"You mean to tell me that the Persians have killed a woman?
Answer at once, what has happened to your queen ?" "Tomyris died ten months ago of grief for the loss of her only son, and I have therefore a right to say that she too fell a sacrifice to the war with Persia and to your father's spirit." "She was a great woman," murmured Cambyses, his voice unsteady from emotion.

"Verily, I begin to think that the gods themselves have undertaken to revenge my father's blood on your nation.

Yet I tell you that, heavy as your losses may seem, Spargapises, Tomyris and fifty thousand Massagetae can never outweigh the spirit of one king of Persia, least of all of a Cyrus." "In our country," answered the envoy, "death makes all men equal.

The spirits of the king and the slave are of equal worth.

Your father was a great man, but we have undergone awful sufferings for his sake.