ed the sacred books to Persia, razed
the walls of the cities to the ground, and put every avowed partisan of
the native dynasty to the sword. After these punitive measures had been
carried out, Ochus disbanded his mercenaries and returned to Babylon,
leaving Pherendates in charge of the reconquered province.*

* It seems that a part of the atrocities committed by Ochus
and Bagoas soon came to be referred to the time of the
"Impure" and to that of Cambyses.

The downfall of Egypt struck terror into the rebellious satraps who were
in arms elsewhere. Artabazus, who had kept Asia Minor in a ferment ever
since the time of Artaxerxes II., gave up the struggle of his own accord
and took refuge in Macedonia. The petty kings of the cities on the
shores of the Hellespont and the AEgean submitted themselves in order to
regain favour, or if, like Hermias of Atarnasa, the friend of Aristotle,
they still resisted, they were taken prisoners and condemned to death.
The success of Ochus was a reality, but there was still much to be done
before things were restored to the footing they had occupied before the
crisis. We know enough of the course of events in the western provinces
to realise the pitch of weakness to which the imbecility of Darius II.
and his son Artaxerxes II. had reduced the empire of Darius and
Xerxes, but it is quite certain that the disastrous effects of their
misgovernment were not confined to the shores of the Mediterranean,
but were felt no less acutely in the eastern and central regions of the
empire. There, as on the Greek frontiers, the system built up at the
cost of so much ingenuity by Darius was gradually being broken down with
each year that passed, and the central government could no longer
make its power felt at the extremities of the empire save at irregular
intervals, when its mandates were not intercepted or nullified in
transmission. The functions of the "Eyes" and "Ears" of the king had
degenerated into a mere meaningless formality, and were, more often
than not, dispensed with altogether. The line of demarcation between
the military and civil power had been obliterated: not only had the
originally independent offices of satrap, general, and secretary ceased
to exist in each separate province, but, in many instances, the satrap,
after usurping the functions of his two colleagues, contrived to extend
his jurisdiction till it included several provinces, thus establishing
himself as a kind