Under his son and successor, Cambyses III, the con- quest of Egypt took place (B.C. 525), and the Persian dominions were extended southward to Elephantine and westward to Euesperid;e on the North-African coast. This prince appears to be the Ahasuerus of Ezra (iv, 6), who was asked to alter C\'rus"s policy towards the Jews, but (apparently) declined all interference. We have in Herodotus (bk. iii) a very complete account of his war- like expeditions, wliich at first resulted in the successes above mentioned, but were afterwards unsuccessful, and even disastrous. One army perished in an attempt to reach the temple of Amnion, while another was reduced to the last straits in an expedition against Ethiopia. Perhaps it was in consequence of these misfortunes that, in the absence of Cambyses with the army, a conspiracy was formed against him at court, and a Magian priest, (Jomates (Gaumata) by name, professing to be Smerdis (Bardiya), the son of Cyrus, whom his brother Camby-
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ses had put to death secretly, obtained quiet possession of the throne. Cambyses was in Syria wlieu news reached him of this bokl attempt; and there is reason to beheve that, seized with a sudden disgust, and de- spairing of the recovery of his crown, he tied to tlie last resort of the unfortunate, and ended his life by suicide (Behistiiii Inscription, col. i, par. 11, § 10). His reign had lasted seven years and five months.
Gomates the Magian found himself thus, without a struggle, master of Persia (B.C. o'l'l). His situation, ho^vever, was one of great danger and delicacy. There is reason to believe that he owed his elevation to his fellow-religionists, whose object in placing him upon the throne was to secure the triumph of Magianism over the dualism of the Persians. It was necessary for him therefore to accomplish a religious revolution, which was sure to be distasteful to the Persians, wiiile at the same time he had to keep up the deception on which his claim to the crown was professedly based, and to prevent any suspicion arising that he was not Smerdis, the son of Cyrus. To combine these two aims was difficult ; and it would seem that Gomates soon dis- carded the latter, and entered on a course whi<;h must have soon caused his subjects to feel that their ruler was not only no Ach«menian, but no Persian. He de- stroyed the national temples, substituting for them the fire-altars, and abolished the religious chants and other sacred ceremonies of the Oromasdians. He reversed the policy of Cyrus with respect to the Jews, and forbade by an edict the farther building of the Temple (Ezra iv, 17-22). Sec Autaxkuxks. He courted the favor of the subject nations generalh' by a remission of trib- ute for three years, and an exemption during the same space from forced military service (Herod, iii, G7). To- wards the Persians he was haughty and distant, keep- ing them as much as possible aloof from his person, and seldom showing himself beyond the walls of his palace. Such conduct made him very unpopular Avith the proud people which held the first place among his subjects, and the suspicion that he was a mere pretender having after some months ripened into certainty, a revolt broke out, headed by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, a prince of the blood-royal, which in a short time was crowned with complete success. Gomates quitted his capital, and, having thrown himself into a fort in Media, was pursued, attacked, and slain. Darius then, as the chief of the conspiracy, and after his father the next heir to the throne, was at once acknowledged king. The reign of Gomates lasted seven months.
The first efforts of Darius were directed to the re-es- tablishment of the Oromasdian religion in all its purity. He " rebuilt the temples which Gomates the Magian had destroyed, and restored to the people the religious chants and the worship of which Gomates tl^e Magian had deprived them" i^Beh. Inscr. col. i, par. 14). Ap- pealed to in his second year by the Jews, who wished to resume the construction of their Temple, he not only allowed them, confirming the decree of Cjtus, but as- sisted the work by grants from Ids own revenues, where- by the Jews were able to complete the Temple as early as his sixth year (Ezra vi, 1-15). During the first part of the reign of Darius the tranquillity of tiie empire was disturbed by numerous revolts. The provinces re- gretted the loss of those exemptions which they had obtained from the weakness of the Pseudo-Smerdis, and hoped to shake off the yoke of the new prince before he could grasp firndy the reins of government. Tlie first revolt was that of Babylon, where a native, claiming to be Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabonadiiis, was made king; but Darius speedily crushed this revolt and exe- cuted the pretender. Shortly afterwards a far more extensive rebellion broke out, A Mede, named Pliraor- tes, came forward, and, announcing himself to be " Xa- thrites, of the race of Cyaxares," assumed the royal title. Media, Armenia, and Assyria immediately ac- knowledged him — the Median soldiers at the Persian court revolted to him — Parthia and Hyrcania after a
little while declared in his favor — while in Sagartia an- other pretender, making a similar claim of descent from Cyaxares, induced the Sagartians to revolt; and in Margiana, Arachotia, and even Persia Proper, there were insurrections against the authority of the new king. His courage and activity, however, seconded by the valor of his Persian troops and the fidelity of some satraps, carried him successfidly through these and other similar difficulties; and the result was that, after five or six j'ears of struggle, he became as firmly seated on his throne as any previous monarch. His talents as an ad- ministrator were upon this brought into play. He di- vided the whole empire into satrapies, and organized that somewhat complicated system of government on which they were henceforth administeffed (liawlinson's Hei-odotus, ii, 555-o68). He built himself a magnifi- cent palace at Persepolis, and anotlier at Susa. See Persepolis; Shushan. He also api>lied himself, like his predecessors, to the extension of the empire ; con- ducted an expedition into European Scythia, from which he returned without disgrace ; conquered Thrace, Pseonia, and Macedonia towards the west, and a large portion of India on the east, besides (apparently) bring- ing into subjection a number of petty nations (see the Naksh-i-Kiistam Inscription). On the whole he must be pronounced, next to Cyrus, the greatest of the Per- sian monarchs. The latter part of his reign was, how- ever, clouded by reverses. The disaster of Mardonius at Mount Athos was followed shortly by the defeat of Datis at Marathon ; and, before any attethpt couKl be made to avenge the blow, Egypt rose in revolt (B.C. 486), massacred its Persian garrison, and declared itself independent. In the palace at the same time there was dissension ; and when, after a reign of thirty-six years, the fourth Persian monarch died (B.C. 485), leaving his throne to a young prince of strong and ungoverned pas- sions, it was evident that the empire had reached its highest point of greatness, and was already verging to- wards its decline.