The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [126]
26. And it was agreed that each of the three should take as companion in the work the Persian in whom he placed the greatest confidence.
27. Otanes chose Intaphernes, Gobryas chose Megabyzus, and Aspathines chose Hydarnes. After the number had thus become six, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, arrived at Susa from the province where his father was governor.
28. On his coming it seemed good to the six to take him likewise into their counsels.
29. When they did so Darius said, ‘I thought no one but I knew that Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, was not alive, and that Smerdis the Magian ruled over us;
30. ‘On this account I hurried back, to raise resistance against the Magian. But as it seems the matter is known to you all, and not to me only, my judgement is that we should act at once, and delay no longer.’
31. Otanes said, ‘Son of Hystaspes, you are the child of a brave father, and seem likely to show yourself as gallant as he.
32. ‘Beware, however, of rash haste in this matter; we must not hurry, but proceed with caution. We must add to our number before striking a blow.’
33. ‘No,’ Darius replied; ‘if we follow the advice of Otanes we will perish most miserably.
34. ‘Someone will betray our plot to the Magians. You ought to have kept the matter to yourselves, and so made the venture;
35. ‘But because you have taken others into your secret, including me, we must make the attempt as soon as possible, even today.
36. ‘We can easily gain entry to the palace; I can say that I have just arrived and have a message for the king from my father. An untruth must be spoken, where need requires.’
37. Gobryas, agreeing, said, ‘Dear friends, when will a fitter occasion offer for us to recover the kingdom, or, if we are not strong enough, at least die in the attempt?
38. ‘My vote is that we do as Darius has counselled: march straight to the palace, and immediately set upon the Magian.’ So Gobryas spoke, and the rest agreed.
Chapter 31
1. While the seven were thus taking counsel together, it chanced that the Magi had been thinking what they had best do, and had resolved for many reasons to make a friend of Prexaspes.
2. They knew how cruelly he had been outraged by Cambyses, who slew his son with an arrow;
3. They were also aware that it was by his hand that Smerdis the son of Cyrus fell, and that he was the only person privy to that prince’s death;
4. And they further found him to be held in the highest esteem by all the Persians.
5. So they summoned him, made him their friend, and bound him by a promise to keep silence about the fraud they were practising, and promised him many gifts of every sort.
6. So Prexaspes agreed, and the Magi, when they found that they had persuaded him so far, went on to another proposal,
7. And said they would assemble the Persians at the foot of the palace wall, and he should mount one of the towers and address them from it, assuring them that Smerdis the son of Cyrus, and none other, ruled the land.
8. Prexaspes said he was ready to do their will; so the Magi assembled the people, and placed Prexaspes on the tower, and told him to make his speech.
9. Prexaspes began by tracing the descent of Cyrus, and all the services that had been rendered by that king to the Persians;
10. And then, in honour of Cyrus’ memory, and to the dismay and anger of the Magi, he proceeded to declare the truth,
11. Which he had, he said, until now concealed because it would not have been safe for him to reveal it:
12. So he told how, forced to the deed by Cambyses, he had himself taken the life of Smerdis, son of Cyrus, so that Persia was now ruled by usurping Magi.
13. Last of all, with adjurations to the Persians to recover the kingdom and wreak vengeance on the Magi, he threw himself headlong from the tower into the abyss below.
14. Such was the end of Prexaspes, a man all his life of high repute among the Persians.
15. And now the seven noble Persians, having resolved to attack the usurpers without