in his treason, and brought to most horrible ends all those who had been prominent in frustrating it.  She poisoned Statira out of hatred and jealousy, because she had a certain degree of influence over her husband.  She encouraged Artaxerxes to contract an incestuous marriage with his daughter Atossa, a marriage which proved a fertile source of further calamities.  Artaxerxes had three sons by Statira—­Darius, Ariaspes, and Ochus.  Of these Darius, as the eldest, was formally declared the heir.  But Ochus, ambitious of reigning, intrigued with Atossa, and sought to obtain the succession by her aid.  So good seemed to Darius the chances of his brother’s success that he took the rash step of conspiring against the life of his father, as the only way of securing the throne.  His conspiracy was detected, and he was seized and executed, Ariaspes thereby becoming the eldest son, and so the natural heir.  Ochus then persuaded Ariaspes that he had offended his father, and was about to be put to a cruel and ignominious death, whereupon that prince in despair committed suicide.  His elder brothers thus removed, there still remained one rival, whom Ochus feared.  This was Arsames, one of his half-brothers, an illegitimate son of Artaxerxes, who stood high in his favor.  Assassination was the weapon employed to get rid of this rival.  It is said that this last blow was too much for the aged and unhappy king, who died of grief on receiving intelligence of the murder.

Artaxerxes was about the weakest of all the Persian monarchs.  He was mild in temperament, affable in demeanor, goodnatured, affectionate and well-meaning.  But, possessing no strength of will, he allowed the commission of the most atrocious acts, the most horrible cruelties, by those about him, who were bolder and more resolute than himself.  The wife and son, whom he fondly loved, were plotted against before his eyes; and he had neither the skill to prevent nor the courage to avenge their fate.  Incapable of resisting entreaty and importunity, he granted boons which he ought to have refused, and condoned offences which it would have been proper to punish.  He could not maintain long the most just resentment, but remitted punishments even when they were far milder than the crime deserved.  He was fairly successful in the management of his relations with foreign countries, and in the suppression of disturbances within his own dominions; but he was quite incapable of anything like a strenuous and prolonged effort to renovate and re-invigorate the Empire.  If he held together the territories which he inherited, and bequeathed them to his successor augmented rather than diminished, it is to be attributed more to his good fortune than to his merits, and to the mistakes of his opponents than to his own prudence or sagacity.