Every now and then, however, he awoke to a sense of the actual fact, and mourned the death of his favorite with tears.

After a while this extreme grief wore itself out, and the aged king began to direct his attention once more to public affairs.

He grew anxious about the succession.

Of the thirty sons who still remained to him there was not one who had made himself a name, or was in any way distinguished above the remainder.

In the absence of any personal ground of preference, Orodes--who seems to have regarded himself as possessing a right to nominate the son who should succeed him--thought the claims of primogeniture deserved to be considered, and selected as his successor, Phraa-tes, the eldest of the thirty.