SAND STORM IN THE DESERT.
When Cambyses arrived at Memphis, Apis, whom the Greeks call Epaphus, appeared to the Egyptians; and when this manifestation took place, the Egyptians immediately put on their richest apparel, and kept festive holiday. Cambyses, seeing them thus occupied, and concluding that they made these rejoicings on account of his ill success, summoned the magistrates of Memphis; and when they came into his presence, he asked "why the Egyptians had done nothing of the kind when he was at Memphis before, but did so now, when he had returned with the loss of a great part of his army." They answered, that their god appeared to them, who was accustomed to manifest himself at intervals, and that when he did appear, then all the Egyptians were accustomed to rejoice and keep a feast. Cambyses, having heard this, said they were liars, and put them to death. Then he summoned the priests into his presence, and when the priests gave the same account, he said, that he would find out whether a god so tractable had come among the Egyptians; and commanded the priests to bring Apis to him. This Apis, or Epaphus, the Egyptians say, is the calf of a cow upon which the lightning has descended from heaven. It is black, and has a square spot of white on the forehead; on the back the figure of an eagle; and in the tail double hairs; and on the tongue a beetle. When the priests brought Apis, Cambyses, like one almost out of his senses, drew his dagger, meaning to strike the belly of Apis, but hit the thigh; then falling into a fit of laughter, he said to the priests: "Ye blockheads, are there such gods as these, consisting of blood and flesh, and sensible of steel? This, truly, is a god worthy of the Egyptians. But you shall not mock me with impunity." Then he gave orders to scourge the priests, and kill all the Egyptians who should be found feasting. Apis, wounded in the thigh, lay and languished in the temple; and at length, when he had died of the wound, the priests buried him without the knowledge of Cambyses.
But Cambyses, as the Egyptians say, immediately became mad in consequence of this atrocity, though he really was not of sound mind before. His first crime he committed against his brother Smerdis, who was born of the same father and mother; him he sent back from Egypt to Persia through envy, because he alone of all the Persians had drawn the bow, which the Ichthyophagi brought from the Ethiopian, within two fingers' breadth; of the other Persians no one was able to do this. After the departure of Smerdis for Persia, Cambyses saw the following vision in his sleep: he imagined that a messenger arrived from Persia and informed him that Smerdis was seated on the royal throne, and touched the heavens with his head. Upon this, fearing for himself, lest his brother should kill him, and reign, he sent Prexaspes, the most faithful to him of the Persians, to Persia, with orders to kill Smerdis. Having gone up to Susa, he killed Smerdis; some say, when he had taken him out to hunt; but others, that he led him to the Red Sea and drowned him. This they say was the first of the crimes of Cambyses; the second was that of marrying his own sister, who had accompanied him into Egypt.
The Greeks say, that one day Cambyses made the whelp of a lion fight with a young dog; and this wife was also looking on; the dog being over-matched, another puppy of the same litter broke his chain, and came to his assistance, and thus the two dogs united got the better of the whelp. Cambyses was delighted at the sight, but she, sitting by him, shed tears. Cambyses, observing this, asked her why she wept. She answered, that she wept seeing the puppy come to the assistance of his brother, remembering Smerdis, and knowing that there was no one to avenge him. The Greeks say, that for this speech she was put to death by Cambyses. But the Egyptians say, that as they were sitting at table, his wife took a lettuce, stripped off its leaves, and then asked her husband "whether the lettuce stripped of its leaves, or thick with foliage, was the handsomer." He said: "When thick with foliage." Whereupon she remarked: "Then you have imitated this lettuce, in dismembering the house of Cyrus." Whereupon he, in rage, kicked her and inflicted such injuries that she died.
Thus madly did Cambyses behave toward his own family; whether on account of Apis, or from some other cause, from which, in many ways, misfortunes are wont to befall mankind. For Cambyses is said, even from infancy, to have been afflicted with a certain severe malady, which some called the sacred disease.[17] In that case, it was not at all surprising that, when his body was so diseased, his mind should not be sound. And toward the other Persians he behaved madly in the following instances: for it is reported that he said to Prexaspes, whom he highly honored, and whose office it was to bring messages to him, whose son was cupbearer to Cambyses, no trifling honor by any means, he is reported to have said: "Prexaspes, what sort of a man do the Persians think me? and what remarks do they make about me?" He answered: "Sir, you are highly extolled in every other respect, but they say you are too much addicted to wine." The king enraged cried out: "Do the Persians indeed say that, by being addicted to wine, I am beside myself, and am not in my senses? then their former words were not true." For, on a former occasion, when the Persians and Crœsus were sitting with him, Cambyses asked, what sort of a man he appeared to be in comparison with his father Cyrus; they answered, that he was superior to his father, because he held all that Cyrus possessed, and had acquired besides Egypt and the empire of the sea. Crœsus, who was not pleased with this decision, spoke thus to Cambyses: "To me, O son of Cyrus, you do not appear comparable to your father, for you have not yet such a son as he left behind him." Cambyses was delighted at hearing this, and commended the judgment of Crœsus. So, remembering this, he said in anger to Prexaspes: "Observe now yourself, whether the Persians have spoken the truth, or whether they who say such things are not out of their senses: for if I shoot that son of yours who stands under the portico, and hit him in the heart, the Persians will appear to have said nothing to the purpose; but if I miss, then say that the Persians have spoken the truth, and that I am not of sound mind." Having said this, and bent his bow, he hit the boy; and when the boy had fallen, he ordered them to open him and examine the wound; and when the arrow was found in the heart, he said to the boy's father, laughing: "Prexaspes, it has been clearly shown to you that I am not mad, but that the Persians are out of their senses. Now tell me, did you ever see a man take so true an aim?" But Prexaspes, perceiving him to be out of his mind, and being in fear for his own life, said: "Sir, I believe that a god himself could not have shot so well." At another time, having, without any just cause, seized twelve Persians of the first rank, he had them buried alive up to the head.
While he was acting in this manner, Crœsus the Lydian thought fit to admonish him in the following terms: "O king, do not yield entirely to your youthful impulses and anger, but possess and restrain yourself. It is a good thing to be provident, and wise to have forethought. You put men to death who are your own subjects, having seized them without any just cause; and you slay their children. If you persist in such a course, beware lest the Persians revolt from you. Your father Cyrus strictly charged me to admonish you, and suggest whatever I might discover for your good." He thus manifested his good-will, in giving this advice; but Cambyses answered: "Do you presume to give me advice, you, who so wisely managed your own country; and so well advised my father, when you persuaded him to pass the river Araxes, and advance against the Massagetæ, when they were willing to cross over into our territory? You have first ruined yourself by badly governing your own country, and then ruined Cyrus, who was persuaded by your advice. But you shall have no reason to rejoice; for I have long wanted to find a pretext against you." So saying, he took up his bow for the purpose of shooting him; but Crœsus jumped up and ran out. Cambyses, unable to shoot him, commanded his attendants to seize him, and put him to death. But the attendants, knowing his temper, concealed Crœsus for the following reason, that if Cambyses should repent, and inquire for Crœsus, they, by producing him, might receive rewards for preserving him alive; or if he should not repent, or sorrow for him, then they would put him to death. Not long afterward Cambyses did regret the loss of Crœsus, whereupon the attendants acquainted him that he was still living; on which Cambyses said: "I am rejoiced that Crœsus is still alive; they, however, who disobeyed my orders and saved him, shall not escape with impunity, but I will have them put to death." And he made good his word.
He committed many such mad actions, both against the Persians and his allies, while he stayed at Memphis opening ancient sepulchres, and examining the dead bodies; he also entered the temple of Vulcan, and derided the image, for the image of Vulcan is very much like the Phœnician Pataici, which the Phœnicians place at the prows of their triremes, and is a representation of a pigmy. He likewise entered the temple of the Cabeiri, (into which it is unlawful for any one except the priest to enter) and these images he burnt, after he had ridiculed them in various ways: these also are like that of Vulcan; and they say that they are the sons of this latter. It is in every way clear to me that Cambyses was outrageously mad; otherwise he would not have attempted to deride sacred things and established customs. For if any one should propose to all men, to select the best institutions of all that exist, each, after considering them all, would choose his own; so certain is it that each thinks his own institutions by far the best. It is not therefore probable, that any but a madman would make such things the subject of ridicule. That all men are of this mind respecting their own institutions may be inferred from many proofs, but is well illustrated by the following incident: Darius once summoned some Greeks under his sway, and asked them "for what sum they would feed upon the dead bodies of their parents." They answered, that they would not do it for any sum. Then Darius called to him some of the Indians called Callatians, who are accustomed to eat their parents, and asked them, in the presence of the Greeks, "for what sum they would consent to burn their fathers when they die." But they made loud exclamations and begged he would speak words of good omen. Such then is the effect of custom: and Pindar appears to me to have said rightly "that custom is the king of all men."
ATTACK ON FORT.