The Twitter Herodotus

3.31 The next bad thing he did was to murder his sister/wife. (She was one of two sisters whom he'd married--not the done thing in Persia.)

3.32 He killed her because she reproached him for killing Smerdis. Some say they argued during a dog fight, others that it was over dinner.

3.33 Those are the crazy things he did to his own family, maybe because of the Apis bull business, maybe because he suffered from epilepsy.

3.34 He did other crazy stuff. He asked Prexaspes what people said of him. The answer infuriated him: you're great, but you drink too much.

3.35 To prove he wasn't deranged from drink, he took aim at Prexaspes' son with his bow. He hit the heart--supposed proof of his sanity.

3.36 When Croesus, the Lydian king, suggested he tone it down, Cambyses tried to kill him. But Croesus lived & they were later reconciled.

3.37 Cambyses committed blasphemies. He opened coffins and mocked an image of Hephaestus. He entered a shrine forbidden to non-priests.

3.38 If he weren't mad, he wouldn't have done such things. People, by the way, tend to think their own customs (e.g. burial rites) are best.

3.39 The Spartans, meanwhile, attacked Samos & its tyrant, Polycrates. He'd been a guest friend of Amasis & was very successful in warfare.

3.40 Amasis advised Polycrates to avert the gods' jealousy by lessening his good fortune. He suggested P. cast away something he valued.