essors had left in a state of chaos; if Persia maintained her rule
over the East for two entire centuries, it was due to him and to him
alone. The question of the succession, with its almost inevitable
popular outbreaks, had at once to be dealt with. Darius had had several
wives, and among them, the daughter of Gobryas, who had borne him
three children: Artabazanes, the eldest, had long been regarded as the
heir-presumptive, and had probably filled the office of regent during
the expedition in Scythia. But Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus, who had
already been queen under Cambyses and Gaumata, was indignant at the
thought of her sons bowing down before the child of a woman who was not
of Achaemenian race, and at the moment when affairs in Egypt augured
ill for the future, and when the old king, according to custom, had
to appoint his successor, she intreated him to choose Khshayarsha, the
eldest of her children, who had been borne to the purple, and in whose
veins flowed the blood of Cyrus. Darius acceded to her request, and
on his death, a few months after, Khshayarsha ascended the throne. His
brothers offered no opposition, and the Persian nobles did homage to
their new king. Khshayarsha, whom the Greeks called Xerxes, was at that
time thirty-four years of age. He was tall, vigorous, of an imposing
figure and noble countenance, and he had the reputation of being the
handsomest man of his time, but neither his intelligence nor disposition
corresponded to his outward appearance; he was at once violent and
feeble, indolent, narrow-minded, and sensual, and was easily swayed by
his courtiers and mistresses. The idea of a war had no attractions for
him, and he was inclined to shirk it. His uncle Artabanus exhorted him
to follow his inclination for peace, and he lent a favourable ear to his
advice until his cousin Mardonius remonstrated with him, and begged him
not to leave the disgrace of Marathon unpunished, or he would lower the
respect attached to the name of Persia throughout the world. He wished,
at all events, to bring Egyptian affairs to an issue before involving
himself in a serious European war. Khabbisha had done his best to
prepare a stormy reception for him. During a period of two years
Khabbisha had worked at the extension of the entrenchments along the
coast and at the mouths of the Nile, in order to repulse the attack that
he foresaw would take place simultaneously with that on land, but his
precautions proved fru