BABYLON AND PERSIA

350 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.*plots and usurpation harassed him continually:ruler of most of the eastern countries of Eran, i. e.,nearly half the empire, whose allegiance was notvery firm at best, how easily could Bardiya, the ad¬mired and beloved, incite them to open rebellion,when he would dispose of sufficient forces to over¬power the other half, and seize on his absent brother'scrown, perhaps without even meeting with anyopposition ! Smarting with the consciousness of hisown impopularity, Kambyses brooded over theseevil presentiments until, driven beside himself withapprehension and distrust, he sought security fromfancied dangers in crime: he had Bardiya secretlyassassinated. Nothing is known of how the deedwas done, for the details given by the various Greekwriters are contradictory, and evidently apocryphal.The only authentic record and quite sufficient it iswe. have in the great Behistun inscription, whereinKambyses' successor. King Dareios, makes the fol¬lowing brief and explicit statement :" A man named Kambujiya, son of Kurush, of our race, he washere king before me. Of that Kambujiya there was a brother, Bar¬diya was his name ; of the same mother and of the .same fatlier withKambujiya. Afterwards Kambujiya slew that Bardiya. WhenKambujiya had slain Bardiya, it was n6t known to the people thatBardiya had been slain. Afterwards Kambujiya proceeded toEgypt. ..."6. The campaign was short, and successful beyondBattle of expectarion. While the preparations hadPelusion. . ' ^,Conquest of bccu goiug on, there had been a changeB.C. of rulers ; the wise and wary Amasis haddied, and when the Persian army reached the east-