Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
needles should be struck through his tongue. And both supposing
that with his own hand he had cut off Cyrus, and being willing
that all men should think and say so, he sent rich presents to
Mithridates, who first wounded him, and charged those by whom he
conveyed the gifts to him to tell him, that "the king has
honored you with these his favors, because you found and brought
him the horse-trappings of Cyrus." The Carian, also, from whose
wound in the ham Cyrus died, suing for his reward, he commanded
those that brought it him to say that "the king presents you
with this as a second remuneration for the good news told him;
for first Artasyras, and, next to him, you assured him of the
decease of Cyrus." Mithridates retired without complaint,
though not without resentment. But the unfortunate Carian was
fool enough to give way to a natural infirmity. For being
ravished with the sight of the princely gifts that were before
him, and being tempted thereupon to challenge and aspire to
things above him, he deigned not to accept the king's present as
a reward for good news, but indignantly crying out and appealing
to witnesses, he protested that he, and none but he, had killed
Cyrus, and that he was unjustly deprived of the glory. These
words, when they came to his ear, much offended the king, so
that forthwith he sentenced him to be beheaded. But the queen
mother, being in the king's presence, said, "Let not the king so
lightly discharge this pernicious Carian; let him receive from
me the fitting punishment of what he dares to say." So when the
king had consigned him over to Parysatis, she charged the
executioners to take up the man, and stretch him upon the rack
for ten days, then, tearing out his eyes, to drop molten brass
into his ears till he expired.
Mithridates, also, within a short time after, miserably perished
by the like folly; for being invited to a feast where were the
eunuchs both of the king and of the queen mother, he came
arrayed in the dress and the golden ornaments which he had
received from the king. After they began to drink, the eunuch
that was the greatest in power with Parysatis thus speaks to
him: A magnificent dress, indeed, O Mithridates, is this which
the king has given you; the chains and bracelets are glorious,
and your scimitar of invaluable worth; how happy has he made
you, the object of every eye!" To whom he, being a little
overcome with the wine replied, "What are these things,
Sparamizes? Sure I am, I showed myself to the king in that day
of trial to be one deserving greater and costlier gifts than
these." At which Sparamizes smiling, said, "I do not grudge
them to you, Mithridates; but since the Grecians tell us that
wine and truth go together, let me hear now, my friend, what
glorious or mighty matter was it to find some trappings that had
slipped off a horse, and to bring them to the king?" And this
he spoke, not as ignorant of the truth, but desiring to unbosom
him to the company, irritating the vanity of the man, whom drink
had now made eager to talk and incapable of controlling himself.
So he forbore nothing, but said out, "Talk you what you please
of horse-trappings, and such trifles; I tell you plainly, that
this hand was the death of Cyrus. For I threw not my dart as
Artagerses did, in vain and to no purpose, but only just missing
his eye, and hitting him right on the temple, and piercing him
through, I brought him to the ground; and of that wound he
died." The rest of the company, who saw the end and the hapless
fate of Mithridates as if it were already completed, bowed their
heads to the ground; and he who entertained them said,
"Mithridates, my friend, let us eat and drink now, revering the
fortune of our prince, and let us waive discourse which is too
weighty for us."
Presently after, Sparamizes told Parysatis what he said, and she
told the king, who was greatly enraged at it, as having the lie
given him, and being in danger to forfeit the most glorious and
most pleasant circumstance of his victory. For it was his
desire that everyone, whether Greek or barbarian, should
believe that in the mutual assaults and conflicts between him
and his brother, he, giving and receiving a blow, was himself
indeed wounded, but that the other lost his life. And,
therefore, he decreed that Mithridates should be put to death in
boats; which execution is after the following manner: Taking two
boats framed exactly to fit and answer each other, they lay down
in one of them the malefactor that suffers, upon his back; then,
covering it with the other, and so setting them together that
the head, hands, and feet of him are left outside, and the rest
of his body lies shut up within, they offer him food, and if he
refuse to eat it, they force him to do it by pricking his eyes;
then, after he has eaten, they drench him with a mixture of
milk and honey, pouring it not only into his mouth, but all over
his face. They then keep his face continually turned towards
the sun; and it becomes completely covered up and hidden by the
multitude of flies that settle on it. And as within the boats
he does what those that eat and drink must needs do, creeping
things and vermin spring out of the corruption and rottenness of
the excrement, and these entering into the bowels of him, his
body is consumed. When the man is manifestly dead, the
uppermost boat being taken off, they find his flesh devoured,
and swarms of such noisome creatures preying upon and, as it
were, growing to his inwards. In this way Mithridates, after
suffering for seventeen days, at last expired.
Masabates, the king's eunuch, who had cut off the hand and head
of Cyrus, remained still as a mark for Parysatis's vengeance.
Whereas, therefore, he was so circumspect, that he gave her no
advantage against him, she framed this kind of snare for him.
She was a very ingenious woman in other ways, and was an
excellent player at dice, and, before the war, had often played
with the king. After the war, too, when she had been reconciled
to him, she joined readily in all amusements with him, played
at dice with him, was his confidant in his love matters, and in
every way did her best to leave him as little as possible in the
company of Statira, both because she hated her more than any
other person, and because she wished to have no one so powerful
as herself. And so once when Artaxerxes was at leisure, and
inclined to divert himself, she challenged him to play at dice
with her for a thousand Darics, and purposely let him win them,
and paid him down in gold. Yet, pretending to be concerned for
her loss, and that she would gladly have her revenge for it, she
pressed him to begin a new game for a eunuch; to which he
consented. But first they agreed that each of them might except
five of their most trusty eunuchs, and that out of the rest of
them the loser should yield up any the winner should make choice
of. Upon these conditions they played. Thus being bent upon
her design, and thoroughly in earnest with her game, and the
dice also running luckily for her, when she had got the game,
she demanded Masabates, who was not in the number of the five
excepted. And before the king could suspect the matter, having
delivered him up to the tormentors, she enjoined them to flay
him alive, to set his body upon three stakes, and to stretch his
skin upon stakes separately from it.
These things being done, and the king taking them ill, and being
incensed against her, she with raillery and laughter told him,
"You are a comfortable and happy man indeed, if you are so much
disturbed for the sake of an old rascally eunuch, when I, though
I have thrown away a thousand Darics, hold my peace and
acquiesce in my fortune." So the king, vexed with himself for
having been thus deluded, hushed up all. But Statira both in
other matters openly opposed her, and was angry with her for
thus, against all law and humanity, sacrificing to the memory of
Cyrus the king's faithful friends and eunuchs.
Now after that Tisaphernes had circumvented and by a false oath
had betrayed Clearchus and the other commanders, and, taking
them, had sent them bound in chains to the king, Ctesias says
that he was asked by Clearchus to supply him with a comb; and
that when he had it, and had combed his head with it, he was
much pleased with this good office, and gave him a ring, which
might be a token of the obligation to his relatives and friends
in Sparta; and that the engraving upon this signet was a set of
Caryatides dancing. He tells us that the soldiers, his fellow
captives, used to purloin a part of the allowance of food sent
to Clearchus, giving him but little of it; which thing Ctesias
says he rectified, causing a better allowance to be conveyed to
him, and that a separate share should be distributed to the
soldiers by themselves; adding that he ministered to and
supplied him thus by the interest and at the instance of
Parysatis. And there being a portion of ham sent daily with his
other food to Clearchus, she, he says, advised and instructed
him, that he ought to bury a small knife in the meat, and thus
send it to his friend, and not leave his fate to be determined
by the king's cruelty; which he, however, he says, was afraid to
do. However, Artaxerxes consented to the entreaties of his
mother, and promised her with an oath that he would spare
Clearchus; but afterwards, at the instigation of Statira, he put
every one of them to death except Menon. And thenceforward, he
says, Parysatis watched her advantage against Statira, and made
up poison for her; not a very probable story, or a very likely
motive to account for her conduct, if indeed he means that out
of respect to Clearchus she dared to attempt the life of the
lawful queen, that was mother of those who were heirs of the
empire. But it is evident enough, that this part of his history
is a sort of funeral exhibition in honor of Clearchus. For he
would have us believe, that, when the generals were executed,
the rest of them were torn in pieces by dogs and birds; but as
for the remains of Clearchus, that a violent gust of wind,
bearing before it a vast heap of earth, raised a mound to cover
his body, upon which, after a short time, some dates having
fallen there, a beautiful grove of trees grew up and
overshadowed the place, so that the king himself declared his
sorrow, concluding that in Clearchus he put to death a man
beloved of the gods.
Parysatis, therefore, having from the first entertained a secret
hatred and jealousy against Statira, seeing that the power she
herself had with Artaxerxes was founded upon feelings of honor
and respect for her, but that Statira's influence was firmly and
strongly based upon love and confidence, was resolved to
contrive her ruin, playing at hazard, as she thought, for the
greatest stake in the world. Among her attendant women there
was one that was trusty and in the highest esteem with her,
whose name was Gigis; who, as Dinon avers, assisted in making up
the poison. Ctesias allows her only to have been conscious of
it, and that against her will; charging Belitaras with actually
giving the drug, whereas Dinon says it was Melantas. The two
women had begun again to visit each other and to eat together;
but though they had thus far relaxed their former habits of
jealousy and variance, still, out of fear and as a matter of
caution, they always ate of the same dishes and of the same
parts of them. Now there is a small Persian bird, in the inside
of which no excrement is found, only a mass of fat, so that they
suppose the little creature lives upon air and dew. It is
called rhyntaces. Ctesias affirms, that Parysatis, cutting a
bird of this kind into two pieces with a knife, one side of