Camby̆ses

, a king of Persia, was son of Cyrus the Great. He conquered Egypt, and was so offended at the superstition of the Egyptians, that he killed their god Apis, and plundered their temples. When he wished to take Pelusium, he placed at the head of his army a number of cats and dogs; and the Egyptians refusing, in the attempt to defend themselves, to kill animals which they reverenced as divinities, became an easy prey to the enemy. Cambyses afterwards sent an army of 50,000 men to destroy Jupiter Ammon’s temple, and resolved to attack the Cart hag in i ans and Æthiopians. He killed his brother Smerdis from mere suspicion, and flayed alive a partial judge, whose skin he nailed on the judgment seat, and appointed his son to succeed him, telling him to remember where he sat. He died of a small wound he had given himself with his sword as he mounted on horseback; and the Egyptians observed that it was the same place on which he had wounded their god Apis, and that therefore he was visited by the hand of the gods. His death happened 521 years before the birth of Christ. He left no i ue to succeed him, and his throne was usurped by the magi, and ascended by Darius soon after. Hero dot us , bks. 2, 3, . — Justin , bk. 1 , ch. 9 .— Valerius Maximus , bk. 6 , ch. 3 .――A person of obscure origin, to whom king Astyages gave his daughter Mandane in marriage. The king, who had been terrified by dreams which threatened the lo of his crown by the hand of his daughter’s son, had taken this step in hopes that the children of so ignoble a bed would ever remain in obscurity. He was disappointed. Cyrus, Mandane’s son, dethroned him when grown to manhood. Hero dot us , bk. 1 , chs. 46, 107, . — Justin , bk. 1 , ch. 4 .――A river of Asia, which flows from mount Caucasus into the Cyrus. Mela , bk. 3 , ch. 5 .