often acquired boundless authority in the empire, in spite of her
secluded life.*

* Thus Atossa induced Darius to designate Xerxes as his
heir-apparent.

Her power was still further increased when she became a widow, if the
new king happened to be one of her own sons. In such circumstances she
retained the external attributes of royalty, sitting at the royal
table whenever the king deigned to dine in the women's apartments, and
everywhere taking precedence of the young queen; she was attended by her
own body of eunuchs, of whom, as well as of her private revenues,
she had absolute control. Those whom the queen-mother took under her
protection escaped punishment, even though they richly deserved it,
but the object of her hatred was doomed to perish in the end, either by
poison treacherously administered, or by some horrible form of torture,
being impaled, suffocated in ashes, tortured in the trough, or flayed
alive. Artaxerxes reigned for forty-two years, spending his time between
the pleasures of the chase and the harem; no serious trouble disturbed
his repose after his suppression of the revolt under Megabyzos, but on
his death in 424 B.C. there was a renewal of the intrigues and ambitious
passions which had stained with bloodshed the opening years of his
reign. The legitimate heir, Xerxes II., was assassinated, after a reign
of forty-five days, by Secudianus (Sogdianus), one of his illegitimate
brothers, and the _cortege_ which was escorting the bodies of his
parents conveyed his also to the royal burying-place at Persepolis.
Meanwhile Secudianus became suspicious of another of his brothers,
named Ochus, whom Artaxerxes had caused to marry Parysatis, one of the
daughters of Xerxes, and whom he had set over the important province of
Hyrcania. Ochus received repeated summonses to appear in his brother's
presence to pay him homage, and at last obeyed the mandate, but arrived
at the head of an army. The Persian nobility rose at his approach, and
one by one the chief persons of the state declared themselves in his
favour: first Arbarius, commander of the cavalry; then Arxanes, the
satrap of Egypt; and lastly, the eunuch Artoxares, the ruler of
Armenia. These three all combined in urging Ochus to assume the _Edaris_
publicly, which he, with feigned reluctance, consented to do, and
proceeded, at the suggestion of Parysatis, to open negotiations with
Secudianus, offering to divide the regal power with him. Secudi