herodotus

you, and moreover that each man of the Persians may have an end to hislife like that which has come upon me." Then as soon as he hadfinished speaking these things, Cambyses began to bewail and makelamentation for all his fortunes. 66. And the Persians, when they sawthat the king had begun to bewail himself, both rent the garmentswhich they wore and made lamentation without stint. After this, whenthe bone had become diseased and the thigh had mortified, Cambyses theson of Cyrus was carried off by the wound, having reigned in all sevenyears and five months, and being absolutely childless both of male andfemale offspring. The Persians meanwhile who were present there werevery little disposed to believe[57] that the power was in the hands ofthe Magians: on the contrary, they were surely convinced that Cambyseshad said that which he said about the death of Smerdis to deceivethem, in order that all the Persians might be moved to war againsthim. These then were surely convinced that Smerdis the son of Cyruswas established to be king; for Prexaspes also very strongly deniedthat he had slain Smerdis, since it was not safe, now that Cambyseswas dead, for him to say that he had destroyed with his own hand theson of Cyrus.67. Thus when Cambyses had brought his life to an end, the Magianbecame king without disturbance, usurping the place of his namesakeSmerdis the son of Cyrus; and he reigned during the seven months whichwere wanting yet to Cambyses for the completion of the eight years:and during them he performed acts of great benefit to all hissubjects, so that after his death all those in Asia except thePersians themselves mourned for his loss: for the Magian sentmessengers abroad to every nation over which he ruled, and proclaimedfreedom from military service and from tribute for three years. 68.This proclamation, I say, he made at once when he established himselfupon the throne: but in the eighth month it was discovered who he wasin the following manner:--There was one Otanes the son of Pharnaspes,in birth and in wealth not inferior to any of the Persians. ThisOtanes was the first who had had suspicion of the Magian, that he wasnot Smerdis the son of Cyrus but the person that he really was,drawing his inference from these facts, namely that he never wentabroad out of the fortress, and that he did not summon into hispresence any of the honourable men among the Persians: and havingformed a suspicion of him, he proceeded to do as follows:--Cambyseshad taken to wife his daughter, whose name was Phaidyme;[58] and thissame daughter the Magian at that time was keeping as his wife andliving with her as with all the rest also of the wives of Cambyses.Otanes therefore sent a message to this daughter and asked her who theman was by whose side she slept, whether Smerdis the son of Cyrus orsome other. She sent back word to him saying that she did not know,for she had never seen Smerdis the son of Cyrus, nor did she know