Gates,^ and then had resumed his fugitive course northward to Ragha, turning thence eastward on the road towards Bactria in the forlorn hope of there retrieving his lost fortunes.
I fancy I could picture his despair of heart as his envoys brought ever the ominous tidings that the Greeks were approaching nearer and nearer to his train. From his memory, too, could never be blotted the recollection of that saddest of days when the faithful eunuch Teireus brought him news of the death of his queen, who had been captured (though well treated) by Alexander. ^ True, the devoted messenger had sought to comfort his sovereign master with the hope that * the Lord Ormazd would make his glory to shine bright once again'; 2 but the monarch may well have seen in prophetic vision that he himself was soon to be led in judgment before ' the great god Auramazda, the greatest of the gods' — haga vazraka Auramazdd hya matJiisTita hagdndm.^ There is little doubt, too, that the Magian priests, who ministered to the king and prophesied for his disheartened hosts, were still fervently lifting their prayers to Ormazd in his behalf; but all in vain, and Firdausi imputes felonious treason shortly afterwards to two of these very priests.^
From Alexander's historians, especially the Greek Arrian and the Roman Quintus Curtius, we know the route that Darius must have taken via Ragha to reach the Caspian Gates. This pass formed the portal to Khurasan, and was one of the keys to
1 Arrian, Anabasis^ 3. 19. 2. Tavarikh, Journal asiatique, 3 s6r.
2 Arrian, Anab. 2. 12. 3-8; 4. 20. 11. 338, 358; 4 sdr. 1. 395, 418; Ibn 1-3 ; Plutarch, Alex. 30. 3-7 ; Justin, al-Athir, 3. 296. 2. In Tha'alibi (tr. Philipp. 11. 9, end. Zotenberg, pp. 408-411) the assassins
8 Plutarch, Alex. 30. 3. are spoken of as two chamberlains.
- OP. Inscr. Xerx. Alv. 1. The The classic accounts of the death of
mood of Darius is shown also by Cur- Darius at the hands of the conspirators
tins, Alex. 5. 8. 12 ; 5. 12. 7-12. Bessus, Nabarzanes, and Barsaentes
5 Firdausi, Shah Ndmah, ed. are found in Arrian, 3. 21 ; Curtius, 5.
Vullers-Landauer, 3. 1800, 1804 ; tr. 35-38 ; Diodorus Siculus, 17. 71 ; Plu-
Mohl, Livre des rois, 6. 69, 74. So tarch, Alex. 43 ; Justin, 11. 15 ; and
also other Oriental allusions to the cf. Aelian, Nat. Anim. 6. 25. death of Darius, e.g. Mujmil at-
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