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This, it is said, was the first outrage which Cambyses committed.
The second was the slaying of his sister, who had accompanied him into
Egypt, and lived with him as his wife, though she was his full
sister, the daughter both of his father and his mother. The way
wherein he had made her his wife was the following: It was not 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.
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