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Prexaspes said he was quite ready to do their will in the matter; so
the Magi assembled the people, and placed Prexaspes upon the top of
the tower, and told him to make his speech. Then this man,
forgetting of set purpose all that the Magi had intreated him to say,
began with Achaeamenes, and traced down the descent of Cyrus; after
which, when he came to that king, he recounted all the services that
had been rendered by him to the Persians, from whence he went on to
declare the truth, which hitherto he had concealed, he said, because
it would not have been safe for him to make it known, but now necessity
was laid on him to disclose the whole. Then he told how, forced to it
by Cambyses, he had himself taken the life of Smerdis, son of
Cyrus, and how that Persia was now ruled by the Magi. Last of
all, with many curses upon the Persians if they did not recover the
kingdom, and wreak vengeance on the Magi, he threw himself headlong
from the tower into the abyss below. Such was the end of Prexaspes,
a man all his life of high repute among the Persians.
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