Thalia   

the custom of the Persians, before his time, to marry their sisters,
but Cambyses, happening to fall in love with one of his and wishing to
take her to wife, as he knew that it was an uncommon thing, called
together the royal judges, and put it to them, "whether there was
any law which allowed a brother, if he wished, to marry his sister?"
Now the royal judges are certain picked men among the Persians, who
hold their office for life, or until they are found guilty of some
misconduct. By them justice is administered in Persia, and they are
the interpreters of the old laws, all disputes being referred to their
decision. When Cambyses, therefore, put his question to these
judges, they gave him an answer which was at once true and safe- "they
did not find any law," they said, "allowing a brother to take his
sister to wife, but they found a law, that the king of the Persians
might do whatever he pleased." And so they neither warped the law
through fear of Cambyses, nor ruined themselves by over stiffly
maintaining the law; but they brought another quite distinct law to
the king's help, which allowed him to have his wish. Cambyses,
therefore, married the object of his love, and no long time afterwards
he took to wife another sister. It was the younger of these who went
with him into Egypt, and there suffered death at his hands.
Concerning the manner of her death, as concerning that of Smerdis,
two different accounts are given. The story which the Greeks tell is
that Cambyses had set a young dog to fight the cub of a lioness- his
wife looking on at the time. Now the dog was getting the worse, when a
pup of the same litter broke his chain, and came to his brother's aid-
then the two dogs together fought the lion, and conquered him. The
thing greatly pleased Cambyses, but his sister who was sitting by shed
tears. When Cambyses saw this, he asked her why she wept: whereon
she told him, that seeing the young dog come to his brother's aid made
her think of Smerdis, whom there was none to help. For this speech,
the Greeks say, Cambyses put her to death. But the Egyptians tell
the story thus:- The two were sitting at table, when the sister took a
lettuce, and stripping the leaves off, asked her brother "when he
thought the lettuce looked the prettiest- when it had all its leaves
on, or now that it was stripped?" He answered, "When the leaves were
on." "But thou," she rejoined, "hast done as I did to the lettuce, and
made bare the house of Cyrus." Then Cambyses was wroth, and sprang
fiercely upon her, though she was with child at the time. And so it
came to pass that she miscarried and died.
Thus mad was Cambyses upon his own kindred, and this either from
his usage of Apis, or from some other among the many causes from which
calamities are wont to arise. They say that from his birth he was
afflicted with a dreadful disease, the disorder which some call "the
sacred sickness." It would be by no means strange, therefore, if his
mind were affected in some degree, seeing that his body laboured under
so sore a malady.
He was mad also upon others besides his kindred; among the rest,
upon Prexaspes, the man whom he esteemed beyond all the rest of the
Persians, who carried his messages, and whose son held the office-
an honour of no small account in Persia- of his cupbearer. Him
Cambyses is said to have once addressed as follows:- "What sort of
man, Prexaspes, do the Persians think me? What do they say of me?"
Prexaspes answered, "Oh! sire, they praise thee greatly in all
things but one- they say thou art too much given to love of wine."
Such Prexaspes told him was the judgment of the Persians; whereupon
Cambyses, full of rage, made answer, "What? they say now that I
drink too much wine, and so have lost my senses, and am gone out of my
mind! Then their former speeches about me were untrue." For once, when
the Persians were sitting with him, and Croesus was by, he had asked
them, "What sort of man they thought him compared to his father
Cyrus?" Hereon they had answered, "That he surpassed his father, for
he was lord of all that his father ever ruled, and further had made
himself master of Egypt, and the sea." Then Croesus, who was
standing near, and misliked the comparison, spoke thus to Cambyses: