Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s2.t1.14

c9.s2.t1.14

The discomfiture that the fleet and army of Persia suffered in the fight against the Greeks at Salamis and Plataea, Mycale and Eurymedon, clearly indicated that her days of conquest and ascendancy were over. The weak and incapable successors of Xerxes found more delight in the boudoirs of the harem than on fields of battle. The direction of state affairs gradually passed into the hands of ambitious women or all-powerful officials. Murder of princes, rebellions of satraps and popular outbreaks lined the path of national decline. But genius for intrigue and possession of gold enabled the agents of a corrupt and effete system to continue for sometime to wield an influence which the valour and enterprise of their antagonists failed effectively to eradicate.