Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA.
passionate, accepts the madness of Cambyses as an
established fact.
The tale of the uprising of the Pseudo-Bardes, is
but another instance of a revolution, if supported not
suggested by religious motives,
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in so far as it was the
reply on the part of the nature-worshippers to Cyrus and
to his friends, the high caste followers of Zoroaster.
From the superiority in numbers of the Medes to the
Persians, as already pointed out, the army of Cambyses
must have been largely recruited from the masses whose
secret sympathies were with Magism, and the king
probably knew that he could not count on them in
any direct attack made on their ancient beliefs or
practices. Nor can it be denied that Cambyses himself
had done much, though unconsciously, to favour the
sedition which led to his own suicidal act, in that on
his march to Egypt he had left behind him, as the
controller of the royal household, a Magian, Patizeithes,
a man who, once gained to the side of a revolting
faction of his own fellow-believers, would, of course,
be of the greatest use to them. Add to which,
the tales of the losses Cambyses had met with in
Egypt, though doubtless much exaggerated, would
naturally have led the Magian party to believe the
game completely in their hands.
Herodotus supposed that the Pseudo-Bardes was,
like the young man he personated, really named
Smerdis; but we now know from the Behistan
inscription that his name was Gomates. Naturally
the foolish self-murder of Cambyses gave renewed
hopes to the conspirators, and when some time had
elapsed, and no discovery had been made, bolder