n question is right or wrong, but because, having
themselves determined upon the performance of it, they wish their
counselors to give it a sort of legal sanction, in order to justify
the deed, and diminish the popular odium which it might otherwise
incur.

The Persian judges whom Cambyses consulted on this occasion understood
very well what was expected of them. After a grave deliberation, they
returned answer to the king that, though they could find no law
allowing a man to marry his sister, they found many which authorized a
king of Persia to do whatever he thought best. Cambyses accordingly
carried his plan into execution. He married first the older sister,
whose name was Atossa. Atossa became subsequently a personage of great
historical distinction. The daughter of Cyrus, the wife of Darius, and
the mother of Xerxes, she was the link that bound together the three
most magnificent potentates of the whole Eastern world. How far these
sisters were willing participators in the guilt of their incestuous
marriages we can not now know. The one who went with Cambyses into
Egypt was of a humane, and gentle, and timid disposition, being in
these respects wholly unlike her brother; and it may be that she
merely yielded, in the transaction of her marriage, to her brother's
arbitrary and imperious will.

Besides this sister, Cambyses had brought his brother Smerdis with
him into Egypt. Smerdis was younger than Cambyses, but he was superior
to him in strength and personal accomplishments. Cambyses was very
jealous of this superiority. He did not dare to leave his brother in
Persia, to manage the government in his stead during his absence, lest
he should take advantage of the temporary power thus committed to his
hands, and usurp the throne altogether. He decided, therefore, to
bring Smerdis with him into Egypt, and to leave the government of the
state in the hands of a regency composed of two _magi_. These magi
were public officers of distinction, but, having no hereditary claims
to the crown, Cambyses thought there would be little danger of their
attempting to usurp it. It happened, however, that the name of one of
these magi was Smerdis. This coincidence between the magian's name and
that of the prince led, in the end, as will presently be seen, to very
important consequences.

The uneasiness and jealousy which Cambyses felt in respect to his
brother was not wholly allayed by the arrangement which he thus made
for keeping