Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
his assistance in all things. Both of them gave credit to these
words, and because they supposed they were each intrigued
against by the other, they both sent their envoys, one along
with Teribazus, and the other with his son. All this taking
some time to transact, fresh surmises and suspicions of
Teribazus were expressed to the king, who began to be out of
heart, sorry that he had confided in him, and ready to give ear
to his rivals who impeached him. But at last he came, and so
did his son, bringing the Cadusian agents along with them, and
so there was a cessation of arms and a peace signed with both
the princes. And Teribazus, in great honor and distinction, set
out homewards in the company of the king; who, indeed, upon this
journey made it appear plainly that cowardice and effeminacy are
the effects, not of delicate and sumptuous living, as many
suppose, but of a base and vicious nature, actuated by false and
bad opinions. For notwithstanding his golden ornaments, his
robe of state, and the rest of that costly attire, worth no less
than twelve thousand talents, with which the royal person was
constantly clad, his labors and toils were not a whit inferior
to those of the meanest persons in his army. With his quiver by
his side and his shield on his arm, he led them on foot,
quitting his horse, through craggy and steep ways, insomuch that
the sight of his cheerfulness and unwearied strength gave wings
to the soldiers, and so lightened the journey, that they made
daily marches of above two hundred furlongs.
After they had arrived at one of his own mansions, which had
beautiful ornamented parks in the midst of a region naked and
without trees, the weather being very cold, he gave full
commission to his soldiers to provide themselves with wood by
cutting down any, without exception, even the pine and cypress.
And when they hesitated and were for sparing them, being large
and goodly trees, he, taking up an ax himself, felled the
greatest and most beautiful of them. After which his men used
their hatchets, and piling up many fires, passed away the night
at their ease. Nevertheless, he returned not without the loss
of many and valiant subjects, and of almost all his horses. And
supposing that his misfortunes and the ill success of his
expedition made him despised in the eyes of his people, he
looked jealously on his nobles, many of whom he slew in anger,
and yet more out of fear. As, indeed, fear is the bloodiest
passion in princes; confidence, on the other hand, being
merciful, gentle, and unsuspicious. So we see among wild
beasts, the intractable and least tamable are the most timorous
and most easily startled; the nobler creatures, whose courage
makes them trustful, are ready to respond to the advances of
men.
Artaxerxes, now being an old man, perceived that his sons were
in controversy about his kingdom, and that they made parties
among his favorites and peers. Those that were equitable among
them thought it fit, that as he had received it, so he should
bequeath it, by right of age, to Darius. The younger brother,
Ochus, who was hot and violent, had indeed a considerable number
of the courtiers that espoused his interest, but his chief hope
was that by Atossa's means he should win his father. For he
flattered her with the thoughts of being his wife and partner in
the kingdom after the death of Artaxerxes. And truly it was
rumored that already Ochus maintained a too intimate
correspondence with her. This, however, was quite unknown to
the king; who, being willing to put down in good time his son
Ochus's hopes, lest, by his attempting the same things his uncle
Cyrus did, wars and contentions might again afflict his kingdom,
proclaimed Darius, then twenty-five years old, his successor,
and gave him leave to wear the upright hat, as they call it. It
was a rule and usage of Persia, that the heir apparent to the
crown should beg a boon, and that he that declared him so should
give whatever he asked, provided it were within the sphere of
his power. Darius therefore requested Aspasia, in former time
the most prized of the concubines of Cyrus, and now belonging to
the king. She was by birth a Phocaean, of Ionia, born of free
parents, and well educated. Once when Cyrus was at supper, she
was led in to him with other women, who, when they were sat down
by him, and he began to sport and dally and talk jestingly with
them, gave way freely to his advances. But she stood by in
silence, refusing to come when Cyrus called her, and when his
chamberlains were going to force her towards him, said,
"Whosoever lays hands on me shall rue it;" so that she seemed to
the company a sullen and rude-mannered person. However, Cyrus
was well pleased, and laughed, saying to the man that brought
the women, "Do you not see of a certainty that this woman alone
of all that came with you is truly noble and pure in character?"
After which time he began to regard her, and loved her above all
of her sex, and called her the Wise. But Cyrus being slain in
the fight, she was taken among the spoils of his camp.
Darius, in demanding her, no doubt much offended his father, for
the barbarian people keep a very jealous and watchful eye over
their carnal pleasures, so that it is death for a man not only
to come near and touch any concubine of his prince, but likewise
on a journey to ride forward and pass by the carriages in which
they are conveyed. And though, to gratify his passion, he had
against all law married his daughter Atossa, and had besides her
no less than three hundred and sixty concubines selected for
their beauty, yet being importuned for that one by Darius, he
urged that she was a free-woman, and allowed him to take her, if
she had an inclination to go with him, but by no means to force
her away against it. Aspasia, therefore, being sent for, and,
contrary to the king's expectation, making choice of Darius, he
gave him her indeed, being constrained by law, but when he had
done so, a little after he took her from him. For he
consecrated her priestess to Diana of Ecbatana, whom they name
Anaitis, that she might spend the remainder of her days in
strict chastity, thinking thus to punish his son, not
rigorously, but with moderation, by a revenge checkered with
jest and earnest. But he took it heinously, either that he was
passionately fond of Aspasia, or because he looked upon himself
as affronted and scorned by his father. Teribazus, perceiving
him thus minded, did his best to exasperate him yet further,
seeing in his injuries a representation of his own, of which the
following is the account: Artaxerxes, having many daughters,
promised to give Apama to Pharnabazus to wife, Rhodogune to
Orontes, and Amestris to Teribazus; whom alone of the three he
disappointed, by marrying Amestris himself. However, to make
him amends, he betrothed his youngest daughter Atossa to him.
But after he had, being enamored of her too, as has been said,
married her, Teribazus entertained an irreconcilable enmity
against him. As indeed he was seldom at any other time steady
in his temper, but uneven and inconsiderate; so that whether he
were in the number of the choicest favorites of his prince, or
whether he were offensive and odious to him, he demeaned himself
in neither condition with moderation; but if he was advanced he
was intolerably insolent, and in his degradation not submissive
and peaceable in his deportment, but fierce and haughty.
And therefore Teribazus was to the young prince flame added upon
flame, ever urging him, and saying, that in vain those wear
their hats upright who consult not the real success of their
affairs, and that he was ill befriended of reason if he
imagined, whilst he had a brother, who, through the women's
apartments, was seeking a way to the supremacy, and a father of
so rash and fickle a humor, that he should by succession
infallibly step up into the throne. For he that out of fondness
to an Ionian girl has eluded a law sacred and inviolable among
the Persians is not likely to be faithful in the performance of
the most important promises. He added, too, that it was not all
one for Ochus not to attain to, and for him to be put by his
crown; since Ochus as a subject might live happily, and nobody
could hinder him; but he, being proclaimed king, must either
take up his scepter or lay down his life. These words presently
inflamed Darius: what Sophocles says being indeed generally
true: --
Quick travels the persuasion to what's wrong.
For the path is smooth, and upon an easy descent, that leads us
to our own will; and the most part of us desire what is evil
through our strangeness to and ignorance of good. And in this
case, no doubt, the greatness of the empire and the jealousy
Darius had of Ochus furnished Teribazus with material for his
persuasions. Nor was Venus wholly unconcerned in the matter, in
regard, namely, of his loss of Aspasia.
Darius, therefore, resigned himself up to the dictates of
Teribazus; and many now conspiring with them, a eunuch gave
information to the king of their plot and the way how it was to
be managed, having discovered the certainty of it, that they had
resolved to break into his bed-chamber by night, and there to
kill him as he lay. After Artaxerxes had been thus advertised,
he did not think fit, by disregarding the discovery, to despise
so great a danger, nor to believe it when there was little or no
proof of it. Thus then he did: he charged the eunuch constantly
to attend and accompany the conspirators wherever they were; in
the meanwhile, he broke down the party-wall of the chamber
behind his bed, and placed a door in it to open and shut, which
covered up with tapestry; so the hour approaching, and the
eunuch having told him the precise time in which the traitors
designed to assassinate him, he waited for them in his bed, and
rose not up till he had seen the faces of his assailants and
recognized every man of them. But as soon as he saw them with
their swords drawn and coming up to him, throwing up the
hanging, he made his retreat into the inner chamber, and,
bolting to the door, raised a cry. Thus when the murderers had
been seen by him, and had attempted him in vain, they with speed
went back through the same doors they came in by, enjoining
Teribazus and his friends to fly, as their plot had been
certainly detected. They, therefore, made their escape
different ways; but Teribazus was seized by the king's guards,
and after slaying many, while they were laying hold on him, at
length being struck through with a dart at a distance, fell. As
for Darius, who was brought to trial with his children, the king
appointed the royal judges to sit over him, and because he was
not himself present, but accused Darius by proxy, he commanded
his scribes to write down the opinion of every one of the
judges, and show it to him. And after they had given their
sentences, all as one man, and condemned Darius to death, the
officers seized on him and hurried him to a chamber not far off.
To which place the executioner, when summoned, came with a razor
in his hand, with which men of his employment cut off' the heads
of offenders. But when he saw that Darius was the person thus
to be punished, he was appalled and started back, offering to go
out, as one that had neither power nor courage enough to behead
a king; yet at the threats and commands of the judges, who stood
at the prison door, he returned, and grasping the hair of his
head and bringing his face to the ground with one hand, he cut
through his neck with the razor he had in the other. Some
affirm that sentence was passed in the presence of Artaxerxes;
that Darius, after he had been convicted by clear evidence,
falling prostrate before him, did humbly beg his pardon; that