"
=The Inscription of Behistun.=--The eldest son of Cyrus, Cambyses, put
to death his brother Smerdis and conquered Egypt. What occurred
afterward is known to us from an inscription. Today one may see on the
frontier of Persia, in the midst of a plain, an enormous rock, cut
perpendicularly, about 1,500 feet high, the rock of Behistun. A
bas-relief carved on the rock represents a crowned king, with left
hand on a bow; he tramples on one captive while nine other prisoners
are presented before him in chains. An inscription in three languages
relates the life of the king: "Darius the king declares, This is what
I did before I became king. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, of our race,
reigned here before me. This Cambyses had a brother Smerdis, of the
same father and the same mother. One day Cambyses killed Smerdis. When
Cambyses had killed Smerdis the people were ignorant that Smerdis was
dead. After this Cambyses made an expedition to Egypt and while he was
there the people became rebellious; falsehood was then rife in the
country, in Persia, in Media and the other provinces. There was at
that time a magus named Gaumata; he deceived the people by saying that
he was Smerdis, the son of Cyrus.
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