PER 
tier's life, and fixed a day for the perpetration of his un¬ 
natural defign. His ingratitude, however, was timely 
difcovered, and received its juft reward. After the exe¬ 
cution of Darius and hisafiociates, the Perfian court was 
again rent into factions: three of the princes, viz. Ari- 
afpes, Ochus, and Arfatnes, becoming competitors for 
the fucceftion. Ochus, prompted by a reftlefs ambition, 
foon contrived the deftruftion of his two rivals; praftifing 
fo effectually on the credulity of Ariafpes, that he poi- 
loned himfelf to elude the imaginary refentment of the 
king; and caufing Arfames to be afi’aftinated by the fon of 
Teribazus. Thefe adts of cruelty overwhelmed Arta- 
xerxes with fuch infupportable grief, as terminated his 
mortal exiftence, in the 94th year of his age and the 46th 
of his reign, B. C. 359. 
Ochus, confcious of the veneration in which his father’s 
juftice and clemency were held throughout the whole 
empire, and apprehenfive of the ill confequences that 
might refult from an avowal of his acceftion while the 
people’s minds were enflamed by the recent murder of 
their princes, prevailed on the officers of the houfehold 
to conceal the king’s death, and craftily adorned the ad- 
miniftration of government in the name of Artaxerxes. 
Having continued this pradfice near ten months, and 
caufed himfelf, as by his father’s order, to be proclaimed 
king in all parts of the empire, he at length publifhed 
the death of Artaxerxes, and publicly afcended the 
throne. The proclamation of the old king’s deatli was 
immediately followed by an infurredfion in feveral of the 
provinces, wdiich diverted more than half the imperial 
revenues into different channels, and threatened the ex- 
ilting government with annihilation ; but, the leaders of 
the confederacy disagreeing among themfelves, the rebel¬ 
lion terminated without any effufion of blood, and Ochus 
was firmly eftablifhed on the throne. 
This monfter of cruelty was no Sooner pbfleffed of ab¬ 
solute authority, when he began to fill his capital and the 
whole empire with carnage and mifery. He caufed 
Ocha, his own lifter and mother-in-law, to be buried 
alive; Shut up one of his uncles, with a hundred of his 
Sons and grandfons, in a court of the palace, where they 
were malfacred by a body of archers; and put all the 
branches of the royal family to death, without any re¬ 
gard to age, Sex, or proximity of blood. Similar barba¬ 
rities were exercifed 011 all who afforded him the flighted 
pretence of anger; and the richeft blood of Pqriia was 
frequently fhed by the hands of the executioner. 
Whillt the nobles groaned beneath this infupportable 
tyranny, and the commonalty flirunk with horror from 
the name of their Sanguinary monarch, a laudable 
Spirit of indignation began to appear in Some of the pro¬ 
vinces, and the Smothered flames of difcontent again 
broke out into open rebellion. Ochus, hearing that Ar- 
tabazus, governor of one of the Afiatic provinces, had 
revolted, and engaged the affiftance of Chares, an Athe¬ 
nian commander, Sent an army of 70,000 men to quell 
the infurredfion, but they were cut to pieces by the Athe¬ 
nian forces; and the king found it expedient to fend a 
threatening meffage to Athens, in order to deliver himfelf 
from the oppofition of the valiant Chares. Artabazus 
then procured afupply of 5000 men from the Thebans, 
and with this reinforcement gained two Signal vidfories 
over the king’s forces : but Ochus contrived to buy off 
the new allies, and Artabazus was compelled to feek an 
afylum in Macedonia. 
This revolt was Scarcely quelled, when the Sidonians 
and other natives of Phcenice refolutely armed themfelves 
againft their oppreffor, and, with the affiftance of four 
thoufand Greek mercenaries, chafed the Perfians out of 
their territories: the Cypriots alfo joined with the Phoeni¬ 
cians and Egyptians in the fame confederacy, and the re¬ 
bellion began to wear a formidable appearance. By rea- 
fon, however, of the diffenfions of the rebels among 
themfelves, all of them were reduced, one after another ; 
and among the reft, the Sidonians, finding themfelves be- 
Vol. XIX. No. 1333. 
S I A. 663 
trayed, burnt themfelves to the number of 40,000, toge¬ 
ther with their wives and children. 
Ochus, having quelled thefe infurgents, immediately 
fet himfelf about reducing Egypt, and for this purpofe 
procured a reinforcement of 10,000 mercenaries from 
Greece. On his march, he loft a great number of his 
men drowned in the lake Serbonis, which lies between 
Phcenice and Egypt, extending about thirty miles in 
length. When the South wind blows, the whole Surface 
of this lake is covered with Sand, in fuch a manner that 
no one can diftinguifh it from the firm land. Several par¬ 
ties of Ochus’s army were loft in it for want of proper 
guides ; and it is Said that whole armies have Sometimes 
perifhed in the fame place. When he arrived in Egypt, 
he detached three bodies to invade the country in differ¬ 
ent parts; each being commanded by a Perfian and a 
Greek general : the firft was led by Lachares the Theban, 
and Rofaces, governor of Lydia and Ionia; the Second 
by Nicoftratus the Theban, and Ariftazanes; the third 
by Mentor the Rhodian, and Bagoas an eunuch. The 
main body of the army he kept with himfelf, and en¬ 
camped near Pelufium, with the defign to watch the 
progrefs of the war there. The event was fuccefsfut, as 
we have related under the article Egypt; and Ochus, 
having reduced the whole country, dismantled their 
ftrong holds, plundered the temples, and returned to 
Babylon, loaded with booty. See vol. vi. p. 297, 8. 
The king, having ended this war with fuch fuccefs, 
conferred very high rewards on his mercenaries and 
others who had diftinguifhed themfelves. To Men tor the 
Rhodian he gave prefents to a great value; appointing 
him alfo governor of all the coafts of Alia, and commit¬ 
ting to his care the whole management of the war which 
he was Hill carrying on againft Some provinces that had 
revolted in the beginning of his reign; and all thefe, 
eitherby ftratagemor by force, heat laft reduced; reftoring 
the king’s authority in all thefe places. 
Ochus now, finding himfelf free from all troubles, gave 
his attention to nothing but his pleafures, leaving the 
administration of affairs entirely to Bagoas the eunuch, 
and to Mentor. Thefe two agreed to fhare the power be¬ 
tween them ; in confequence of which, the former had 
the provinces of Upper Afia, and the latter all the reft. 
Bagoas, being by birth an Egyptian, had a great zeal for 
the religion of his country ; and endeavoured, on the 
conqueft of Egypt, to influence the king in favour of 
the Egyptian ceremonies ; but, in fpite of all his endea¬ 
vours, Ochus not only refufed to comply, but killed the 
facred bull, the emblem of the Egyptian god Apis, plun¬ 
dered the temples, and carried away their facred records. 
This Bagoas fuppofed to be the higheft guilt which a hu¬ 
man creature could commit, and therefore poifoned his 
mafter and benefactor in the twenty-firft year of his reign. 
Nor did his revenge flop here ; for he kept the king’s 
body, caufing another to be buried in its ftead ; and, be- 
caufe the king had caufed his attendants to eat the flefh 
of Apis, Bagoas cut his body in pieces, and gave it fo 
mangled to be devoured by cats, making handles for 
fwords of his bones. He then placed Arfes, the.young- 
eft of the deceafed king’s fons, on the throne, that he 
might the more eafily prefel've the whole power to him- 
felf. 
Arfes had not long affumed the infigniaof royalty be¬ 
fore he was well apprifed of the eunuch’s wicked prac¬ 
tices ; but, whilft he was concerting meafures to bring 
him to condign punifhment, Bagoas effected his deftruc- 
tion, with that of his whole family, in the fecond year of 
his reign, B. C. 336. 
Bagoas, having thus preferved his own life by the mur¬ 
der of another king, heftowed the imperial diadem on 
Darius Codomannus, a defcendant of Darius Nothus, 
who was at that time governor of Armenia. Codoman¬ 
nus was the fon of Arfames and Sifygambis ; but, in the 
reign of Ochus, he was only an ajlanda, or perfon employed 
in carrying dilpatches to the governors of provinces; 
8 G having. 
