The History of Antiquity, Vol. 6 (of 6)

Like the undertaking against the Ammonians, the intention of Cambyses to send the fleet against Carthage was evidence of his plan of extending his power to the west, and achieving in Africa what his father had done in Asia. Herodotus gives the account of the order commanding the fleet to sail, of the refusal of the Phenicians, and the abandonment of the project by Cambyses, according to the tradition of the Greeks, who together with the Phenicians made up the fleet of Cambyses and the Greeks in Egypt. There is no reason to doubt the statement. By the submission of the Cyrenaeans and Barcaeans Cambyses became the neighbour of Carthage, which had lately united the Phenician colonies of West Africa under her leadership and was eager to oppose the advance of the Greeks in the west of the Mediterranean, the settlement of their colonies to the west of the great Syrtis, and their progress in Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily. If the attempt to advance to the desert to the west of El Charigeh were already wrecked, if Cambyses had already returned from Napata when he commanded the fleet to sail against Carthage, new successes covered that disaster as well as the calamity of Premnis, and the gain of Carthage was of more importance than that of the oasis of Sivah. The old Phenicians of the East, in union with the navy of the Anatolian cities, was to conquer the new Phœnicia of the West. The Greeks no doubt were ready, but the Phenicians refused. By injuring their colonies in the West they would have rendered the greatest service to the rival naval power and trade of the Greeks; in Anatolia and on the coasts of Sicily they would probably have given a fatal blow to their own power by sea. Whether Cambyses saw this connection of affairs, and felt that the subjection of Carthage would liberate the independent Greeks from a dangerous neighbour, and the dependent Greeks from a rival in trade, or whether he simply gave way to the refusal of the Phenicians, we cannot decide: we only know that "as the fleet of the Phenicians refused," – and it formed the preponderating part of the naval force, – it was impossible to compel it to go.

CHAPTER XII

THE DEATH OF CAMBYSES

"When Cambyses returned from Thebes to Memphis," so Herodotus narrates, "Apis appeared to the Egyptians. They put on their best clothes, and made holiday. Cambyses seeing this, formed the opinion that they held the festival because misfortune had happened to him. He summoned the governors of Memphis, and when they came into his presence asked them why the Egyptians had done nothing of this kind when he had been in Memphis before, but only now that he had lost the greater part of his army. They replied that their god had appeared to them, who for a long time had been wont to appear, and when he appeared all the Egyptians were delighted. When Cambyses heard this he said that they lied, and punished them with death. He then sent for the priests, and when they said the same, he said that he would soon ascertain whether a tame deity had appeared to the Egyptians, and commanded them to bring out Apis. Apis was brought out, and Cambyses mad as he was drew his sword. He meant to stab Apis in the belly, but he hit the thigh and said with a laugh to the priests: 'Wretches, are these creatures gods, which have flesh and blood, and feel iron? Such a god is worthy of the Egyptians. But you shall not mock me for nothing,' He gave command to scourge the priests and slay every Egyptian who was found making holiday. In this way the festival came to an end; the priests were punished, the Apis died in the temple of the wound in his thigh, and the priests buried him secretly unknown to Cambyses.175 But the king remained in Memphis and raged against the Egyptians, the allies, and the Persians. He caused the old sepulchres to be opened and looked at the corpses; he went into the temple of Hephaestus (Ptah, I. 43), and desecrated the image of the god in various ways. He also entered the temple of the Cabiri (belonging to the Phenicians at Memphis, III. 310), which none but the priests may enter, and outraged the images and burned them."176 Diodorus observes that Cambyses, as was said, took away the Golden Zone in the Ramesseum, which measured 365 cubits, one for each day in the year, and was a cubit thick.177 Justin tells us quite generally that Cambyses, enraged at the superstition of the Egyptians, gave orders for the destruction of the temples of Apis and the other gods.178

In the narrative of Herodotus the best reason given for the wounding of Apis is the vexation of the king at the failure of his campaigns against the Ethiopians and Ammonians, and the refusal of the Phenicians; and the belief that the festival of Apis was merely an excuse for making merry over the blows which had fallen upon him. If Cambyses tells the priests, who exhibit Apis to him as a god who has recently appeared to them, that "they lied," it was very difficult for a worshipper of Auramazda to believe that a young bull was a god, and the highest god, and the "lie" with which Cambyses charges them, seems to be an accurate trait corresponding to the conceptions of the Avesta about the "lying gods," and to the Zoroastrian respect for the truth. There could hardly be a more strongly-marked contrast than between the worship of Auramazda, the creator of heaven and earth, and surrounded by the light spirits of the sky, in which no images were allowed, and the rites of the Egyptians, their worship of numerous images of the most extraordinary form in splendid temples, their adoration of the sacred animals, in which these deities appeared, and were thought to be present, – between their anxious care for the preservation of the corpse, and the eagerness of the Iranians to remove the impure remains of man. Cambyses might in all honesty believe that he was in contact with a stupid worship of idols, a senseless adoration of calves, crocodiles, and serpents, and a nation of "liars."

But if he held such opinions, he did not act on them. If he had outraged the worship of Egypt in the manner represented by the legends of the Egyptians in Herodotus and Justin, the country could hardly have remained at rest after his death, when almost all the other lands rebelled against the Persians. Egyptian inscriptions prove that under Cambyses there was no sort of religious persecution, but quite the reverse. In the tombs of the Apis, on the plateau of Memphis, on the vestibule of the new gallery which Psammetichus had caused to be hollowed out for them, when the old gallery of Ramses II. was filled, we see on a pillar Cambyses adoring the Apis. The inscription tells us: "In the year four, in the month Epiphi, in the reign of Cambyses (Kambathet), the immortal, the god was brought here for the burial which the king ordained for him. A second Apis, the successor of that which was buried, was born, as the inscription of the Apis tombs tells us, on the 28th Tybi, in the fifth year of the reign of Cambyses.179 Inscriptions found on the statue of an Egyptian, Uzahorsun (at present in the Vatican), tell us that he had been a magistrate under Amasis and Psammenitus (Psamtik III.), and afterwards under Cambyses and Darius. 'When the great prince, the lord of the world, Kambathet,'180 so we are told in these, 'marched against Egypt, all the nations of the earth were with him.' He became lord of the whole land, and settled therein. He was the great lord of Egypt, the great prince of the whole world, the king of upper and lower Egypt, Ra-mesut (i. e. Ra born again181). And his holiness conferred on me the dignity of a counsellor and overseer of the royal gates, and commanded that I should ever be where he was. I brought a complaint before his holiness touching the people who were in the temple of Neith, that they might be driven out, that the temple might be purified and clean as before. His holiness commanded the temple to be purified, and the sacred gifts to be brought as before to Neith, the great mother of the great gods who dwell in Sais. And his holiness commanded to celebrate all the great and little festivals, as had been done before. This his holiness did because he had commanded me to announce to him the greatness of Sais, which is the city of all the gods, who are there enthroned on their seats for ever. When the king of upper and lower Egypt came to Sais, he entered himself into the temple of Neith. He visited the sacred place of her holiness the goddess, as every king had done. His holiness did this on the information which he had received of the greatness of her holiness, who is the mother of the sun himself. His holiness performed all the rites in the temple of Neith. He offered a libation of the lord of Eternity (Osiris) in the inner chamber of the temple of Neith, as all kings had done before him. On the command of his holiness, the worship of Neith, the great mother of the gods, was re-established in all its completeness for ever. I have provided the sacred worship of Neith, the lady of Sais, with all good things, as a good servant does for his master. I have re-established the priests in their office, and on the command of the king have given them rich possessions to be their own for ever. I have erected a good sepulchre for him who was without a coffin. I was a good citizen of my city. I have caused its children to live. I have set up all their houses; I have shown them every kindness as a father for his son. I have rescued their population, when disaster fell upon their canton, at a time when there was great calamity in all the land. Never did such calamity fall upon their land before."182

This inscription, like those on the Apis tombs, proves that Cambyses in Egypt, like his father in Babylon, wished to take the place of the old princes of the land, and did take it; and that he bore the titles of the ancient Pharaohs, and that a regal-name Ra-mesut was added to his name, as was the custom with his predecessors. He undertook the protection of the ancient gods of the land; he allowed Egyptians, servants of the old king's, to come into his immediate service; he listened to their advice; heard their complaints about the outrages done to the temple, which could hardly have been avoided in the occupation (p. 147), and removed the cause; restored the priests to the enjoyment of their incomes; showed respect to their religion, and allowed it to continue without restriction. However great we suppose the care to be which the Egyptian inscriptions take to say no evil of the Persian king, whatever weight we ascribe to the fact that after the Persians had once become their masters, the priests followed the traditional custom in denoting the kings of the Persians by the titles of their Pharaohs; whatever importance we allow to the fact that the priests were closely interested in representing religious affairs as unaltered even after the change in the rulers, and however much we deduct from their formal style on the score of these considerations – it still remains an established fact, from these inscriptions, that Cambyses did not oppress the Egyptians or their religion. The purification of one of the largest and most sacred temples in Egypt, the restoration of the priesthood and the worship at the temple, could not have been ascribed to Cambyses if the opposite was known to be the case. On the other hand, the narrative of Uzahorsun presents us with the natural course of affairs. If he speaks of a great calamity such as had never before fallen on the district of Sais and the whole land, this refers to the conquest of Egypt by the Persians, since he claims the merit of having rescued the population at Sais in this calamity. We saw above, from the narrative of Herodotus, that Cambyses went to Sais, after the capture of Memphis. The inscriptions show that the priests had been driven from the temple of Neith, that the soldiers were quartered in it, that sacrifice and worship came to an end. But it also teaches us that Cambyses removed these evils. Whether he felt himself called upon to offer gifts in the temple of Neith and pour libations, or whether the priests when restored to possession of the temple property did this on his behalf, is indifferent; the inscription and Herodotus tell us that he entered the temple in person. Of the two Apis-bulls which the inscriptions mention as belonging to the reign of Cambyses, the first, which was buried in Epiphi of the fourth year of Cambyses, may have been that which the king is said to have wounded after his return from Napata. But Herodotus observes that the priests buried this Apis "secretly." This is contradicted by the sepulchral pillar, inasmuch as Cambyses causes a place to be prepared for the burial of this Apis, and we have a picture of Cambyses in adoration before this Apis. The hypothesis, which we might frame, that the priests have given themselves the satisfaction of representing Cambyses as entreating the pardon of the god whom he had slain in a holy place, little visited by the Persians, would be very artificial and insufficient to account for this glaring contradiction.

Hence we have to correct in some very essential points the Greek-Egyptian tradition of Cambyses. Though the Egyptians might attempt, as we saw, to change Cambyses into the grandson of their own Pharaoh Hophra, the people could hardly fail to attribute evil deeds and crimes to the man who had deprived their land of its independence, who had caused them painfully to feel the loss of their pride, the antiquity and the monuments of their history, their wisdom and art, a loss which they felt deeply as their repeated and stubborn rebellions show. But Herodotus would be the more ready to give credence to the narrative of the Egyptians of the wounding of Apis, because it explained the miserable death of Cambyses as the just punishment for this crime. Besides there were narratives of the Persians, which tended to impress on Cambyses the traits which he bears in Herodotus.

"Smerdis, the brother of Cambyses," so Herodotus further narrates, "was with him in Egypt. Cambyses sent him back out of jealousy, because he was able to draw the bow of the Ethiopians further than all the rest of the Persians. When Smerdis had returned to Persia, Cambyses saw in a dream a messenger from Persia, who told him, that his brother sat up on the throne and that his head touched heaven. He was afraid that his brother would slay him and take possession of the kingdom; hence he sent Prexaspes the Persian in whom he had most confidence to Persia to put him to death. Prexaspes went to Susa, and slew Smerdis as some say, while hunting with him, but according to others, by taking him out on the Red Sea (the Persian Gulf) and throwing him into the water. This was the first evil deed which Cambyses committed immediately after his crime against Apis. The second he committed against his own sister, by the same father and mother (i. e. against the youngest of the three daughters whom Cassandane bore to Cyrus; her name has not come down to us with certainty). He was seized with a passion for one of his sisters, and desired to have her to wife; but as he saw that this was unusual, for up to this time the Persians had not taken sisters to wife, he asked the royal judges (p. 105) whether there was any law which stood in the way of his wish to marry his sister. The judges made a reply which was both just and safe; they could find no law which bade the brother marry the sister, but they had found a law which allowed the king of the Persians to do as he pleased. Then Cambyses married the sister whom he loved, and after this a second younger sister. The latter followed him to Egypt. Here she witnessed, together with Cambyses, a young lion fighting against a young dog, and when the dog was being beaten, its brother broke its chain and came to its aid, and the two together got the better of the lion. Cambyses was delighted at the sight, but his sister wept. When Cambyses perceived this he asked the cause of her tears; she replied that she wept because she thought of Smerdis when she saw the brother running to help the brother, and knew that no one would come to help him (Cambyses). For this speech, the Greeks say, Cambyses put his sister to death. The Egyptian account is that at table she took a lettuce, stripped off the leaves and asked Cambyses whether it looked better when bare or when full of leaves, and when he replied that it looked better when full of leaves, she retorted: 'And yet you have made it bare by desolating the house of Cyrus.' In a rage Cambyses gave her a kick, and as she was pregnant, she miscarried and died. Such was the fury of Cambyses against his own family, and he was guilty of similar acts against the Persians. He asked those Persians who sat with him and Crœsus what sort of a man he appeared to be in comparison with his father. They replied that he was greater than his father; for he possessed all that Cyrus had possessed, and Egypt and the sea in addition. This answer did not please Crœsus, who said: 'O son of Cyrus, to me thou seemest not to be equal to thy father, for thou hast not a son to leave behind thee such as he left in thee'; and when he heard this Cambyses was pleased and praised the answer of Crœsus. He is said once to have asked Prexaspes whom he most honoured, and who carried in messages to him – his son was cup-bearer to Cambyses, an office of no slight honour – What do the Persians think and say of me? Prexaspes replied: 'O Sire, in all other things they praise thee greatly, but they say thou art too much given to wine.' Cambyses answered in displeasure: 'So the Persians now say that owing to wine I am mad and not in my right mind; their previous answer was untrue.' He remembered that they had called him greater than Cyrus, and said to Prexaspes: 'See now for yourself whether the Persians speak the truth, or whether they tell foolish tales. There is your son in the portico; if I hit him in the heart it is clear that the Persians are wrong in what they say. But if I miss they are right and I am not in my senses.' The king drew the bow, hit the youth, ordered the body to be opened and the wound to be examined. When it was found that the arrow was in the heart he laughed, and in great delight said to the father: 'Now I have proved to you, Prexaspes, that I am not mad, but that the Persians are out of their senses. Tell me now, did you ever see such an archer?' As Prexaspes saw that he was not in his right mind, and was afraid for himself, he replied: 'I believe that God himself could not shoot so well.' On another occasion he caused twelve of the leading Persians for some trifling cause to be buried alive, head downwards. Then Crœsus felt it right to warn him with words such as these: 'O king, do not yield in everything to youth and anger; restrain and bridle thyself. It is good to look beforehand, and prudence is wise. Thou slayest men of thy own nation without good reason and killest youths. If thou persistest in this, beware lest the Persians fall from thee. Thy father Cyrus charged and bade me many times to warn thee and counsel thee for good.' Cambyses answered: 'Dost thou venture to advise me, who hast governed thine own land so well, and advised my father to cross the Araxes against the Massagetæ, when they were willing to come over the river? A bad ruler of your country, you have brought yourself to destruction, and Cyrus also who followed your advice: you shall not escape me; I have long been seeking for an excuse to take you.' He seized his bow in order to shoot him, but Crœsus escaped and ran out. As he could not shoot him, he ordered his servants to seize him and put him to death. The servants, who knew his manner, hid Crœsus; if Cambyses changed his mood and asked for Crœsus they intended to bring him and receive presents, but if not, they would put him to death. Not long after Cambyses asked for Crœsus, and the servants said that he was alive. Then Cambyses said he was glad that Crœsus was alive; but those who had preserved him should not escape, but die; and this sentence he executed."

"While Cambyses was passing his time in Egypt two brothers rose up against him, two Magians, one of whom Cambyses had left behind as the overseer of his house. This man, whose name was Patizeithes, rebelled when he found that the death of Smerdis was concealed, that few Persians knew of it, and the majority believed him to be alive. Building on this, he intended to make himself master of the throne. He had a brother who was very like Smerdis and had also the same name. When he had persuaded this brother to take his advice in everything, he put him on the throne, and sent heralds in every direction, even to Egypt, to announce to the army that henceforth they should obey Smerdis the son of Cyrus, and not Cambyses. The envoy to Egypt found Cambyses and the army at Ecbatana in Syria; he came forward and proclaimed his message. When Cambyses heard this, he thought that what was said was true, that Prexaspes had betrayed him, and when sent to kill Smerdis had not done so. He said to Prexaspes: 'Is this the way you have carried out my commands?' But Prexaspes answered: 'Sire, it is not true that thy brother has rebelled against thee, and no war will ever proceed from him. I myself, after executing your commands, buried him with my own hands. If the dead can rise then expect that Astyages the Mede will rise again; but if things continue as they have hitherto been, no evil will happen to you from Smerdis. I think that we should send for the herald and find out from him by whose order he announces to us that we are to obey Smerdis.' This advice pleased Cambyses. The herald was fetched, and Prexaspes asked him: 'You say that you come as a messenger from Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. If you tell us the truth, whether you saw Smerdis when he gave these orders, or whether you received them from one of his servants, you shall go away uninjured from this place.' The man replied: 'Since Cambyses left for Egypt I have not seen Smerdis; the Magian whom Cambyses left as overseer of his house gave me these commands; he said that Smerdis the son of Cyrus bade me make this proclamation to you.' Then Cambyses said: 'Prexaspes, you like a brave man have done what I commanded, and avoided all blame; but who of the Persians is it that has taken the name of Smerdis and revolted against me.' Prexaspes replied: 'O king, I believe that I understand what has happened; the rebels are the Magians, Patizeithes, the overseer of the palace, and his brother Smerdis.' Then Cambyses was struck with the truth of the speech, and the fulfilment of the dream, and when he found that he had killed his brother for no result, he wept and bewailed his misfortune, and determined to lead his army with all haste against Susa and the Magians. But as he was mounting his horse, the button fell from the end of the sheath of his sword, and the naked point entered his thigh in the same place in which he had once stabbed Apis. As he believed that the wound was mortal, he asked for the name of the city. He was told that it was Ecbatana. It had been previously announced to him at Buto that he would die at Ecbatana; and he believed that he would end his days as an old man at Ecbatana in Media. But when he heard the name he was brought to his senses by the terror of the calamity which threatened him from the Magians, and by the wound, and said, with clear understanding of the oracle, that it was fated for the son of Cyrus to die there. After some twenty days he caused the most distinguished of the Persians who were with him to be summoned, and said: 'Persians, I am brought to such a state that I must reveal to you what I have most carefully concealed. When I was in Egypt I saw in my sleep a dream, – would that I had never seen it. It seemed to me that a messenger came from home, who announced that my brother sat on the royal throne and touched heaven with his head. Then I was afraid that my brother was taking the throne from me, and I acted more rashly than wisely, – it is not permitted to human nature to avoid the coming future. I sent, fool that I was, Prexaspes to Susa to slay Smerdis. After the crime, I felt myself secure; I never believed that another would rise up against me after the death of Smerdis. Wholly in error concerning that which was to come, I have murdered my brother without sufficient cause, and am nevertheless deprived of the sovereignty. It was the rebellion of the Magian Smerdis which the demon revealed to me in a dream. This deed I have done: be ye assured that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, is no longer alive. The Magian whom I left behind as overseer of the palace and his brother Smerdis have obtained possession of the throne. He who before all others would have averted this disgrace from me, is no more; he has met his death by wicked murder at the hands of his nearest relation. As he is no more, and I am dying, Persians, I must tell you what to do after my death. And so I charge you, calling on the royal gods, all of you, but chiefly the Achæmenids, who are here present, not to allow the dominion to pass over to the Medes. If they obtain it by craft, take it from them by craft; if they maintain it by force, take it away by yet stronger force. If ye do this, the earth will bring forth fruit for you, and your wives will bear children, and your flocks will increase, and ye will be free men for all time. But if ye do not acquire the sovereignty again or attempt to recover it, I pray the gods that the opposite may happen to you all, and that every Persian may come to such an end as mine.' When Cambyses had thus spoken he lamented all the deeds that he had done, and the Persians rent their garments and lamented and cried aloud. When the bone had gangrened and the thigh became inflamed, Cambyses, the son of Cyrus died, after he had sat on the throne for seven years and four months, without leaving behind him son or daughter."