Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Ariamenes, the brother of Xerxes son of Darius, was on his way down from the Bactrian country to contest Xerxes’ right to the kingdom. Xerxes accordingly sent him gifts, bidding those who offered them to say, With these gifts Xerxes your brother now honours you; and if he be proclaimed king, you

shall be the highest at his court. When Xerxes was designated as the king, Ariamenes at once paid homage to him, and placed the crown upon his brother’s head, and Xerxes gave him a rank second only to himself. [*](Plutarch tells the story with more details in Moralia, 488 D-F. The tradition which Plutarch follows is quite different from that of Herodotus, vii. 1-4.)