Surely, then, a Magus, one who had been schooled in the mastery of the supernatural, was the likeliest suspect? Could it have been merely a coincidence that the imposter had been surprised in Nisaea, on the plain of the sacred horses, well known as a haunt of the Magi? It seemed not – for Bardiya’s doppelgänger, the conspirators hurriedly announced, had indeed been a Magus, ‘Gaumata by name’.
