276.jpg Darius II.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the coins in the
_Cabinet des Medailles._

Artyphios and Arsites, thus discouraged, committed the imprudence of
capitulating on condition of receiving a promise that their lives should
be spared, and that they should be well treated; but Parysatis persuaded
her husband to break his plighted word, and they perished in the ashes.
Their miserable fate did not discourage the satrap of Lydia, Pissuthnes,
who was of Achaemenian race: he entered the lists in 418 B.C., with the
help of the Athenians. The relations between the Persian empire and
Greece had continued fairly satisfactory since the peace of 449
B.C., and the few outbreaks which had taken place had not led to any
widespread disturbance. The Athenians, absorbed in their quarrel with
Sparta, preferred to close their eyes to all side issues, lest the
Persians should declare war against them, and the satraps of Asia Minor,
fully alive to the situation, did not hesitate to take advantage of any
pretext for recovering a part of the territory they coveted: it was thus
that they had seized Colophon about 430 B.C., and so secured once more a
port on the AEgean. Darius despatched to oppose Pissuthnes a man of noble
birth, named Tissaphernes, giving him plenary power throughout the whole
of the peninsula, and Tissaphernes endeavoured to obtain by treachery
the success he would with difficulty have won on the field of battle: he
corrupted by his darics Lycon, the commander of the Athenian contingent,
and Pissuthnes, suddenly abandoned by his best auxiliaries, was forced
to surrender at discretion. He also was suffocated in the ashes, and
Darius bestowed his office on Tissaphernes.

But the punishment of Pissuthnes did not put an end to the troubles:
his son Amorges roused Caria to revolt, and with the title of king
maintained his independence for some years longer. While these incidents
were taking place, the news of the disasters in Sicily reached the East:
as soon as it was known in Susa that Athens had lost at Syracuse the
best part of her fleet and the choicest of her citizens, the moment was
deemed favourable to violate the treaty and regain control of the whole
of Asia Minor. Two noteworthy men were at that time set over the
western satrapies, Tissaphernes ruling at Sardes, and Tiribazus over
Hellespontine Phrygia. These satraps opened negotiations with Sparta
at the beginning of 412 B.C., and concluded