I. 13. “Says Darius the King: There was not a man, neither Persian nor Median, nor any one of our family, who would dispossess that Gomates the Magian of the crown. The state feared him exceedingly. He slew many people who had known the old Bardes; for that reason he slew them, ‘lest they should recognize me that I am not Bardes, the son of Cyrus.’ No one dared say any thing concerning Gomates the Magian until I arrived. Then I prayed to Ormazd; Ormazd brought help to me. On the 10th day of the month Bagayadish, then it was, with the help of my faithful men, that I slew that Gomates the Magian and those who were his chief followers. The fort named Sictachotes, in the district of Media called Nisæa, there I slew him. I dispossessed him of the empire; I became king. Ormazd granted me the scepter.” I. 14. “Says Darius the King: The empire which had been taken away from our family, that I recovered. I established it in its place. As it was before, so I made it. The temples which Gomates the Magian had destroyed I rebuilt. The sacred offices of the state, both the religious chants and the worship, I restored to the people, which Gomates the Magian had deprived them of.… By the grace of Ormazd I did this.” RECAPITULATION. Persian monotheism differed essentially from the Nature-worship of the Hindus and the element-worship of the Medes; but under Darius and his successors the Magi gained exclusive control of religious rites, and luxury destroyed the manly virtues of the people. Darius conquered western India, and invaded European Scythia, but without result. His detention of Histiæus led to a six years’ revolt of all the Greeks of Asia Minor, aided by the Athenians and Eretrians. He failed in his first retaliatory enterprise against the European Greeks; and, in the second, the great decisive battle of Marathon ended in the overthrow of the Persians. The death of Darius postponed the Grecian wars. REIGN OF XERXES I. [Sidenote: B. C. 486-465.] =42.= Xer´xes, the Ahasue´rus of the Book of Esther, succeeded to his father’s dominions, instead of Artabaza´nes, his elder brother, who had been born before Darius’s accession to the throne. His first care was the crushing of the Egyptian revolt. This was accomplished in the second year of his reign; a severer servitude was imposed, and his brother Achæ´menes remained as his viceroy in the Valley of the Nile. The Babylonians attempted an insurrection, but dearly paid for their rashness with all the treasure of their temples.