes came from Persia, for Hystaspes was satrap of Persia, and when he came, the six resolved to make him their a.s.sociate. They met, pledged mutual fidelity, and took counsel. And when it came to Darius' turn to give his opinion, he said: 'I believed that I alone knew that the Magian was king, and that Smerdis the son of Cyrus was dead, and for that reason I came with haste to put the Magian to death. But as I feel that you also know this and not I only, we must at once proceed to action without delay; for that will be dangerous.' Then Otanes spoke: 'O son of Hystaspes, thou art the son of a brave father, and thou showest thy courage not less than he. But do not so hasten the matter without consideration; begin it with prudence. We must be more numerous, and then make our attempt.'

Darius replied: 'Ye men that are present, if ye enter on the matter as Otanes wishes, ye will come to a shameful end. Some one who seeks his own advantage will betray the matter to the Magian. Ye ought to have taken the matter on yourselves and so accomplished it. But as ye have resolved to take in more confederates, and have confided the matter to me, it must be done to-day. If this day pa.s.ses by, I tell you that I will allow no informer to be before me; I will myself betray you to the Magian.' When Otanes saw Darius so eager, he said: 'As you compel us to hasten the matter and allow no delay, tell us how shall we enter the palace and overcome them? You know yourself--if you have not seen, you have heard--that guards are set; how shall we pa.s.s by them?' 'Many things,' Darius said, 'may be proved by deeds and not by words; other things may be done in word but no brilliant deed corresponds to them.

You know that it is not difficult to pa.s.s through the guards that are set. No one will prevent men of our rank; one will give way from respect, another from fear. Then I have an excellent excuse for pa.s.sing through, if I say that I have just come from Persia and have to give a message from my father to the king. If an untruth must be told, let it be told. If a man seeks for no advantage to himself by his untruth, he who tells the truth may be a liar, and he who lies may be a truthful man. If any of the door-keepers allow us to pa.s.s willingly by, this will be in the future an advantage for him, but any one who opposes us will show at once that he is our enemy; we will then force our way and begin the work.' Then Gobryas said: 'We can never with greater honour win back the empire, or, if we fail, find a more honourable death. Are not we Persians ruled by a Mede, a Magian, a fellow without ears? Those of you who were with Cambyses when sick remember what he imprecated on the Persians if they did not seek to regain the dominion. At that time we did not believe him, we thought that he spoke to deceive us. Now I give my vote to you, Darius, and go straight from this consultation to the Magian.' So Gobryas spake and all agreed with him.

"While they were thus deliberating, the following incident happened.

After solemn deliberation it seemed advisable to the Magians to make Prexaspes their friend; he had been cruelly treated by Cambyses, he alone knew of the death of Smerdis, and was of great influence among the Persians. For this reason they sent for him, and sought by pledges and oaths to bind him not to reveal to any one the deception he had practised on the Persians, and they promised him everything in their power. When Prexaspes agreed to do as they wished, they further proposed that he should summon the Persians under the walls of the citadel; mount a tower and tell them that they were governed by Smerdis and by no other. This request the Magians made because the Persians had great confidence in Prexaspes, and he had repeatedly told them that Smerdis was alive and his death a fiction. When Prexaspes declared his readiness they summoned the Persians to the tower and bade him speak. But he, purposely forgetting what they had requested, began to speak of the race of Cyrus, and when he came to Cyrus himself he enumerated the blessings which he had provided for the Persians, and going yet further he revealed the truth, declaring that he had concealed it before because it was dangerous for him to say what had been done, but now the necessity was laid upon him to reveal it. And now he said, that, compelled by Cambyses, he had slain Smerdis, and that Magians were on the throne.

When he had imprecated a bitter curse upon the Persians if they did not win back the kingdom, and take vengeance on the Magians, he threw himself head foremost down from the tower. All his life he had been an honourable man, and such he died.

"When they had resolved to attack the Magians without delay, the seven Persians invoked the G.o.ds, and set forth on the way, without knowing what had happened to Prexaspes. When they had proceeded half the distance, they heard of it. They slipped aside to consider the matter.

And Otanes with some others were of opinion that they must wait, for all would be in confusion, but Darius and the rest declared that without hesitation they must carry out what they had resolved upon. While they were thus at variance, seven pairs of hawks appeared, which pursued and tore to pieces two pairs of vultures. When the seven saw this they all took the view of Darius, and encouraged by the birds, went to the palace. When they reached the gates it happened as Darius expected. The guards respectfully allowed the first men among the Persians to pa.s.s through, as though they were led by some divine guide; no one suspected them, and no one asked any questions. But when they came to the portico, they came upon the eunuchs who carried messages in to the king. These asked what they wanted, threatened the guards for allowing them to pa.s.s, and detained them. The conspirators encouraged each other, drew their swords, struck down those who sought to detain them, and burst at a run into the hall. The two Magians were there at the time, consulting about the affair of Prexaspes. When they heard the noise and the cry of the eunuchs, they sprang up to see what was the matter, then hastened back and made ready for defence. One seized a bow, the other a spear. The first could not use the bow, for the conspirators were close upon him, but the other wounded Aspathines in the thigh and hit Intaphernes in the eye. The Magian with the bow retired into a dark chamber off the hall, and wished to close the door, but Darius and Gobryas hastened after him; Gobryas seized and held him, and when Darius hesitated to strike lest in the darkness he should hit Gobryas, Gobryas cried out: 'Strike even though you pierce us both.' Darius did so and smote the Magian only. When both were slain, their heads were cut off; the two conspirators who were wounded remained to guard the citadel; the other five rushed out, called the Persians together, and showed them the heads. When the Persians heard of the deception of the Magians, and what had happened, they thought it right to do the same; they drew their swords, and slew every Magian whom they could find, and had they not been prevented by the approach of night, not a Magian would have been left."

The account given by Trogus of the overthrow of the Medes, so far as it has been preserved to us, differs only in unimportant points from the narrative of Herodotus. In order to gain the favour of the people, the Magians remitted the tribute and military service for three years. This first excited suspicion in the mind of Otanes, a Persian of great position and discernment. He commanded his daughter, who was among the royal concubines,--they were secluded from each other,--to feel the ears of the king when asleep, for Cambyses (in Herodotus it is Cyrus) had cut off both the ears of the Magian. "Informed by his daughter that the king had no ears, he announced this to the princes of the Persians, urged them to put the false king to death, and bound them by an oath. Seven persons shared in the conspiracy; and to prevent any change of opinion in time, or any disclosure, they at once put their swords under their garments and went to the palace. They cut down all who came in their way, and so reached the Magians, who were not wanting in skill to defend themselves; with drawn weapons they slew two of the conspirators (in Herodotus these are only wounded), but they were overpowered by numbers.

Gobryas seized one of them, and when his companions hesitated to strike lest they should pierce him along with the Magian, for the affair took place in a dark room, he called out to them to strike even through his own body. But by good fortune he was uninjured and the Magian was slain."

In the narrative of Ctesias, as we have seen, there is but one Magian, Sphendadates, whom Cambyses himself had placed on the throne of Bactria in the place of his murdered brother (Tanyoxarkes), and had commanded him to play his part. Astasyras, Bagapates, and Izabates are aware of the secret. After Cambyses, Sphendadates becomes king, whom Astasyras and Bagapates had determined to a.s.sist to the throne even before the death of Cambyses. "When the Magian was reigning under the name of Tanyoxarkes, Izabates came out of Persia, where he had brought the body of Cambyses, revealed all to the army, and insulted the Magians. Then he fled to the sanctuary, where he was seized and his head cut off. Then seven distinguished Persians met, and after pledging their faith mutually, they joined with themselves Artasyras and then Bagapates who had the keys of the royal citadel. And when the seven were admitted by Bagapates to the citadel, they found the Magian with a concubine from Babylon. When he saw them, he sprang up, and as he had no weapons--for Bagapates had secretly removed them all--he broke up a golden chair, and fought with the foot of this till he was cut down by the seven. He had reigned seven months."[199]

Herodotus' narrative of the death of the Magians again points to a poetical source. In the speech of the dying Cambyses, in the curse which he imprecates if the kingdom is not maintained and recovered, and the indication that it must be done by force and treachery, this source introduces the new series of events in an attractive and exciting manner. But the concealment of the truth, the secret murder of his brother, have evil consequences which extend beyond the life of Cambyses. The Persians did not believe him; they thought that when dying he wished to make them the enemies of his brother. It required the penetration of Otanes, the courage and devotion of his daughter, to bring the truth to light. At first Otanes prudently admits two men only into the secret; each of the three then discloses it to a trusty friend, and when Darius comes from Persia to Susa all are agreed to make him a confederate. His high mission has already been indicated in the poem by the dream of Cyrus wherein he saw the son of Hystaspes with wings on his shoulders, one of which overshadowed Asia, the other Europe. Darius urged the confederates to immediate action. The faint justification of the deception which we find in Herodotus shows that in this matter an attempt was made in the poetical source to keep in harmony with the Iranian view of the absolute necessity of telling the truth. The decisive moment approaches nearer and with greater force to the Magians.

They have won the throne by treachery, they maintain it by cunning, inasmuch as they demand neither tribute nor soldiers from the subject countries; but at length they suffer for their treachery. They attempt to gain Prexaspes; he is to declare publicly that the Magian is the son of Cyrus. Prexaspes proceeds apparently to do this, but he is resolved to use the freedom of speech which the Magians allow him for their ruin.

He reveals the truth before all the people, and throws himself down from the tower. The punishment which the poem has already inflicted on Prexaspes for the murder of Bardiya in the death of his own son (p. 185) is not sufficient. Like the king at whose command he sinned, Prexaspes ends his days by suicide. It is only by this complete revelation of the truth, this voluntary death, and tragic end, that he makes complete atonement for laying his hand on the son of Cyrus. Thus the figure of Prexaspes belongs to the series of faithful Persians, who, like Oebares, knew how to serve not the king only but the prosperity of Persia with complete devotion. While this took place before the citadel, and the Magians in terror deliberated what they should do, now that the proceeding which was to establish their dominion had dashed them to the ground, the conspirators were already on the way. Once more the prudent Otanes hesitates; and once more Darius urges haste. But the princes of the Persians must perform the act alone; they cannot wait for the effect of the revelation of Prexaspes on the people. The G.o.ds themselves give them a sign; the seven hawks tear to pieces the two vultures. The poem closes with the death-struggle of the Magians, the readiness of Gobryas to allow himself to be slain with the Magian, _i.e._ the false king, and the happy restoration of the dominion of the Achaemenids.

The objections which can be made against this poetical account of the matter are obvious. The disbelief of the Persians in the admissions of Cambyses is hardly credible. If they had doubted at the first, they could doubt no longer when the king had sealed his accusation by his despair and death. When Otanes imparts his discovery to Gobryas and Aspathines, they say that "they had already suspected it;" Darius then comes, and when he has been unanimously received into the conspiracy he says: "that he had hitherto believed that he alone knew the secret, and had hastened from Persia in order to slay the Magian." The poem has no doubt inserted this scepticism of the Persians to explain why they did not rise against the usurper immediately after the death of Cambyses.

The discovery by the absence of the ears must also belong to the poem; it is a tale of the harem, in the manner of the poetry of the East. The deed of Prexaspes, whose place is taken by Izabates in Ctesias, is quite incredible and impossible in the context of Herodotus. The Magians had no reason whatever to urge Prexaspes to a public explanation; no one among the people had any suspicion; seven men only are acquainted with the truth, and the Magians have no intimation of their knowledge. If Susa was the scene of the deed, the Magians acted still more perversely, and Prexaspes sacrificed himself at any rate without the hope of any immediate effect. The Susians had not the least interest in the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the king. If the Achaemenids were no longer their masters, so much the better, inasmuch as they now enjoyed that mild dominion, which Herodotus himself ascribes to the Magians. In the narrative of the conspiracy two factors are obviously combined. Otanes is the originator, Darius joins the band later, but has already resolved to slay the Magi. Supported by Gobryas he urges immediate action, and indeed forces the conspirators to act by the threat that, if there is any delay, he will himself reveal the conspiracy, while Otanes, both in the deliberation, and on the way to the palace, is in favour of delay.

It was obviously the effect of the poem to bring plainly into light the merit which, on the one hand, Otanes and the five conspirators, and on the other Darius, had earned in the great achievement of the overthrow of the Magi, and to apportion a part of it to each section. The eminent position which the poem allots Otanes is explained by the advantages and privileges which the house of Otanes enjoyed in Persia above the other tribal princes, and which were attributed to the part which he took in the removal of the dominion of the Magi.[200] According to Herodotus Otanes was the son of Pharnaspes, and his sister Ca.s.sandane was the wife of Cyrus, the mother of Cambyses and Smerdis. He was thus the uncle of the king and of Smerdis; and he was also the father-in-law of the king, for his daughter Phaedyme was among the wives of Cambyses. This is the account of Herodotus. But we have convincing evidence that Otanes was not the son of Pharnaspes. As the father-in-law of Cambyses he was sufficiently near the throne to take a leading part in the action.

Hystaspes, the father of Darius, had already been sent back by Cyrus from his camp on the Jaxartes (p. 115), according to Herodotus, in order to keep watch over his son Darius. In Herodotus Hystaspes is now overseer of Persia, and his son comes to Susa, to slay the Magians with his own hand. In another pa.s.sage Herodotus himself relates that Darius was sprung from the family of the Achaemenids; Hystaspes was the son of Arsames, who was the son of Ariaramnes, the brother of Cambyses I. the father of Cyrus.[201]

It is a fact that Darius was sprung from the younger line of the house of Achaemenes. The elder son of Teispes, the son of Achaemenes, was Cambyses I., and the younger son was Ariaramnes. His son was Arsames, who was the father of Hystaspes, the cousin of Cambyses.[202] When the older line became extinct in Cambyses, the younger should have ascended the throne in the person of their head Hystaspes, but the Magians usurped it. What could be more natural than that Hystaspes and Darius should take the lead in overthrowing the usurper, and winning back the crown which had been taken from them. As the future head of the tribe of the Pasargadae, the future heir to the throne takes the lead, and we may find in his six a.s.sociates the remaining six tribes of the Persians. We know that they had the privilege of marriage with the house of Achaemenes, and of free entry to the king; the tribal princes also wore the upright _kidaris_, like the king (V. 328). Hence Darius could say in Herodotus: "Who will refuse entrance to us, the chiefs of the Persians?[203]" And any one who should do so "would at once show himself to be their enemy;" hence, as Herodotus relates, the seven, by divine guidance, arrived at the palace.

Thus far does tradition carry us; but the inscriptions of Darius enable us to go a good step farther. "The dominion, which Gaumata the Magian took from Cambyses, belonged of old to our family," so king Darius tells us. "My father was Vistacpa, the father of Vistacpa was Arsama, the father of Arsama was Ariyaramna, the father of Ariyaramna was Chaispis, and the father of Chaispis was Hakhamanis. This Gaumata lied. He said: I am Bardiya, the son of Kurus; I am king. There was no one, either Mede or Persian, or of our family, who had taken the dominion from Gaumata the Magian.[204] The people feared him; he put to death many people who had known Bardiya, to prevent its being known that he was not Bardiya the son of Kurus. No one made any attempt against Gaumata the Magian, till I came. Then I called Auramazda to my aid; and Auramazda a.s.sisted me. There is a citadel, cikathauvatis by name, in the land of Nicaya in Media; there with men devoted to me I slew Gaumata the Magian and his chief adherents. This was in the month Bagayadis, on the tenth day. I slew him, and took from him the dominion. By the grace of Auramazda I became king. Auramazda transferred the kingdom to me; I restored the dominion which was taken from our tribe. The places of worship (the houses of the G.o.ds in the Babylonian version) which Gaumata the Magian destroyed, these I preserved for the people. I gave back to the families what Gaumata had taken from them. What had been carried away I placed where it had been before. By the grace of Auramazda I did this. I laboured till I placed this race of ours again in its position. As it was before, as though Gaumata the Magian had not robbed our family, so I arranged it again.[205] These are the men who were present at the time when I slew Gaumata the Magian, who called himself Bardiya; these men helped me at that time as my adherents: Vindafrana (Intaphernes in Herodotus), the son of Vayacpara, a Persian; Utana (Otanes), the son of Thukhra, a Persian; Gaubaruva (Gobryas), the son of Marduniya (Mardonius), a Persian; Vidarna (Hydarnes), the son of Bagabigna, a Persian; Bagabukhsa (Megabyzus), the son of Daduhya, a Persian; Ardumanis, the son of Vahuka (Ochus), a Persian."[206]

As has been shown, Gaumata had seized the dominion on Persian ground. He had first shown himself to the Persians as their master: "He caused Persia to revolt," is the recapitulation in the inscription of Behistun.

The statement of Herodotus that he remitted for a certain period the tribute, which the provinces had to furnish yearly in the form of presents, and announced that for some years to come they need not expect anything from distant wars, cannot be called in question. He had every reason to make his rule acceptable, and the treasures of Cyrus at Pasargadae were no doubt still large enough to enable him to dispense with the tribute for some years.[207] The inscription of Darius and the tablets at Babylon (p. 195), establish the fact that not the satraps only, whom Cyrus and Cambyses had set up, and the population of the subject lands, but even the army of Cambyses which had gone with him to Egypt and returned after his death, recognized the Magian as king. As Herodotus says, Gaumata succeeded so that all nations wished his reign back when he had fallen, except the Persians. Most remarkable is the pa.s.sage in the inscription of Darius according to which Gaumata had destroyed the places of worship or the houses of the G.o.ds. How could a man, who claimed to be the son of Cyrus, begin by attacking the existing mode of worship, which Cyrus had practised and protected, without annihilating himself? Or was it the Magian tendency in him, which sought to bring the stricter forms observed by the priests into universal observance, and establish uniformity of worship? Or does Darius merely mean that Gaumata had allowed the temples of the subject nations to fall into ruin (Cyrus and Darius took them under their care).

This is probably the meaning of the obscure pa.s.sage in the Persian text; the Babylonian version shows that temples of the G.o.ds are spoken of, and these the Persians and Medes did not possess.

The murder of Smerdis cannot have remained an entire secret. The murderer or murderers knew it, and the relatives, the members of the house of Achaemenes, the servants and women, cannot have been deceived by the resemblance for any length of time. The narrative of Darius tells us plainly, "that Gaumata put to death many men in order that it might not be known that he was not the son of Cyrus." There is no doubt that Cambyses, when dying, acknowledged his deed, but only to the Achaemenids and the six tribal princes. Darius was with Cambyses in Egypt. From Herodotus we learn that he secretly sent messages to the satraps at the time of the rule of the Magians[208]. Hence he knew of the fact, and, as was fitting, he urged the overthrow of the Magian before all others. Why the younger line of the royal house and the tribal princes of the Persians did not come forward immediately after the death of Cambyses--why they did not call on the Persians to rise against the Magians--on these matters we can only make conjectures, which however are of a suggestive kind. One obvious reason was that the declaration that the throne had been usurped, and the rising of the Persians which would have followed such a declaration, would have thrown the kingdom into the most violent convulsions. This would have given the subject nations the choice of taking up arms for their favourite, the usurper, or for their own independence; it would have given them the right, and the Medes above all, of throwing off the existing rule. Could they venture to renew the dangerous war, which Cyrus had waged against the Medes, which had been so long undecided, and had brought the Persians into the greatest distress, in which they had conquered only after the most severe efforts? Who would guarantee a happy issue to the new conflict? And if the Medes were really conquered for the second time, would not the conflict with them be the signal for the other nations to revolt on their part also? In this way the kingdom of Cyrus would be completely disorganized. Thus Hystaspes and Darius and the princes of the Persians hesitated; and contented themselves with coming to a secret understanding with the satraps. So long as the royal house and the six princes remained silent, the pretended son of Cyrus was compelled to spare the Achaemenids and the tribal princes in order to play his own part, but their silence on the other hand declared the Magian to be the legitimate ruler, and the longer that they were silent the more securely did they establish his throne. This position of affairs was the more difficult for the Achaemenids, because Gaumata, as we are told in the inscription, removed his residence from Persia to Media. He was aware no doubt that his deception could not be long maintained against the Persians and the satraps. In Media, therefore, he was more secure than in Persia, for in Media the Magians formed a numerous and exclusive order. If the Persians rose against him his best support against them was the Medes; if the deception had to be dropped, the rising of the Persians would pa.s.s into a war between the Persians and Medes.

From the important position which the authority of Herodotus a.s.signs to Otanes, and the peculiar honours subsequently paid to him and his family, we may perhaps a.s.sume that it was he more than any other, who, with the fixed resolution not to endure the dominion of Gaumata, pointed out at the same time the unavoidable consequences of an armed rising of Persia. Instead of shattering the central power with their own hands, he must have advised his confederates to get it into their own power, and with this object in view he proposed the removal of the Magian, the surprise, and a.s.sa.s.sination in the citadel. There would be time for an open conflict if the a.s.sa.s.sination failed. Darius, who was then about thirty-five,[209] was younger and more hasty; he may have insisted on a sudden decision and have been more inclined to use open violence.

Finally, the princes of the Persians united with Darius in the attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate the king. It is obvious that the consultations and deliberations which led to this resolution took place among few, and in the greatest secrecy. It was necessary to avoid observation and suspicion; they must not go in a company. The son of Hystaspes might take a message from his father to the king, and the chiefs of the Persian tribes might accompany him. They were the chosen councillors of the king, and had the right of free entry to him. Ought they to despair of this because they had not been summoned to the council? If they had had confederates in the palace of Gaumata, as Ctesias suggests, it would have been the most foolish rashness to go to Media in such small numbers. That Darius accomplished the deed with six a.s.sociates only, as he himself tells us, proves that they could reckon on obtaining an entrance for these seven only, and that the king dared not refuse it to them. His false a.s.sertion that he was an Achaemenid, and the king of the Persians, must have been his ruin; it compelled him to admit the seven; at any rate the guards of the palace had no orders to the contrary. The upright tiara, which the Persian kings, the descendants of Achaemenes, and the princes of the remaining six tribes wore, and which Plutarch suggests was the mark of recognition among the conspirators (Polyaenus states this for a fact[210]), pointed out Darius and his a.s.sociates to the body-guard as having the right of free entrance. It was not, as the Greeks thought, a mark of distinction given to the six after the deed, but, as we have seen, a distinction which they possessed, along with others, from the time of Achaemenes, and the arrangement of the Persian const.i.tution. The six princes of the Persians, and at their head the eldest son of the lawful successor to the throne, Hystaspes the prince of the seventh tribe, or Pasargadae, were resolved to attack the pretended king in his palace in Media, and risk their lives to maintain the throne in the hands of the Persians. We must look for the citadel of cikathauvatis in Nicaya between Kermanshah and Elvend, at the southern foot of the mountain overlooking the pastures of the Nisaean horses. If the attempt failed Darius and his companions could hardly escape. But the father of Darius and two younger brothers (Artaba.n.u.s and Artaphernes) were alive and in safety. They could avenge the fall of the conspirators, and by taking up the struggle openly, attempt to succeed where craft had failed. In the struggle, as in the previous consultation, the source from which Herodotus has drawn represents Gobryas as the leading person next to Darius. He is the first whom Otanes admits to the secret; he always votes with Darius for immediate action; he seizes one of the two Magians--obviously the king himself--whom Darius then slays. Gobryas was the chief of the Pateisch.o.r.eans, who dwelt next to the Pasargadae on Lake Bakhtegan, and the father-in-law of Darius, to whom his daughter had already borne three sons.[211]

The bold resolution to attack the usurper in the midst of Media and cut him down with his adherents in his palace succeeded. If Herodotus tells us that when the princes after the a.s.sa.s.sination called the Persians together, and showed them the heads of the Magians, the Persians also drew their swords and slew all the Magians who came in their way, the truth is that the only Persians before the citadel of cikathauvatis in the Median district of Nisaea would be the servants of the Persians who accompanied them there. The question was not the slaughter of the Magi; such a ma.s.sacre would have been the most foolish thing that could have been done. The Persians who attended the princes had no other duty than to enable their masters to escape from the citadel in case of failure, and in case of success to prevent the servants of Gaumata, who may very likely have been for the most part Magians, from dispersing, and to cut them down, to avail themselves of the overthrow of the guard in order to disarm them. The supposed slaughter of the Magians has arisen from the festival, by which the Persians celebrated the day of the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Magian, the tenth of Bagayadis.[212]

Five days after the death of the Magian the seven took counsel together, as Herodotus relates, on the state of affairs. Otanes was of opinion that the government should be handed over to the whole body of the Persians, that it was not well that one should rule over them. Megabyzus represented oligarchy; the best men should form the best resolutions.

Darius spoke in favour of monarchy. In an oligarchy enmities arise, and out of enmities rebellions and struggles, which lead to monarchy. In democracy baseness forces its way in, and the base gather together till a man arises who can reduce them to order; he is then admired by the people and raised to be their ruler. A man had given freedom to the Persians, and it was not well to set aside the laws of the fathers. Then Otanes said: "Fellow-conspirators, it is obvious that one of us will be king, as we are leaving the choice to the Persians either by lot or in some other manner. But I do not seek the throne with you: I wish neither to be a ruler, nor to be ruled over. I leave the dominion to you on the condition that neither I nor my descendants shall be subjects to you."

The six agreed, and Otanes remained apart; to this day his family is the only free family in Persia, and is governed only so much as it pleases, provided that it does not transgress the laws of the Persians. The others resolved, that if the monarchy came to one of them, Otanes and his descendants should each year receive a Median robe and the gifts of highest honour usual among the Persians, because he had been the first to entertain the idea and had called them together. For the whole seven they resolved that each should have the right of entering the palace without announcement, whenever he would, and the king should not be allowed to take a wife from any but the families of the conspirators.

The throne was to go to the man whose horse, when in the suburbs of the city, should be the first to neigh at the rising of the sun. In the night Oebares, the groom of Darius, led his horse along the road, on which the six would ride in the morning, to a mare which he had previously caused to be brought there. When the princes rode out next morning, as had been agreed upon, the horse of Darius neighed at the place where the mare had been brought to him in the night, and at the same moment there was thunder and lightning in a clear sky. Then the five sprang from their horses and did homage to Darius. And when Darius was established on his throne, he set up a picture in relief on stone representing a man with a horse, and underneath it he engraved the words: "Darius, the son of Hystaspes, by the help of his horse and his groom Oebares, came to be king over the Persians."[213]

In Pompeius Trogus we are told: "The conspirators were so equal in valour and n.o.ble birth, that it was difficult for the people to elect one of them to be king. But the conspirators themselves devised an expedient which left the decision to religion and good luck. They resolved to ride early in the morning to a particular place before the citadel; and he whose horse was the first to neigh at the rising of the sun, was to be king. For the Persians regarded the sun as the only deity, and horses as sacred to him. Among the conspirators was Darius the son of Hystaspes." After narrating the trick of the groom in the same manner as Herodotus, our excerpt continues: "The moderation of the others was so great that when they had received the sign from the G.o.ds (Justin speaks only of the neighing, not of the thunder and lightning), they at once sprang from their horses and greeted Darius as king. The whole people followed the decision of the princes and made him their king. By such a trivial circ.u.mstance did the monarchy of the Persians, which was won by the valour of the seven n.o.blest men, come into the hands of one person. It is extraordinary that those who risked their lives to wrest the throne from the Magians, should have resigned it with such readiness, though it is true that in addition to the n.o.bility of form, and the valour, which made Darius worthy of the throne, he was also related by blood to the ancient kings."[214] The excerpt from the account of Ctesias tells us: "Sphendadates (p. 208 ff.) had reigned seven months (_i.e._ after the death of Cambyses). Of the seven Darius became king because his horse first neighed at the rising of the sun, which was the sign agreed upon among them; but it was induced to neigh by a certain trick and stratagem. Since then the Persians celebrate the slaughter of the Magians on the day on which Sphendadates the Magian was slain."[215]

An election to the throne was not a matter of necessity after the fall of the Magian. The older line of the royal house, the descendants of the elder son of Teispes, had become extinct with Smerdis and Cambyses; the younger line had the right to ascend the throne. The head of this line was Hystaspes. We not only learn from Herodotus, that he was still alive, the inscription of Behistun mentions his achievements after his son ascended the throne. The father gave place to the son, just as the father of Cyrus had given place to his son in the rise of the Persians against Astyages. Hystaspes abandoned the throne in favour of his eldest son. This renunciation, in case of success, must have taken place before Darius set out to Media, when the son went with the princes of the Persians to succeed in the work of liberation or to perish. These princes were in a position to salute Darius as king immediately after the fall of the Magian. A sign from the G.o.ds could only be required to show that the son would be accepted in the place of the father. It was more important to prove to the Medians, the inhabitants of Nisaea, that the new ruler who took the place of the murdered prince had done so with the will of the G.o.ds, that Darius had seized the crown with the will of Auramazda and Mithra. We know the sacred horses and chariot which the Persians kept for the G.o.d of the sun and of light. The lucky neighing with which the horse on which the new king was mounted greeted the rising of the sun on the seventh day after the death of the Magian, put it beyond doubt that the act was just, that the new ruler of Persia was under the protection of the far-seeing Mithra, the G.o.d of truth, the destroyer of lies. The narrative of the trick of Oebares is no doubt a Greek invention. In the mind of the Persians it would have deprived the divine signal of any importance. In the narrative of Herodotus it is quite superfluous, for not only does the horse neigh but thunder and lightning occur in a clear sky. The name of the groom, Oebares, does not improve the story or make it more credible; it is merely a repet.i.tion of the name of that most faithful and energetic counsellor and helper of Cyrus, who first, himself a fortunate omen, meets him in the foreign country, and carries horsedung towards him, and afterwards a.s.sists him to victory and the throne (V. 346). As regards the equestrian picture, which, according to Herodotus, Darius set up in honour of his horse and his groom, Darius had certainly no interest in announcing to the kingdom that he had won the throne by deception. No doubt Darius left splendid monuments behind him. He may also have caused the divine consecration and confirmation of his kingdom to be engraved upon a rock, but the inscription to the picture certainly did not mention the deception, or the inventor of it and his service.

Herodotus represents the conspirators as consulting about the best form of government on the sixth day after the a.s.sa.s.sination, no doubt because the opinion existed among the Greeks, that the Persians had a custom by which anarchy was allowed to prevail for five days after the death of the king, not as a sign of mourning, but in order to learn by experience what an evil anarchy was.[216] The best form of government might be discussed in h.e.l.las, but it could not be discussed in Persia, and least of all in the citadel of cikathauvatis. Herodotus himself observes, that these speeches were incredible to some of the Greeks, but that nevertheless they were made;[217] he even recurs to the subject, supporting the story on the fact that Mardonius, the son of Gobryas, had removed the tyrants from the cities of the Ionians and set up democracies there. Herodotus exaggerates what was done in the year 493 B.C. in order to support his story of this discussion; if Mardonius established democracies, Otanes may have represented this form of const.i.tution in the council of the seven. At that time tyrannies were not preserved in the Greek cities to the extent that the princes of Miletus, Histiaeus and Aristagoras, raised the sign of rebellion for the Ionians on purely personal grounds. Hence after the rebellion had been crushed, tyrannies were not fully restored in these cities. But the tyrants who remained faithful to Persia, like Aeaces of Lesbos, and Strattis of Chios, were replaced on their thrones. Strattis was ruler of Lesbos in the time of Xerxes. Even after Mardonius had visited the coast of Anatolia, Hippoclus and Aeantides ruled over Lampsacus; the Pisistratidae in Sigeum; Demaratus obtained Teuthrania, Halisarna, and Pergamum; Gongylus, Gambrion, Myrina, and Gryneum; Theomestor in the reign of Xerxes was tyrant of Samos; in Herodotus' own city the descendants of Lygdamis retained the throne. To renew the tyrannies in their old extent, when they were intended to keep in subjection Greek maritime cities of considerable power without Persian garrisons was not necessary after these cities had been so greatly weakened by the suppression of the rebellion.[218]

The legend of the discussion of the seven as to the best form of const.i.tution has grown up out of the privileges of the six tribal princes, who as a fact formed an aristocratic element in the Persian const.i.tution (V. 329), and out of the peculiar immunities enjoyed by the house of Otanes; the Greeks traced both one and the other back to the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Magians. From the immunities, and supposed self-government of this house, the Greeks concluded that Otanes must at that time have p.r.o.nounced for the freedom and self-government of the Persians, and Herodotus represents him as consistently democratic, and taking no part in the election to the throne. In the discussion the defence of monarchy was naturally a.s.signed to the future occupant of the throne.

FOOTNOTES:

[199] Ctes. "Pers." 13. The names of the Seven in Ctesias have been discussed already, Vol. V. 329 _n._

[200] Herod. 3, 83, 84, and below, p. 221, 222.

[201] Herod. 4, 83; 5, 25, 30.

[202] Vol. V. 326 _n._

[203] Herod. 3, 72, 77.

[204] Spiegel, "Keilinschriften," s. 7, "to say;" so Oppert ("Peuple des Medes," p. 110) after the Turanian version; on the other hand Mordtmann in "Z. D. M. G." 16, 37 gives, "to undertake."

[205] Spiegel, "Keilinschriften," s. 81 ff.; Oppert, _loc. cit._ p. 121.

[206] Herodotus gives Aspathines or Aspathenes; the inscription on the tomb of Darius mentions Acpachana as holding an honourable office near the person of the king.

[207] Herod. 3, 67.

[208] Herod. 3, 139, 126, 127.

[209] See below, p. 229.

[210] Plutarch, "Praec. gerend. reip." c. 27; Polyaen. "Strateg." 7, 12.

[211] Herod. 7, 2; Behist. 4, 84; 5, 7, 9. N. R. c.

[212] G. Rawlinson's view, which he gives in an excursus to his Herodotus (2, 548 ff.)--that the Magian was not a Mede, I accept, as I have observed, p. 191. Darius says in the inscription of Behistun that neither a Persian nor a "Mede" had risen against Gaumata, and moreover, that he had recovered the dominion which had been taken "from his tribe"

and "race." But in no case was it a question of a religious conflict, but rather to avoid a new struggle between Media and Persia. On the pa.s.sage 3, 14 in the inscription all that need be said has been given already (p. 216).

[213] Herod. 3, 80-88.