and as he could not rid himself of her without making an enemy of the king, he entered into a conspiracy with 300 others, and planned to raise a rebellion.  The bond of a common crime, cruel and revolting in its character, was to secure the fidelity of the rebels one to another.  Amestris was to be placed in a sack, and each conspirator in turn was to plunge his sword into her body.  It is not clear whether this intended murder was executed or no.  Hoping to prevent it, Darius commissioned a certain Udiastes, who was in the service of Terituchmes, to save his daughter by any means that might be necessary; and Udiastes, collecting a band, set upon Terituchmes and slew him after a strenuous resistance.  After this, his mother, brothers, and sisters were apprehended by the order of Parysatis, the queen, who caused Roxana to be hewn in pieces, and the other unfortunates to be buried alive.  It was with great difficulty that Arsaces, the heir-apparent, afterwards Artaxerxes Mnemon, preserved his own wife, Statira, from the massacre.  It happened that she was sister to Terituchmes, and, though wholly innocent of his offence, she would have been involved in the common destruction of her family had not her husband with tears and entreaties begged her life of his parents.  The son of Terituchmes maintained himself for a while in his father’s government; but Parysatis succeeded in having him taken off by poison.

The character of Darius Nothus is seen tolerably clearly in the account of his reign which has been here given.  He was at once weak and wicked.  Contrary to his sworn word, he murdered his brothers, Secydianus and Arsites.  He broke faith with Pissuthnes.  He sanctioned the wholesale execution of Terituchmes’ relatives.  Under him the eunuchs of the palace rose to such power that one of them actually ventured to aspire to the sovereignty.  Parysatis, his wife, one of the most cruel and malignant even of Oriental women, was in general his chosen guide and counsellor.  His severities cannot, however, in all eases be ascribed to her influence, for he was anxious that she should put the innocent Statira to death, and, when she refused, reproached her with being foolishly lenient.  In his administration of the Empire he was unsuccessful; for, if he gained some tracts of Asia Minor, he lost the entire African satrapy.  Under him we trace a growing relaxation of the checks by which the great officers of the state were intended to have been held under restraint.  Satraps came to be practically uncontrolled in their provinces, and the dangerous custom arose of allowing sons to succeed, almost as a matter of course, to the governments of their fathers.  Powers unduly large were lodged in the hands of a single officer, and actions, that should have brought down upon their perpetrators sharp and signal punishment, were timorously or negligently condoned by the supreme authority.  Cunning and treachery were made the weapons wherewith Persia contended with her enemies.  Manly habits were laid aside, and the nation learned to trust more and more to the swords of mercenaries.