| #### CHAPTER 126 |

| #### #### It was not long before retribution for the murder of Polycrates overtook Oroetes. After the death of Cambyses, and during all the time that the Magus sat upon the throne, Oroetes remained in Sardis, and brought no help to the Persians, whom the Medes had robbed of the sovereignty. On the contrary, amid the troubles of this season, he slew Mitrobates, the satrap of Dascyleium, who had cast the reproach upon him in the matter of Polycrates; and he slew also Mitrobates's son, Cranaspes - both men of high repute among the Persians. He was likewise guilty of many other acts of insolence; among the rest, of the following: there was a courier sent to him by Darius whose message was not to his mind - Oroetes had him waylaid and murdered on his road back to the king; the man and his horse both disappeared, and no traces were left of either. ####  |