Rhodopis lived to hear of the murder of Hipparchus, the tyrant of Athens, by Harmodius and Aristogiton, and died at last in the arms of her best friends, Theopompus the Milesian and Kallias the Athenian, firm in her belief of the high calling of her countrymen.
All Naukratis mourned for her, and Kallias sent a messenger to Susa, to inform the king and Sappho of her death.
A few months later the satrap of Egypt received the following letter from the hand of the king: "Inasmuch as we ourselves knew and honored Rhodopis, the Greek, who has lately died in Naukratis,--inasmuch as her granddaughter, as widow of the lawful heir to the Persian throne, enjoys to this day the rank and honors of a queen,--and lastly, inasmuch as I have lately taken the great-grandchild of the same Rhodopis, Parmys, the daughter of Bartja and Sappho, to be my third lawful wife, it seems to me just to grant royal honors to the ancestress of two queens. I therefore command thee to cause the ashes of Rhodopis, whom we have always esteemed as the greatest and rarest among women, to be buried in the greatest and rarest of all monuments, namely, in one of the Pyramids. The costly urn, which thou wilt receive herewith, is sent by Sappho to preserve the ashes of the deceased."
Given in the new imperial palace at Persepolis.
DARIUS, son of Hystaspes.
King.