Ctesias, indeed,
was a man of unbounded vanity, as well as strong at-
tachment to Clearchus; and for that reason always
leaves a corner in the story for himself, when he is
dressing out the praises of Clearchus and the Lacedae-
monians.
was a man of unbounded vanity, as well as strong at-
tachment to Clearchus; and for that reason always
leaves a corner in the story for himself, when he is
dressing out the praises of Clearchus and the Lacedae-
monians.
Plutarch - Lives - v7
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201
whose name he bore, by behaving with great affability
to all that addressed him, and distributing honors and
rewards to persons of merit with a lavish hand. He
took care that punishments should never be embit-
tered with insult. If he received presents, he appeared
as well pleased as those who offered them, or rather
as those who received favors from him; and in con-
ferring favors, he always kept a countenance of benig-
nity and pleasure. There was not any thing, however
trifling, brought him by way of present, which he did
not receive kindly. Even when one Omisus brought
him a pomegranate of uncommon size, he said, ' By
the light of Mithra, this man, if he were made go-
vernor of a small city, would soon make it a great
one. ' When he was once on a journey, and people
presented him with a variety of things by the way, a
laboring man, having nothing else to give him, ran to
the river, and brought him some water in his hands.
Artaxerxes was so much pleased, that he sent the man
a gold cup, and a thousand darics. When Euclidas,
the Lacedaemonian, said many insolent things to him,
he contented himself with ordering the captain of his
guard to give him this answer, ' You may say what
you please to the king; but the king would have you
to know that he can not only say, but do. ' One day,
as he was hunting, Tiribazus showed him a rent in his
robe: on which the king said, ' What shall I do with
it? '--' Put on another, and give that to me,' said Tiri-
bazus. 'It shall be so,' said the king; ' I give it
thee; but I charge thee not to wear it. ' Tiribazus,
who, though not a bad man, was giddy and vain, dis-
regarding the restriction, soon put on the robe, and at
the same time tricked himself out with some golden
ornaments, fit only for queens. The court expressed
- great indignation, because it was a thing contrary to
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? 202
PLUTARCH.
their laws and customs: but the king only laughed,
and said to him, ' I allow thee to wear the trinkets as a
woman, and the robe as a madman. '
None had been admitted to the king of Persia's
table but his mother and his wife; the former of which
sat above him, and the latter below him: Artaxerxes,
nevertheless, did that honor to Ostanes and Oxathres,
two of his younger brothers. But what afforded the
Persians the most pleasing spectacle was the queen
Statira always riding in her chariot with the curtains
open, and admitting the women of the country to ap-
proach and salute her. These things made his admi-
nistration popular. Yet there were some turbulent and
factious men, who represented that the affairs of Persia
required a king of such a magnificent spirit, so able a
warrior, and so generous a master as Cyrus was; and
that the dignity of so great an empire could not be
supported without a prince of high thoughts and noble
ambition. It was not therefore without a confidence in
some of the Persians, as well as in the maritime pro-
vinces, that Cyrus undertook the war.
He wrote also to the Lacedaemonians for assistance;
promising that to the foot he would give horses, and to
the horsemen chariots: that on those who had farms
he would bestow villages, and on those who had vil-
lages, cities. As for their pay, he assured them it
should not be counted, but measured out to them. At
the same time he spoke in very high terms of himself,
telling them he had a greater and more princely heart
than his brother; that he was the better philosopher,
being instructed in the doctrines of the magi; and that
he could drink and bear more wine than his brother.
Artaxerxes, he said, was so timorous and effeminate a
man, that he could not sit a horse in hunting, nor a
chariot in time of war. The Lacedaemonians therefore
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? ARTAXERXES.
203
sent the scytale to Clearchus, with orders to serve
Cyrus in every thing he demanded.
Cyrus began his march against the king with a nu-
merous army of barbarians, and almost thirteen thou-
sand Greek mercenaries. He found one pretence after
another for having such an armament on foot; but his
real designs did not remain long undiscovered; for
Tissaphernes went in person to inform the king of
them.
This news put the court in great disorder. Parysatis
was censured as the principal cause of this war, and
her friends were suspected of a private intelligence
with Cyrus. Statira, in her distress about the war,
gave Parysatis the most trouble. 'Where is now,'
she cried, 'that faith which you pledged? Where
your intercessions, by which you saved the man that
was conspiring against his brother? Have they not
brought war and all its calamities on us V These ex-
postulations fixed in the heart of Parysatis, who was
naturally vindictive and barbarous in her resentment
and revenge, such a hatred of Statira, that she con-
trived to take her off. Dinon writes that this cruel
purpose was put in execution during the war: but
Ctesias assures us it was after it. And it is not pro-
bable that he, who was an eye-witness to the transac-
tions of that court, could either be ignorant of the time
when the assassination took place, or could have any
reason to misrepresent the date of it, though he often
deviates into fictitious tales, and loves to give us in-
vention instead of truth. We shall therefore leave
this story to the order of time in which he has placed
it.
While Cyrus was on his march, he had accounts
brought him that the king did not design to try the
fortune of the field by giving battle immediately, but
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? PLUTARCH.
to wait in Persia till his forces were assembled there
from all parts of his kingdom: and though he had
drawn a trench across the plain ten fathoms wide, as
many deep, and four hundred furlongs in length, yet
he suffered Cyrus to pass him, and to march almost to
Babylon. Tiribazus, we are told, was the first who
ventured to remonstrate to the king, that he ought not
any longer to avoid an action, nor to abandon Media,
Babylon, and even Susa, to the enemy, and hide him-
self in Persia, since he had an army infinitely greater
than theirs, and ten thousand satrapae and other offi-
cers, all of them superior to those of Cyrus both in
courage and conduct.
On this he took a resolution to come to action as
soon as possible. His sudden appearance with an army
of nine hundred thousand men, well prepared and ac-
coutred, extremely surprised the rebels; who, through
the confidence they had in themselves, and contempt
of their enemy, were marching in great confusion, and
even without their arms: so that it was with great dif-
ficulty that Cyrus reduced them to any order; and he
could not do it at last without much noise and tumult.
As the king advanced in silence, and at a slow pace,
the good discipline of his troops afforded an astonish-
ing spectacle to the Greeks, who expected amongst
such a multitude nothing but disorderly shouts and
motions, and every other instance of distraction and
confusion. He showed his judgment, too, in placing
the strongest of his armed chariots before that part of
his phalanx which was opposite to the Greeks, that, by
the impetuosity of their motion, they might break the
enemy's ranks before they came to close combat.
Many historians have described this battle; but Xe-
nophon has done it with such life and energy, that we
do not read an account of it--we see it, and feel all
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? AHTAXERXIiS.
205
the danger. It would be very absurd therefore to at-
tempt any thing after him, except the mentioning some
material circumstances which he has omitted.
The place where the battle was fought is called Cu-
naxa, and is five hundred furlongs from Babylon. A
little before the action Clearchus advised Cyrus to post
himself behind the Macedonians, and not risk his per-
son; on which he is reported to have said, 'What ad-
vice is this, Clearchus 1 Would you have me, at the
very time I am aiming at a crown, to show myself un-
worthy of one? ' Cyrus, indeed, committed an error
in rushing into the midst of the greatest danger without
care or caution; but Clearchus was guilty of another
as great, if not greater, in not consenting to place his
Greeks opposite to the king, and in getting the river
on his right, to prevent his being surrounded: for, if
safety was his principal object, and he was by all means
to avoid loss, he ought to have stayed at home. But
to carry his arms ten thousand furlongs from the sea,
without necessity or constraint, and solely with a view
to place Cyrus on the throne of Persia, and then not
to be solicitous for a post where he might best defend
the prince whose pay he received, but for one in which
he might act most at ease and in the greatest safety,
was to behave like a man who, on the sight of present
danger, abandons the whole enterprise, and forgets the
purpose of his expedition. For it appears from the
course of the action, that if the Greeks had charged
those that were posted about the king's person, they
would not have stood the shock; and after Artaxerxes
had been slain, or put to flight, the conqueror must
have gained the crown without farther interruption.
Therefore the ruin of Cyrus' affairs, and his death, is
much rather to be ascribed to the caution of Clearchus
than to his own rashness: for, if the king himself had
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? 206
PLUTARCH.
been to choose a post for the Greeks, where they might
do him the least prejudice, he could not have pitched
on a better than that which was most remote from him-
self and the troops about him. At the distance he was
from Clearchus, he knew not of the defeat of that part
of his army which was near the river, and Cyrus was
cut off before he could avail himself of the advantages
gained by the Greeks. Cyrus, indeed, was sensible
what disposition would have been of most service to
him, and for that reason ordered Clearchus to charge
in the centre; but Clearchus ruined all, notwithstand-
ing his assurances of doing every thing for the best;
for the Greeks beat the barbarians with ease, and pur-
sued them a considerable way.
In the mean time, Cyrus being mounted on Pasacas,
a horse of great spirit, but at the same time headstrong
and unruly, fell in, as Ctesias tells us, with Artager-
ses, general of the Cadusians, who met him on the
gallop, and called out to him in these terms: 'Most
unjust and most stupid of men, who disgracest the
name of Cyrus, the most august of all names among
the Persians: thou leadest these brave Greeks a vile
way to plunder thy country, and to destroy thy brother
and thy king, who has many millions of servants that
are better men than thou. Try if he has not, and here
thou shalt lose thy head before thou canst see the face
of the king. ' So saying, he threw his javelin at him
with all his force; but his cuirass was of such excel-
lent temper, that he was not wounded, though the vio-
lence of the blow shook him in his seat. Then, as
Artagerses was turning his horse, Cyrus aimed a stroke
at him with his spear, and the point of it entered at his
collar-bone, and pierced through his neck. That Ar-
tagerses fell by the hand of Cyrus, almost all histo-
rians agree. As to the death of Cyrus himself, since
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? ARTAXERXES.
Xenophon has given a very short account of it, hecanse
he was not on the spot when it happened, perhaps it
may not be amiss to give the manner of it in detail, as
Dinon and Ctesias have represented it.
Dinon tells us that Cyrus, after he had slain Arta-
gerses, charged the vanguard of Artaxerxes with great
fury, wounded the king's horse, and dismounted him.
Tiribazus immediately mounted him on another horse,
and said, 'Sir, remember this day; for it deserves not
to be forgotten. ' At the second attack Cyrus spurred
his horse against the king, and gave him a wound: at
the third, Artaxerxes, in great indignation, said to
those that were by, 'It is better to die than to suffer
all this. ' At the same time he advanced against Cy-
rus, who was rashly advancing to meet a shower of
darts. The king wounded him with his javelin, and
others did the same. Thus fell Cyrus, as some say,
by the blow which the king gave him; but according
to others, it was a Carian soldier who despatched him,
and who afterwards, for his exploit, had the honor of
carrying a golden cock at the head of the army, on the
point of his spear: for the Persians called the Carians
cocks, on account of the crests with which they adorned
their helmets.
Ctesias' story is very long, but the purport of it is
this: when Cyrus had slain Artagerses, he pushed his
horse up towards the king, and the king advanced
against him; both in silence. Ariacus, one of the
friends of Cyrus, first aimed a blow at the king, but
did not wound him. Then the king threw his javelin
at Cyrus, but missed him; the weapon however did
execution on Tissaphernes, a man of approved valor,
and a faithful servant to Cyrus. It was now Cyrus'
turn to try his javelin: it pierced the king's cuirass,
and going two fingers deep into his breast, brought
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? 208 PLUTARCH.
him from his horse. This caused such disorder in his
troops that they fled: hut the king, recovering, re-
tired with a few of his men, among whom was Ctesias,
to an eminence not far off, and there reposed himself.
In the mean time, Cyrus' horse, grown more furious
hy the action, carried him deep amongst the enemy;
and as night was coming on, they did not know him,
and his own men sought for him in vain. Elated how-
ever with victory, and naturally daring and impetuous,
he kept on, crying out in the Persian language as he
went, ' Make way, ye slaves, make way! ' They hum-
bled themselves, and opened their ranks; but his tiara
happened to fall from his head; and a young Persian,
named Mithridates, in passing, wounded him with his
lance in the temple near his eye, without knowing who
he was. Such a quantity of blood issued from the
wound, that he was seized with a giddiness, and fell
senseless from his horse. The horse, having lost his
rider, wandered about the field; the furniture too had
fallen off, and the servant of Mithridates, who had
given him the wound, took it up, all stained with
blood.
At last Cyrus, with much difficulty, began to reco-
ver from his swoon; and a few slaves, who attended
him, endeavored to mount him on another horse, and
so to carry him out of danger: but as he was too weak
to sit a horse, he thought it better to walk, and the slaves
supported him as he went. His head was still heavy,
and he tottered at every step; yet he imagined himself
victorious, because be heard the fugitives calling Cyrus
king, and imploring mercy.
At that instant some Caunians of mean condition,
who performed the most servile offices for the royal
army, happened to mix with the company of Cyrus as
friends. They perceived, however, though not without
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? ARTAXERXES.
difficulty, that the clothing of his people was red,
whereas that given by the king their master was white.
One of these then ventured to give Cyrus a stroke with
his spear behind, without knowing him to be the prince.
The weapon hit his ham, and cut the sinew; on which
he fell, and in falling dashed his wounded temple
against a stone, and died on the spot. Such is Ctesias'
story of the death of Cyrus, which, like a blunt wea-
pon, hacks and hews him a long time, and can hardly
kill him at last.
Soon after Cyrus expired an officer, who was called
the King's Eye, passed that way. Artasyras (for that
was his name) knowing the slaves, who were mourning
over the corpse, addressed him who appeared to be
most faithful to his master, and said, ' Pariscas, who
is that whom thou art lamenting so much ? '--' O Arta-
syras! ' answered the slave, ' see you not prince Cyrus
dead V Artasyras was astonished at the event: how-
ever, he desired the slave to compose himself, and take
care of the corpse; and then rode at full speed to Ar-
taxerxes, who had given up all for lost, and was ready
to faint, both with thirst and with the anguish of his
wound. In these circumstances the officer found him,
and with a joyful accent hailed him in these words, ' I
have seen Cyrus dead. ' The king, at first, was impa-
tient to see the dead body himself, and commanded
Artasyras immediately to conduct him to it: but find-
ing all the field full of terror and dismay, on a report
that the Greeks, victorious in their quarter, were pur-
suing the fugitives, and putting all to the sword, he
thought proper to send out a greater number to recon-
noitre the place which Artasyras had told him of.
Accordingly thirty men went with flambeaux in their
hands. Still the king was almost dying of thirst, and
the slave Satibarzanes sought every place for water;
PLUT. VoL. Vll. O
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? PLUTARCH.
for the field afforded none, and they were at a great
distance from the camp. After much search, he found
one of those poor Caunians had about two quarts of
bad water in a mean bottle, and he took it, and carried
it to the king. After the king had drunk it all up, the
slave asked him, ' If be did not find it a disagreeable
beverage V On which he swore by all the gods, ' that
he bad never drunk the most delicious wine, nor the
lightest and clearest water, with so much pleasure. I
wish only,' continued he, ' that I could find the man
who gave it thee, that I might make him a recompense.
In the mean time I intreat the gods to make him hap-
py and rich. ' ,
While he was speaking, the thirty men, whom he had
sent out, returned in great exultation, and confirmed
the news of his unexpected good fortune. Now likewise
numbers of his troops repaired to him again, and,
dismissing his fears, he descended from the eminence,
with many torches carried before him. When he came
to the dead body, according to the law of the Per-
sians, the right hand and the head were cut off; and
having ordered the head to be brought to him, he took
it by the hair, which was long and thick, and showed
it to the fugitives, and to such as were still doubtful of
the fortune of the day. They were astonished at the
sight, and prostrated themselves before him. Seventy
thousand men soon assembled about him, and with
them he returned to his camp. Ctesias tells us he had
led four hundred thousand men that day into the field;
but Dinon and Xenophon make that number much
greater. As to the number of the killed, Ctesias says,
an account only of nine thousand was brought to Arta-
xerxes; whereas there appeared to Ctesias himself to
be no fewer than twenty thousand. That article there-
fore must be left dubious: but nothing can be a more
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? pdlpa&le falsity than what Ctesias adds, that he was
sent ambassador to the Greeks in conjunction with
Phayllus, the Zacynthian, and some others; for Xe-
nophon knew that Ctesias was at the Persian court:
he mentions him in his works, and it is plain that he
had met with his books. Therefore, if he had been
joined in commission to settle such important affairs,
lie would not have passed him by unnoticed, but would
have mentioned him with Phayllus.
Ctesias, indeed,
was a man of unbounded vanity, as well as strong at-
tachment to Clearchus; and for that reason always
leaves a corner in the story for himself, when he is
dressing out the praises of Clearchus and the Lacedae-
monians.
After the battle, the king sent great and valuable pre-
sents to the son of Artagerses, who was slain by Cy-
rus. He rewarded also Ctesias and others in a dis-
tinguished manner; and having found the Caunian
who gave him the bottle of water, he raised him from
indigence and obscurity to riches and honors. There
was something of an analogy between his punishments
and the crime. One Arbaces a Mede, in the battle de-
serted to Cyrus, and, after that prince was killed,
came back to his colors. As he perceived that the man
had done it rather out of cowardice than any treason-
able design, all the penalty he laid on him was to car-
ry about a woman on his shoulders a whole day in the
market-place. Another, besides deserting, had given it
out that he had killed two of the enemy; and for his
punishment he only ordered his tongue to be pierced
through with three needles.
He supposed, and he was desirous of having it pass
on the world that Cyrus fell by his hand. This in-
duced him to send valuable presents to Mithridates,
who gave him the first wound, and to instruct the mes-
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? 212
PLUTARCH.
sengers to say, ' the king does you this honor, be-
cause you found the furniture of Cyrus' horse, and
brought it to him. ' And when the Carian, who gave
Cyrus the stroke in his ham that caused his death,
asked for his reward, he ordered those who gave it
him to say, 'the king bestows this on you, because
you were the second person that brought him good
tidings: for Artasyras was the first, and you the next
that brought him an account of the death of Cyrus. '
Mithridates went away in silence, though not without
concern. But the unhappy Carian could not conquer
the common disease of vanity. Elated with what he
thought his good fortune, and aspiring to things above
his walk in life, he would not receive his reward for
tidings, but angrily insisted, and called the gods and
men to witness, that he, and no other man, killed Cy-
rus; and that it was not just to rob him of the glory.
The king was so much incensed at this, that he or-
dered the man's head to be cut off: but his mother Pa-
rysatis, being present, said, 'Let not this villanous
Carian go off so: leave him to me, and he shall have
the reward which his audacious tongue deserves. '
Accordingly the king gave him up to her, and she de-
livered him to the executioners, with orders to torture
him for ten days, and then to tear out his eyes, and
pour molten brass into his ears, till he expired.
Mithridates also came to a miserable end soon
after, through his own folly. Being invited one even-
ing to supper, where both the slaves of the king, and
those of his mother were present, he went in a robe
embroidered with gold, which he had received from
the king. During the entertainment, Parysatis' prin-
cipal slave took occasion to say, ' What a beautiful
garment is this, Mithridates, which the king has given
you! how handsome are those bracelets and that
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? ARTAXERXES.
213
chain! how valuable your cimeter! He has cer-
tainly made you not only a great, but a happy man. '
Mithridates, who by this time was flushed with wine,
made answer, 'What are these things, Sparamixes 1
I deserve much greater marks of honor than these for
the services I rendered the king that day. ' Then Spa-
ramixes replied, with a smile, 'I speak not in the
least out of envy; but since, according to the Greek
proverb, there is truth in wine, let me tell you my
mind freely, and ask you what great matter it is to
find a horse's furniture fallen off, and bring it to the
king. ' This he said, not that he was ignorant of the
real state of the case; but because he wanted to lay
him open, and saw that the wine had made him talka-
tive, and taken him off his guard, he studied to pique
his vanity. Mithridates, no longer master of himself,
said,' You may talk of what furniture and what trifles
you please; but I tell you plainly, it was by this hand
that Cyrus was slain: for I did not, like Artagerses,
throw my javelin in vain, but pierced his temples near
the eye, and brought him to the ground; and of that
wound he died. ' The rest of the company saw the
dreadful fate that would befall Mithridates, and looked
with dejected eyes on the ground; but he who gave
the entertainment said, ' Let us now attend to our eat-
ing and drinking; and adoring the fortune of the king,
let such matters alone as are too high for us. '
Immediately after the company broke up the slave
told Parysatis what had been said, and she informed
the king, Artaxerxes, like a person detected, and one
who had lost a victory out of his hands, was enraged
at this discovery: for he was desirous of making all
the barbarians and Greeks believe, that in the several
encounters he both gave and received blows; and that
though he was wounded himself, he killed his adver-
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? PLUTARCH.
sary. He therefore condemned Mithridates to the
punishment of ' the hoat. ' The manner of it is this.
They take two hoats, which are made to fit each other,
and extend the criminal in one of them in a supine
posture. Then they turn the other on it, so that the
poor wretch's hody is covered, and only the head and
hands are out at one end, and the feet at the other.
They give him victuals daily, and if he refuses to eat,
they compef him by pricking him in the eyes. After be
has eaten, they make him drink a mixture of honey and
milk, which they pour into his mouth. They spread
the same, too, over his face, and always turn him so as
to have the sun full in his eyes; the consequence of
which is, that his face is covered with swarms of flies.
As all the necessary evacuations of a man who eats
and drinks are within the boat, the filthiness and cor-
ruption engender a quantity of worms, which consume
his flesh, and penetrate to his entrails. When they
find that the man is dead, they take off the upper boat,
and have the spectacle of a carcass whose flesh is eaten
away, and of numberless vermin dinging to and gnaw-
ing the bowels. Mithridates with much difficulty found
death, after he had been consumed in this manner for
seventeen days.
There remained now no other mark for the vengeanee
of Parysatis but Mesabates, one of the king's slaves,
who cut off Cyrus' head and hand. As he took care
to give her no handle against him, she laid this scheme
for his destruction. She was a woman of keen parts
in all respects, and in particular she played well at
dice. The king often played with her before the war,
and being reconciled to her after it, took the same dir
version with her. She was even the confidant of his
pleasures, and scrupled not to assist him in any thing
of gallantry.
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? AETAXERXES.
Statira indeed was the object of her hatred, and she
let her have a very small share of the king's company;
for she was determined to have the principal interest
with bim herself. One day finding Artaxerxes wanted
something to pass away the time, she challenged him
to play for a thousand darks, and purposely managed
her dice so ill, that she lost. She paid the money im-
mediately, but pretended to be much chagrined, and
called on him to play again for a slave. He consented
to the proposal, and they agreed each of tbem to ex-
cept five of their most faithful slaves ; the winner was
to have his choice out of the rest. On these conditions
they played. The queen, who had the affair at heart,
exerted all her skill, and being favored besides by the
dice, won the slave, and pitched on Mesabates, who was
not of the number of the excepted. He was immedi-
ately delivered to her, and before the king suspected
any thing of her intentions, she put him in the hands of
the executioners, with orders to flay bim alive, to fix
his body on three stakes, and to stretch out his skin by
itself. The king was highly incensed, and expressed
bis resentment in strong terms: but she only said in a
laughing ironical way, 'This is pleasant indeed, that
you must be so angry about an old useless slave, while
I say not a word of my loss of a thousand darics! '
The king, though much concerned at the imposition,
held his peace. But Statira, who on other occasions
openly censured the practice of the queen mother, com-
plained now of her injustice and cruelty, in sacrificing
to Cyrus the slaves, and other faithful servants of the
king.
After Tissaphernes bad deceived Clearchus and the
other Grecian officers, and, contrary to the treaty and
his oaths, put them in chains, Ctesias tells us that Cle-
archus made interest with him for the recovery of a
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PLUTARCH.
comb. When he had obtained it, it seems, he was so
much pleased with the use of it, that he took his ring
from his finger, and gave it Ctesias, that it might ap-
pear as a token of his regard for him to his friends and
relations in Lacedaemon. The device was a dance of
the Caryatides. He adds, that whenever provisions
were sent to Clearchus, his fellow-prisoners took most
of them for themselves, and left him a very small share:
but that he corrected this abuse, by procuring a larger
quantity to be sent to Clearchus, and separating the
allowance of the others from his. All this, according
to our author, was done with the consent, and by the
favor of Parysatis. As he sent every day a gammon
of bacon among the provisions, Clearchus suggested to
him that he might easily conceal a small dagger in the
fleshy part, and begged earnestly that he would do it,
that his fate might not be left to the cruel disposition
of Artaxerxes; but, through fear of the king's dis-
pleasure, he refused it. The king, however, at the re-
quest of his mother, promised, on oath, not to put Cle-
archus to death; but afterwards he was persuaded by
Statira to destroy all the prisoners except Menon. On
this account he tells us Parysatis plotted against Sta-
tira, and resolved to take her off by poison. But it is
a great absurdity in Ctesias to assign so disproportion-
ate a cause. Would Parysatis, for the sake of Clear-
chus, undertake so horrid and dangerous an enterprise,
as that of poisoning the king's lawful wife, by whom
he had children and an heir to his crown? It is clear
enough that he tells this fabulous tale to do honor to
the memory of Clearchus: for he adds, that the car-
casses of the other officers were torn in pieces by dogs
and birds; but that a storm of wind brought a great
heap of sand, and provided a tomb for Clearchus.
Around this heap there sprang up a number of palm-
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? ARTAXERXES.
trees, which soon grew into an admirable grove, and
spread their protecting shade over the place ;, so that
the king repented greatly of what he had done, be-
lieving that he had destroyed a man who was a favorite
of the gods.
It was therefore only from the hatred and jealousy
which Parysatis had entertained of Statira from the
first, that she embarked in so cruel a design. She saw
that her own power with the king depended only on
his reverence for her as his mother; whereas that of
Statira was founded in love, and confirmed by the
greatest confidence in her fidelity. The point she had
to carry was great, and she resolved to make one despe-
rate effort. She had a faithful and favorite attendant,
named Gigis, who, as Dinon tells us, assisted in the
affair of the poison ; but, according to Ctesias, she was
only conscious to it, and that against her will. The
former calls the person who provided the poison Me-
lantas; the latter, Belitaras.
These two princesses had, in appearance, forgot
their old suspicions and animosities, and began to visit
and eat at each other's table. But they did it with so
much distrust and caution, as to make it a rule to eat
of the same dish, and even of the same slices. There
is a small bird in Persia, which has no secretion, the
intestines being only filled with fat; on which account
it is supposed to live on air and dew: the name of it is
rhyntaces. Ctesias writes, that Parysatis divided one
of these birds with a small knife that was poisoned on
one side, and taking the wholesomer part herself, gave
the other to Statira. Dinon, however, affirms that it
was not Parysatis, but Melantas, who cut the bird in
two, and presented the poisoned part to Statira. Be
that as it may, she died in dreadful agonies and con-
vulsions; and was not only sensible herself of the
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PLUTARCH.
cause, but intimated her suspicions to the king, who
knew too well the savage and implacable temper of his
mother: he therefore immediately made an inqusition
into the affair. He took her officers and servants that
attended at her table, and put them to the torture.
But she kept Gigis in her own apartment; and when
the king demanded her, refused to give her up. At
last Gigis begged of the queen-mother to let her go in
the night to her own house; and the king being in-
formed of it, ordered some of his guards to intercept
her. Accordingly she was seized, and condemned to
die. The laws of Persia have provided this punish-
ment for poisoners: their heads are placed on a broad
stone, and then crushed with another, till nothing of
the figure remains. In that manner was Gigis executed.
As for Parysatis, the king did not reproach her with
her crime, nor punish her any farther than by sending
her to Babylon, (which was the place she desired to
retire to,) and declaring that he would never visit that
city while she lived. Such was the state of his do-
mestic affairs.
He was no less solicitous to get the Greeks into his
hands who had followed Cyrus into Asia, than he had
been to conquer Cyrus himself, and to keep the crown.
But he could not succeed: for though they had lost
Cyrus their general, and their own officers, yet they
forced their way, as it were, out of the very palace of
Artaxerxes, and made it appear to all the world that
the Persians and their king had nothing to value them-
selves on but wealth, luxury, women, and that the rest
was mere parade and ostentation. This gave fresh
spirits to the Greeks, and taught them to despise the
barbarians. The Lacedaemonians, in particular, thought
it would be a great dishonor, if they did not now de-
liver the Asiatic Greeks from servitude, and put an
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? ARTAXERXES.
219
end to the insults of the Persians. Their first attempt
was under the direction of Thimbro, and the next under
that of Dercyllidas; but as those generals effected
nothing of importance, the conduct of the war was given
to Agesilaus. That prince immediately passed into
Asia with his fleet, and soon distinguished himself by
his vigorous operations; for he defeated Tissaphernes
in a pitched battle, and brought over several cities.
By these losses Artaxerxes understood what was his
best method of making war. He therefore sent Her-
mocrates, the Rhodian, into Greece, with a great quan-
tity of gold, having instructed him to corrupt with it
the leading men amongst the states, and to stir up
a Grecian war against Lacedaemon. -
Hermocrates acquitted himself so well in his com-
mission, that the most considerable cities leagued
against Sparta, and there were such commotions in Pe-
loponnesus, that the magistrates were forced to recall
Agesilaus from Asia. On leaving that country he is
reported to have said to his friends, ' The king drives
me out of Asia with thirty thousand archers:' for
the Persian money bore the impression of an archer.
Artaxerxes deprived the Lacedaemonians of the do*
minion of the sea, by means of Conon, the Athenian,
who acted in conjunction with Pharnabazus: for Co-
non, after he had lost the sea-fight at JJgos Potamos,
took up his abode in Cyprus; not merely to provide
for his own safety, but to wait for a change of affairs,
as mariners wait for the turn of the tide. As he saw
that his own plan wanted a respectable power to carry
jt into execution, and that the Persian power required
a person of ability to conduct it, he wrote the king an
account of the measures he had concerted. The mes-
senger was ordered to get the letter delivered into his
hands by Zeno the Cretan, who danced in the revels,
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PLUTARCH.
or by Polycritus the Mendaean, who was his physician;
and in case of their absence, by Ctesias, another phy-
sician. The letter, we are told, was given to Ctesias,
and he added to it this paragraph: ' I desire you, sir,
to send Ctesias to me, for he will be very serviceable
in the business of the navy. ' But Ctesias affirms that
the king, without any kind of solicitation, put him on
this service.
After Artaxerxes had gained, by Conon and Pharna-
bazus, the battle of Cnidus, which stripped the Lace-
daemonians of the empire of the sea, he drew almost all
Greece into his interest; insomuch, that the celebrated
peace, called the Peace of Antalcidas, was intirely of
his modelling. Antalcidas was a Spartan, the son of
Leon, and so strongly attached to the king, that he
prevailed with the Lacedaemonians to give up to him
all the Greek cities in Asia, and the islands which
are reckoned amongst its dependences, to be held as
his tributaries, in virtue of the peace; if we can call
that a peace by which Greece was dishonored and be-
trayed; which was indeed so vile a bargain, that the
most unsuccessful war could have terminated in no-
thing more inglorious.
Hence it was that Artaxerxes, though, according to
Dinon's account, he always detested the other Spar-
tans as the most impudent of men, yet expressed a
great regard for Antalcidas, when he came to his court.
One evening he took a chaplet of flowers from his
head, dipped it in the richest essences, and sent it from
his table to Antalcidas. All the court was astonished
at such a mark of favor. But there seems to have been
a propriety in making him so ridiculous a compliment;
and he was a fit man to wear such a crown, who could
take off Leonidas and Callicratides in a dance before
the Persians. Somebody happening to say in the hear-
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? ARTAXERXES.
221
ing of Agesilaus, 'Alas for Greece! when the Lacedae-
monians are turning Persians,' he corrected him, and
said, 'No; the Medes are rather turning Lacedae-
monians. But the wit of the expression did not re-
move the disgrace of the thing. They lost their supe-
riority in Greece by the ill-fought battle of Leuctra,
as they had before lost their honor by the vile condi-
tions of this peace.
So long as Sparta kept the lead, the king admitted
Antalcidas to the privileges of hospitality, and called
Him his friend. But when, on their defeat at Leuctra,
the Spartans sent Agesilaus into Egypt, to get a sup-
ply of money, and Antalcidas went on the same busi-
ness to the Persian court, Artaxerxes treated him with
so much neglect and contempt, that between the ridi-
cule he suffered from his enemies, and his fear of the
resentment of the ephori, he resolved, on his return, to
starve himself to death. Ismenias the Theban, and
Pelopidas, who had lately won the battle of Leuctra,
went also to the court of Artaxerxes.
? ARTAXERXES.
201
whose name he bore, by behaving with great affability
to all that addressed him, and distributing honors and
rewards to persons of merit with a lavish hand. He
took care that punishments should never be embit-
tered with insult. If he received presents, he appeared
as well pleased as those who offered them, or rather
as those who received favors from him; and in con-
ferring favors, he always kept a countenance of benig-
nity and pleasure. There was not any thing, however
trifling, brought him by way of present, which he did
not receive kindly. Even when one Omisus brought
him a pomegranate of uncommon size, he said, ' By
the light of Mithra, this man, if he were made go-
vernor of a small city, would soon make it a great
one. ' When he was once on a journey, and people
presented him with a variety of things by the way, a
laboring man, having nothing else to give him, ran to
the river, and brought him some water in his hands.
Artaxerxes was so much pleased, that he sent the man
a gold cup, and a thousand darics. When Euclidas,
the Lacedaemonian, said many insolent things to him,
he contented himself with ordering the captain of his
guard to give him this answer, ' You may say what
you please to the king; but the king would have you
to know that he can not only say, but do. ' One day,
as he was hunting, Tiribazus showed him a rent in his
robe: on which the king said, ' What shall I do with
it? '--' Put on another, and give that to me,' said Tiri-
bazus. 'It shall be so,' said the king; ' I give it
thee; but I charge thee not to wear it. ' Tiribazus,
who, though not a bad man, was giddy and vain, dis-
regarding the restriction, soon put on the robe, and at
the same time tricked himself out with some golden
ornaments, fit only for queens. The court expressed
- great indignation, because it was a thing contrary to
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PLUTARCH.
their laws and customs: but the king only laughed,
and said to him, ' I allow thee to wear the trinkets as a
woman, and the robe as a madman. '
None had been admitted to the king of Persia's
table but his mother and his wife; the former of which
sat above him, and the latter below him: Artaxerxes,
nevertheless, did that honor to Ostanes and Oxathres,
two of his younger brothers. But what afforded the
Persians the most pleasing spectacle was the queen
Statira always riding in her chariot with the curtains
open, and admitting the women of the country to ap-
proach and salute her. These things made his admi-
nistration popular. Yet there were some turbulent and
factious men, who represented that the affairs of Persia
required a king of such a magnificent spirit, so able a
warrior, and so generous a master as Cyrus was; and
that the dignity of so great an empire could not be
supported without a prince of high thoughts and noble
ambition. It was not therefore without a confidence in
some of the Persians, as well as in the maritime pro-
vinces, that Cyrus undertook the war.
He wrote also to the Lacedaemonians for assistance;
promising that to the foot he would give horses, and to
the horsemen chariots: that on those who had farms
he would bestow villages, and on those who had vil-
lages, cities. As for their pay, he assured them it
should not be counted, but measured out to them. At
the same time he spoke in very high terms of himself,
telling them he had a greater and more princely heart
than his brother; that he was the better philosopher,
being instructed in the doctrines of the magi; and that
he could drink and bear more wine than his brother.
Artaxerxes, he said, was so timorous and effeminate a
man, that he could not sit a horse in hunting, nor a
chariot in time of war. The Lacedaemonians therefore
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? ARTAXERXES.
203
sent the scytale to Clearchus, with orders to serve
Cyrus in every thing he demanded.
Cyrus began his march against the king with a nu-
merous army of barbarians, and almost thirteen thou-
sand Greek mercenaries. He found one pretence after
another for having such an armament on foot; but his
real designs did not remain long undiscovered; for
Tissaphernes went in person to inform the king of
them.
This news put the court in great disorder. Parysatis
was censured as the principal cause of this war, and
her friends were suspected of a private intelligence
with Cyrus. Statira, in her distress about the war,
gave Parysatis the most trouble. 'Where is now,'
she cried, 'that faith which you pledged? Where
your intercessions, by which you saved the man that
was conspiring against his brother? Have they not
brought war and all its calamities on us V These ex-
postulations fixed in the heart of Parysatis, who was
naturally vindictive and barbarous in her resentment
and revenge, such a hatred of Statira, that she con-
trived to take her off. Dinon writes that this cruel
purpose was put in execution during the war: but
Ctesias assures us it was after it. And it is not pro-
bable that he, who was an eye-witness to the transac-
tions of that court, could either be ignorant of the time
when the assassination took place, or could have any
reason to misrepresent the date of it, though he often
deviates into fictitious tales, and loves to give us in-
vention instead of truth. We shall therefore leave
this story to the order of time in which he has placed
it.
While Cyrus was on his march, he had accounts
brought him that the king did not design to try the
fortune of the field by giving battle immediately, but
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? PLUTARCH.
to wait in Persia till his forces were assembled there
from all parts of his kingdom: and though he had
drawn a trench across the plain ten fathoms wide, as
many deep, and four hundred furlongs in length, yet
he suffered Cyrus to pass him, and to march almost to
Babylon. Tiribazus, we are told, was the first who
ventured to remonstrate to the king, that he ought not
any longer to avoid an action, nor to abandon Media,
Babylon, and even Susa, to the enemy, and hide him-
self in Persia, since he had an army infinitely greater
than theirs, and ten thousand satrapae and other offi-
cers, all of them superior to those of Cyrus both in
courage and conduct.
On this he took a resolution to come to action as
soon as possible. His sudden appearance with an army
of nine hundred thousand men, well prepared and ac-
coutred, extremely surprised the rebels; who, through
the confidence they had in themselves, and contempt
of their enemy, were marching in great confusion, and
even without their arms: so that it was with great dif-
ficulty that Cyrus reduced them to any order; and he
could not do it at last without much noise and tumult.
As the king advanced in silence, and at a slow pace,
the good discipline of his troops afforded an astonish-
ing spectacle to the Greeks, who expected amongst
such a multitude nothing but disorderly shouts and
motions, and every other instance of distraction and
confusion. He showed his judgment, too, in placing
the strongest of his armed chariots before that part of
his phalanx which was opposite to the Greeks, that, by
the impetuosity of their motion, they might break the
enemy's ranks before they came to close combat.
Many historians have described this battle; but Xe-
nophon has done it with such life and energy, that we
do not read an account of it--we see it, and feel all
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? AHTAXERXIiS.
205
the danger. It would be very absurd therefore to at-
tempt any thing after him, except the mentioning some
material circumstances which he has omitted.
The place where the battle was fought is called Cu-
naxa, and is five hundred furlongs from Babylon. A
little before the action Clearchus advised Cyrus to post
himself behind the Macedonians, and not risk his per-
son; on which he is reported to have said, 'What ad-
vice is this, Clearchus 1 Would you have me, at the
very time I am aiming at a crown, to show myself un-
worthy of one? ' Cyrus, indeed, committed an error
in rushing into the midst of the greatest danger without
care or caution; but Clearchus was guilty of another
as great, if not greater, in not consenting to place his
Greeks opposite to the king, and in getting the river
on his right, to prevent his being surrounded: for, if
safety was his principal object, and he was by all means
to avoid loss, he ought to have stayed at home. But
to carry his arms ten thousand furlongs from the sea,
without necessity or constraint, and solely with a view
to place Cyrus on the throne of Persia, and then not
to be solicitous for a post where he might best defend
the prince whose pay he received, but for one in which
he might act most at ease and in the greatest safety,
was to behave like a man who, on the sight of present
danger, abandons the whole enterprise, and forgets the
purpose of his expedition. For it appears from the
course of the action, that if the Greeks had charged
those that were posted about the king's person, they
would not have stood the shock; and after Artaxerxes
had been slain, or put to flight, the conqueror must
have gained the crown without farther interruption.
Therefore the ruin of Cyrus' affairs, and his death, is
much rather to be ascribed to the caution of Clearchus
than to his own rashness: for, if the king himself had
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PLUTARCH.
been to choose a post for the Greeks, where they might
do him the least prejudice, he could not have pitched
on a better than that which was most remote from him-
self and the troops about him. At the distance he was
from Clearchus, he knew not of the defeat of that part
of his army which was near the river, and Cyrus was
cut off before he could avail himself of the advantages
gained by the Greeks. Cyrus, indeed, was sensible
what disposition would have been of most service to
him, and for that reason ordered Clearchus to charge
in the centre; but Clearchus ruined all, notwithstand-
ing his assurances of doing every thing for the best;
for the Greeks beat the barbarians with ease, and pur-
sued them a considerable way.
In the mean time, Cyrus being mounted on Pasacas,
a horse of great spirit, but at the same time headstrong
and unruly, fell in, as Ctesias tells us, with Artager-
ses, general of the Cadusians, who met him on the
gallop, and called out to him in these terms: 'Most
unjust and most stupid of men, who disgracest the
name of Cyrus, the most august of all names among
the Persians: thou leadest these brave Greeks a vile
way to plunder thy country, and to destroy thy brother
and thy king, who has many millions of servants that
are better men than thou. Try if he has not, and here
thou shalt lose thy head before thou canst see the face
of the king. ' So saying, he threw his javelin at him
with all his force; but his cuirass was of such excel-
lent temper, that he was not wounded, though the vio-
lence of the blow shook him in his seat. Then, as
Artagerses was turning his horse, Cyrus aimed a stroke
at him with his spear, and the point of it entered at his
collar-bone, and pierced through his neck. That Ar-
tagerses fell by the hand of Cyrus, almost all histo-
rians agree. As to the death of Cyrus himself, since
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? ARTAXERXES.
Xenophon has given a very short account of it, hecanse
he was not on the spot when it happened, perhaps it
may not be amiss to give the manner of it in detail, as
Dinon and Ctesias have represented it.
Dinon tells us that Cyrus, after he had slain Arta-
gerses, charged the vanguard of Artaxerxes with great
fury, wounded the king's horse, and dismounted him.
Tiribazus immediately mounted him on another horse,
and said, 'Sir, remember this day; for it deserves not
to be forgotten. ' At the second attack Cyrus spurred
his horse against the king, and gave him a wound: at
the third, Artaxerxes, in great indignation, said to
those that were by, 'It is better to die than to suffer
all this. ' At the same time he advanced against Cy-
rus, who was rashly advancing to meet a shower of
darts. The king wounded him with his javelin, and
others did the same. Thus fell Cyrus, as some say,
by the blow which the king gave him; but according
to others, it was a Carian soldier who despatched him,
and who afterwards, for his exploit, had the honor of
carrying a golden cock at the head of the army, on the
point of his spear: for the Persians called the Carians
cocks, on account of the crests with which they adorned
their helmets.
Ctesias' story is very long, but the purport of it is
this: when Cyrus had slain Artagerses, he pushed his
horse up towards the king, and the king advanced
against him; both in silence. Ariacus, one of the
friends of Cyrus, first aimed a blow at the king, but
did not wound him. Then the king threw his javelin
at Cyrus, but missed him; the weapon however did
execution on Tissaphernes, a man of approved valor,
and a faithful servant to Cyrus. It was now Cyrus'
turn to try his javelin: it pierced the king's cuirass,
and going two fingers deep into his breast, brought
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? 208 PLUTARCH.
him from his horse. This caused such disorder in his
troops that they fled: hut the king, recovering, re-
tired with a few of his men, among whom was Ctesias,
to an eminence not far off, and there reposed himself.
In the mean time, Cyrus' horse, grown more furious
hy the action, carried him deep amongst the enemy;
and as night was coming on, they did not know him,
and his own men sought for him in vain. Elated how-
ever with victory, and naturally daring and impetuous,
he kept on, crying out in the Persian language as he
went, ' Make way, ye slaves, make way! ' They hum-
bled themselves, and opened their ranks; but his tiara
happened to fall from his head; and a young Persian,
named Mithridates, in passing, wounded him with his
lance in the temple near his eye, without knowing who
he was. Such a quantity of blood issued from the
wound, that he was seized with a giddiness, and fell
senseless from his horse. The horse, having lost his
rider, wandered about the field; the furniture too had
fallen off, and the servant of Mithridates, who had
given him the wound, took it up, all stained with
blood.
At last Cyrus, with much difficulty, began to reco-
ver from his swoon; and a few slaves, who attended
him, endeavored to mount him on another horse, and
so to carry him out of danger: but as he was too weak
to sit a horse, he thought it better to walk, and the slaves
supported him as he went. His head was still heavy,
and he tottered at every step; yet he imagined himself
victorious, because be heard the fugitives calling Cyrus
king, and imploring mercy.
At that instant some Caunians of mean condition,
who performed the most servile offices for the royal
army, happened to mix with the company of Cyrus as
friends. They perceived, however, though not without
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? ARTAXERXES.
difficulty, that the clothing of his people was red,
whereas that given by the king their master was white.
One of these then ventured to give Cyrus a stroke with
his spear behind, without knowing him to be the prince.
The weapon hit his ham, and cut the sinew; on which
he fell, and in falling dashed his wounded temple
against a stone, and died on the spot. Such is Ctesias'
story of the death of Cyrus, which, like a blunt wea-
pon, hacks and hews him a long time, and can hardly
kill him at last.
Soon after Cyrus expired an officer, who was called
the King's Eye, passed that way. Artasyras (for that
was his name) knowing the slaves, who were mourning
over the corpse, addressed him who appeared to be
most faithful to his master, and said, ' Pariscas, who
is that whom thou art lamenting so much ? '--' O Arta-
syras! ' answered the slave, ' see you not prince Cyrus
dead V Artasyras was astonished at the event: how-
ever, he desired the slave to compose himself, and take
care of the corpse; and then rode at full speed to Ar-
taxerxes, who had given up all for lost, and was ready
to faint, both with thirst and with the anguish of his
wound. In these circumstances the officer found him,
and with a joyful accent hailed him in these words, ' I
have seen Cyrus dead. ' The king, at first, was impa-
tient to see the dead body himself, and commanded
Artasyras immediately to conduct him to it: but find-
ing all the field full of terror and dismay, on a report
that the Greeks, victorious in their quarter, were pur-
suing the fugitives, and putting all to the sword, he
thought proper to send out a greater number to recon-
noitre the place which Artasyras had told him of.
Accordingly thirty men went with flambeaux in their
hands. Still the king was almost dying of thirst, and
the slave Satibarzanes sought every place for water;
PLUT. VoL. Vll. O
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? PLUTARCH.
for the field afforded none, and they were at a great
distance from the camp. After much search, he found
one of those poor Caunians had about two quarts of
bad water in a mean bottle, and he took it, and carried
it to the king. After the king had drunk it all up, the
slave asked him, ' If be did not find it a disagreeable
beverage V On which he swore by all the gods, ' that
he bad never drunk the most delicious wine, nor the
lightest and clearest water, with so much pleasure. I
wish only,' continued he, ' that I could find the man
who gave it thee, that I might make him a recompense.
In the mean time I intreat the gods to make him hap-
py and rich. ' ,
While he was speaking, the thirty men, whom he had
sent out, returned in great exultation, and confirmed
the news of his unexpected good fortune. Now likewise
numbers of his troops repaired to him again, and,
dismissing his fears, he descended from the eminence,
with many torches carried before him. When he came
to the dead body, according to the law of the Per-
sians, the right hand and the head were cut off; and
having ordered the head to be brought to him, he took
it by the hair, which was long and thick, and showed
it to the fugitives, and to such as were still doubtful of
the fortune of the day. They were astonished at the
sight, and prostrated themselves before him. Seventy
thousand men soon assembled about him, and with
them he returned to his camp. Ctesias tells us he had
led four hundred thousand men that day into the field;
but Dinon and Xenophon make that number much
greater. As to the number of the killed, Ctesias says,
an account only of nine thousand was brought to Arta-
xerxes; whereas there appeared to Ctesias himself to
be no fewer than twenty thousand. That article there-
fore must be left dubious: but nothing can be a more
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? pdlpa&le falsity than what Ctesias adds, that he was
sent ambassador to the Greeks in conjunction with
Phayllus, the Zacynthian, and some others; for Xe-
nophon knew that Ctesias was at the Persian court:
he mentions him in his works, and it is plain that he
had met with his books. Therefore, if he had been
joined in commission to settle such important affairs,
lie would not have passed him by unnoticed, but would
have mentioned him with Phayllus.
Ctesias, indeed,
was a man of unbounded vanity, as well as strong at-
tachment to Clearchus; and for that reason always
leaves a corner in the story for himself, when he is
dressing out the praises of Clearchus and the Lacedae-
monians.
After the battle, the king sent great and valuable pre-
sents to the son of Artagerses, who was slain by Cy-
rus. He rewarded also Ctesias and others in a dis-
tinguished manner; and having found the Caunian
who gave him the bottle of water, he raised him from
indigence and obscurity to riches and honors. There
was something of an analogy between his punishments
and the crime. One Arbaces a Mede, in the battle de-
serted to Cyrus, and, after that prince was killed,
came back to his colors. As he perceived that the man
had done it rather out of cowardice than any treason-
able design, all the penalty he laid on him was to car-
ry about a woman on his shoulders a whole day in the
market-place. Another, besides deserting, had given it
out that he had killed two of the enemy; and for his
punishment he only ordered his tongue to be pierced
through with three needles.
He supposed, and he was desirous of having it pass
on the world that Cyrus fell by his hand. This in-
duced him to send valuable presents to Mithridates,
who gave him the first wound, and to instruct the mes-
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? 212
PLUTARCH.
sengers to say, ' the king does you this honor, be-
cause you found the furniture of Cyrus' horse, and
brought it to him. ' And when the Carian, who gave
Cyrus the stroke in his ham that caused his death,
asked for his reward, he ordered those who gave it
him to say, 'the king bestows this on you, because
you were the second person that brought him good
tidings: for Artasyras was the first, and you the next
that brought him an account of the death of Cyrus. '
Mithridates went away in silence, though not without
concern. But the unhappy Carian could not conquer
the common disease of vanity. Elated with what he
thought his good fortune, and aspiring to things above
his walk in life, he would not receive his reward for
tidings, but angrily insisted, and called the gods and
men to witness, that he, and no other man, killed Cy-
rus; and that it was not just to rob him of the glory.
The king was so much incensed at this, that he or-
dered the man's head to be cut off: but his mother Pa-
rysatis, being present, said, 'Let not this villanous
Carian go off so: leave him to me, and he shall have
the reward which his audacious tongue deserves. '
Accordingly the king gave him up to her, and she de-
livered him to the executioners, with orders to torture
him for ten days, and then to tear out his eyes, and
pour molten brass into his ears, till he expired.
Mithridates also came to a miserable end soon
after, through his own folly. Being invited one even-
ing to supper, where both the slaves of the king, and
those of his mother were present, he went in a robe
embroidered with gold, which he had received from
the king. During the entertainment, Parysatis' prin-
cipal slave took occasion to say, ' What a beautiful
garment is this, Mithridates, which the king has given
you! how handsome are those bracelets and that
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? ARTAXERXES.
213
chain! how valuable your cimeter! He has cer-
tainly made you not only a great, but a happy man. '
Mithridates, who by this time was flushed with wine,
made answer, 'What are these things, Sparamixes 1
I deserve much greater marks of honor than these for
the services I rendered the king that day. ' Then Spa-
ramixes replied, with a smile, 'I speak not in the
least out of envy; but since, according to the Greek
proverb, there is truth in wine, let me tell you my
mind freely, and ask you what great matter it is to
find a horse's furniture fallen off, and bring it to the
king. ' This he said, not that he was ignorant of the
real state of the case; but because he wanted to lay
him open, and saw that the wine had made him talka-
tive, and taken him off his guard, he studied to pique
his vanity. Mithridates, no longer master of himself,
said,' You may talk of what furniture and what trifles
you please; but I tell you plainly, it was by this hand
that Cyrus was slain: for I did not, like Artagerses,
throw my javelin in vain, but pierced his temples near
the eye, and brought him to the ground; and of that
wound he died. ' The rest of the company saw the
dreadful fate that would befall Mithridates, and looked
with dejected eyes on the ground; but he who gave
the entertainment said, ' Let us now attend to our eat-
ing and drinking; and adoring the fortune of the king,
let such matters alone as are too high for us. '
Immediately after the company broke up the slave
told Parysatis what had been said, and she informed
the king, Artaxerxes, like a person detected, and one
who had lost a victory out of his hands, was enraged
at this discovery: for he was desirous of making all
the barbarians and Greeks believe, that in the several
encounters he both gave and received blows; and that
though he was wounded himself, he killed his adver-
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? PLUTARCH.
sary. He therefore condemned Mithridates to the
punishment of ' the hoat. ' The manner of it is this.
They take two hoats, which are made to fit each other,
and extend the criminal in one of them in a supine
posture. Then they turn the other on it, so that the
poor wretch's hody is covered, and only the head and
hands are out at one end, and the feet at the other.
They give him victuals daily, and if he refuses to eat,
they compef him by pricking him in the eyes. After be
has eaten, they make him drink a mixture of honey and
milk, which they pour into his mouth. They spread
the same, too, over his face, and always turn him so as
to have the sun full in his eyes; the consequence of
which is, that his face is covered with swarms of flies.
As all the necessary evacuations of a man who eats
and drinks are within the boat, the filthiness and cor-
ruption engender a quantity of worms, which consume
his flesh, and penetrate to his entrails. When they
find that the man is dead, they take off the upper boat,
and have the spectacle of a carcass whose flesh is eaten
away, and of numberless vermin dinging to and gnaw-
ing the bowels. Mithridates with much difficulty found
death, after he had been consumed in this manner for
seventeen days.
There remained now no other mark for the vengeanee
of Parysatis but Mesabates, one of the king's slaves,
who cut off Cyrus' head and hand. As he took care
to give her no handle against him, she laid this scheme
for his destruction. She was a woman of keen parts
in all respects, and in particular she played well at
dice. The king often played with her before the war,
and being reconciled to her after it, took the same dir
version with her. She was even the confidant of his
pleasures, and scrupled not to assist him in any thing
of gallantry.
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? AETAXERXES.
Statira indeed was the object of her hatred, and she
let her have a very small share of the king's company;
for she was determined to have the principal interest
with bim herself. One day finding Artaxerxes wanted
something to pass away the time, she challenged him
to play for a thousand darks, and purposely managed
her dice so ill, that she lost. She paid the money im-
mediately, but pretended to be much chagrined, and
called on him to play again for a slave. He consented
to the proposal, and they agreed each of tbem to ex-
cept five of their most faithful slaves ; the winner was
to have his choice out of the rest. On these conditions
they played. The queen, who had the affair at heart,
exerted all her skill, and being favored besides by the
dice, won the slave, and pitched on Mesabates, who was
not of the number of the excepted. He was immedi-
ately delivered to her, and before the king suspected
any thing of her intentions, she put him in the hands of
the executioners, with orders to flay bim alive, to fix
his body on three stakes, and to stretch out his skin by
itself. The king was highly incensed, and expressed
bis resentment in strong terms: but she only said in a
laughing ironical way, 'This is pleasant indeed, that
you must be so angry about an old useless slave, while
I say not a word of my loss of a thousand darics! '
The king, though much concerned at the imposition,
held his peace. But Statira, who on other occasions
openly censured the practice of the queen mother, com-
plained now of her injustice and cruelty, in sacrificing
to Cyrus the slaves, and other faithful servants of the
king.
After Tissaphernes bad deceived Clearchus and the
other Grecian officers, and, contrary to the treaty and
his oaths, put them in chains, Ctesias tells us that Cle-
archus made interest with him for the recovery of a
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? 216
PLUTARCH.
comb. When he had obtained it, it seems, he was so
much pleased with the use of it, that he took his ring
from his finger, and gave it Ctesias, that it might ap-
pear as a token of his regard for him to his friends and
relations in Lacedaemon. The device was a dance of
the Caryatides. He adds, that whenever provisions
were sent to Clearchus, his fellow-prisoners took most
of them for themselves, and left him a very small share:
but that he corrected this abuse, by procuring a larger
quantity to be sent to Clearchus, and separating the
allowance of the others from his. All this, according
to our author, was done with the consent, and by the
favor of Parysatis. As he sent every day a gammon
of bacon among the provisions, Clearchus suggested to
him that he might easily conceal a small dagger in the
fleshy part, and begged earnestly that he would do it,
that his fate might not be left to the cruel disposition
of Artaxerxes; but, through fear of the king's dis-
pleasure, he refused it. The king, however, at the re-
quest of his mother, promised, on oath, not to put Cle-
archus to death; but afterwards he was persuaded by
Statira to destroy all the prisoners except Menon. On
this account he tells us Parysatis plotted against Sta-
tira, and resolved to take her off by poison. But it is
a great absurdity in Ctesias to assign so disproportion-
ate a cause. Would Parysatis, for the sake of Clear-
chus, undertake so horrid and dangerous an enterprise,
as that of poisoning the king's lawful wife, by whom
he had children and an heir to his crown? It is clear
enough that he tells this fabulous tale to do honor to
the memory of Clearchus: for he adds, that the car-
casses of the other officers were torn in pieces by dogs
and birds; but that a storm of wind brought a great
heap of sand, and provided a tomb for Clearchus.
Around this heap there sprang up a number of palm-
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? ARTAXERXES.
trees, which soon grew into an admirable grove, and
spread their protecting shade over the place ;, so that
the king repented greatly of what he had done, be-
lieving that he had destroyed a man who was a favorite
of the gods.
It was therefore only from the hatred and jealousy
which Parysatis had entertained of Statira from the
first, that she embarked in so cruel a design. She saw
that her own power with the king depended only on
his reverence for her as his mother; whereas that of
Statira was founded in love, and confirmed by the
greatest confidence in her fidelity. The point she had
to carry was great, and she resolved to make one despe-
rate effort. She had a faithful and favorite attendant,
named Gigis, who, as Dinon tells us, assisted in the
affair of the poison ; but, according to Ctesias, she was
only conscious to it, and that against her will. The
former calls the person who provided the poison Me-
lantas; the latter, Belitaras.
These two princesses had, in appearance, forgot
their old suspicions and animosities, and began to visit
and eat at each other's table. But they did it with so
much distrust and caution, as to make it a rule to eat
of the same dish, and even of the same slices. There
is a small bird in Persia, which has no secretion, the
intestines being only filled with fat; on which account
it is supposed to live on air and dew: the name of it is
rhyntaces. Ctesias writes, that Parysatis divided one
of these birds with a small knife that was poisoned on
one side, and taking the wholesomer part herself, gave
the other to Statira. Dinon, however, affirms that it
was not Parysatis, but Melantas, who cut the bird in
two, and presented the poisoned part to Statira. Be
that as it may, she died in dreadful agonies and con-
vulsions; and was not only sensible herself of the
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? 218
PLUTARCH.
cause, but intimated her suspicions to the king, who
knew too well the savage and implacable temper of his
mother: he therefore immediately made an inqusition
into the affair. He took her officers and servants that
attended at her table, and put them to the torture.
But she kept Gigis in her own apartment; and when
the king demanded her, refused to give her up. At
last Gigis begged of the queen-mother to let her go in
the night to her own house; and the king being in-
formed of it, ordered some of his guards to intercept
her. Accordingly she was seized, and condemned to
die. The laws of Persia have provided this punish-
ment for poisoners: their heads are placed on a broad
stone, and then crushed with another, till nothing of
the figure remains. In that manner was Gigis executed.
As for Parysatis, the king did not reproach her with
her crime, nor punish her any farther than by sending
her to Babylon, (which was the place she desired to
retire to,) and declaring that he would never visit that
city while she lived. Such was the state of his do-
mestic affairs.
He was no less solicitous to get the Greeks into his
hands who had followed Cyrus into Asia, than he had
been to conquer Cyrus himself, and to keep the crown.
But he could not succeed: for though they had lost
Cyrus their general, and their own officers, yet they
forced their way, as it were, out of the very palace of
Artaxerxes, and made it appear to all the world that
the Persians and their king had nothing to value them-
selves on but wealth, luxury, women, and that the rest
was mere parade and ostentation. This gave fresh
spirits to the Greeks, and taught them to despise the
barbarians. The Lacedaemonians, in particular, thought
it would be a great dishonor, if they did not now de-
liver the Asiatic Greeks from servitude, and put an
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? ARTAXERXES.
219
end to the insults of the Persians. Their first attempt
was under the direction of Thimbro, and the next under
that of Dercyllidas; but as those generals effected
nothing of importance, the conduct of the war was given
to Agesilaus. That prince immediately passed into
Asia with his fleet, and soon distinguished himself by
his vigorous operations; for he defeated Tissaphernes
in a pitched battle, and brought over several cities.
By these losses Artaxerxes understood what was his
best method of making war. He therefore sent Her-
mocrates, the Rhodian, into Greece, with a great quan-
tity of gold, having instructed him to corrupt with it
the leading men amongst the states, and to stir up
a Grecian war against Lacedaemon. -
Hermocrates acquitted himself so well in his com-
mission, that the most considerable cities leagued
against Sparta, and there were such commotions in Pe-
loponnesus, that the magistrates were forced to recall
Agesilaus from Asia. On leaving that country he is
reported to have said to his friends, ' The king drives
me out of Asia with thirty thousand archers:' for
the Persian money bore the impression of an archer.
Artaxerxes deprived the Lacedaemonians of the do*
minion of the sea, by means of Conon, the Athenian,
who acted in conjunction with Pharnabazus: for Co-
non, after he had lost the sea-fight at JJgos Potamos,
took up his abode in Cyprus; not merely to provide
for his own safety, but to wait for a change of affairs,
as mariners wait for the turn of the tide. As he saw
that his own plan wanted a respectable power to carry
jt into execution, and that the Persian power required
a person of ability to conduct it, he wrote the king an
account of the measures he had concerted. The mes-
senger was ordered to get the letter delivered into his
hands by Zeno the Cretan, who danced in the revels,
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? 220
PLUTARCH.
or by Polycritus the Mendaean, who was his physician;
and in case of their absence, by Ctesias, another phy-
sician. The letter, we are told, was given to Ctesias,
and he added to it this paragraph: ' I desire you, sir,
to send Ctesias to me, for he will be very serviceable
in the business of the navy. ' But Ctesias affirms that
the king, without any kind of solicitation, put him on
this service.
After Artaxerxes had gained, by Conon and Pharna-
bazus, the battle of Cnidus, which stripped the Lace-
daemonians of the empire of the sea, he drew almost all
Greece into his interest; insomuch, that the celebrated
peace, called the Peace of Antalcidas, was intirely of
his modelling. Antalcidas was a Spartan, the son of
Leon, and so strongly attached to the king, that he
prevailed with the Lacedaemonians to give up to him
all the Greek cities in Asia, and the islands which
are reckoned amongst its dependences, to be held as
his tributaries, in virtue of the peace; if we can call
that a peace by which Greece was dishonored and be-
trayed; which was indeed so vile a bargain, that the
most unsuccessful war could have terminated in no-
thing more inglorious.
Hence it was that Artaxerxes, though, according to
Dinon's account, he always detested the other Spar-
tans as the most impudent of men, yet expressed a
great regard for Antalcidas, when he came to his court.
One evening he took a chaplet of flowers from his
head, dipped it in the richest essences, and sent it from
his table to Antalcidas. All the court was astonished
at such a mark of favor. But there seems to have been
a propriety in making him so ridiculous a compliment;
and he was a fit man to wear such a crown, who could
take off Leonidas and Callicratides in a dance before
the Persians. Somebody happening to say in the hear-
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? ARTAXERXES.
221
ing of Agesilaus, 'Alas for Greece! when the Lacedae-
monians are turning Persians,' he corrected him, and
said, 'No; the Medes are rather turning Lacedae-
monians. But the wit of the expression did not re-
move the disgrace of the thing. They lost their supe-
riority in Greece by the ill-fought battle of Leuctra,
as they had before lost their honor by the vile condi-
tions of this peace.
So long as Sparta kept the lead, the king admitted
Antalcidas to the privileges of hospitality, and called
Him his friend. But when, on their defeat at Leuctra,
the Spartans sent Agesilaus into Egypt, to get a sup-
ply of money, and Antalcidas went on the same busi-
ness to the Persian court, Artaxerxes treated him with
so much neglect and contempt, that between the ridi-
cule he suffered from his enemies, and his fear of the
resentment of the ephori, he resolved, on his return, to
starve himself to death. Ismenias the Theban, and
Pelopidas, who had lately won the battle of Leuctra,
went also to the court of Artaxerxes.
