Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/44

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IN OLD IRÂN.
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tus and Plutarch ascribe them to Cambyses III. and Artaxerxes II. Herodotus states in his accounts respecting Cambyses (vide Bk. III. 31 seq.):—

"The second (outrage which Cambyses committed) 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

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