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DARIUS (Pers. Darayavaush; Old Test. ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 833 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DARIUS (Pers. Darayavaush; Old Test. Daryavesh) , the name of three See also:Persian See also:kings. 1. DARIUS THE See also:GREAT, the son of See also:Hystaspes (q.v.). The See also:principal source for his See also:history is his own See also:inscriptions, especially the great inscription of See also:Behistun (q.v.), in which he relates how he gained the See also:crown and put down the rebellions. In See also:modern times his veracity has often been doubted, but without any sufficient See also:reason; the whole See also:tenor of his words shows that we can rely upon his See also:account. The accounts given by See also:Herodotus and See also:Ctesias of his See also:accession are in many points evidently dependent on this See also:official version, with many legendary stories interwoven, e.g. that Darius and his See also:allies See also:left the question as to which of them should become See also:king to the decision of their horses, and that Darius won the crown by a See also:trick of his See also:groom. Darius belonged to a younger See also:branch of the royal See also:family of the Achaemenidae. When, after the See also:suicide of See also:Cambyses (See also:March 521), the usurper Gaumata ruled undisturbed over the whole See also:empire under the name of Bardiya (See also:Smerdis), son of See also:Cyrus, and no one dared to gainsay him, Darius, " with the help of Ahuramazda," attempted to regain the See also:kingdom for the royal See also:race. His See also:father Hystaspes was still alive, but evidently had not the courage to urge his claims. Assisted by six See also:noble Persians, whose names he proclaims at the end of the Behistun inscription, he surprised and killed the usurper in a Median fortress (See also:October 521; for the See also:chronology of these times cf.

E. See also:

Meyer, Forschungen zur aiten Geschichte, ii. 472 ff.), and gained the crown. But this sudden See also:change was the See also:signal for an See also:attempt on the See also:part of all the eastern provinces to regain their See also:independence. In Susiana, See also:Babylon, See also:Media, Sagartia, Margiana, usurpers arose, pretending to be of the old royal race, and gathered large armies around them; in See also:Persia itself Vahyazdata imitated the example of Gaumata and was acknowledged by the See also:majority of the See also:people as the true Bardiya. Darius with only a small See also:army of Persians and Medes and some trustworthy generals overcame all difficulties, and in 520 and 519 all the rebellions were put down (Babylon rebelled twice, Susiana even three times), and the authority of Darius was established throughout the empire. Darius in his inscriptions appears as a fervent believer in the true See also:religion of Zoroaster. But he was also a great statesman and organizer. The See also:time of conquests had come to an end; the See also:wars which Darius undertook, like those of See also:Augustus, only served the purpose of gaining strong natural frontiers for the empire and keeping down the barbarous tribes on its See also:borders. Thus Darius subjugated the See also:wild nations of the Pontic and Armenian mountains, and extended the Persian dominion to the See also:Caucasus; for the same reasons he fought against the Sacae and other Turanian tribes. But by the organization which he gave to the empire he became the true successor of the great Cyrus. His organization of the provinces and the fixing of the tributes is described by Herodotus iii.

90 if., evidently from See also:

good official See also:sources. He fixed the coinage and introduced the See also:gold coinage of the Daric (which is not named after him, as the Greeks believed, but derived from a Persian word meaning " gold "; in See also:Middle Persian it is called zarig). He tried to develop the See also:commerce of the empire, and sent an expedition down the See also:Kabul and the See also:Indus, led by the Carian See also:captain Scylax of Caryanda, who explored the See also:Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Indus to See also:Suez. He dug a See also:canal from the See also:Nile to Suez, and, as the fragments of a hieroglyphic inscription found there show, his See also:ships sailed from the Nile through the Red See also:Sea by Saba to Persia. He had connexions with See also:Carthage (i.e. the Kark¢ of the Nakshi Rustam inscr.), and explored the shores of See also:Sicily and See also:Italy. At the same time he attempted to gain the good-will of the subject nations, and for this purpose promoted the aims of their priests. He allowed the See also:Jews to build the See also:Temple of See also:Jerusalem. In See also:Egypt his name appears on the temples which he built in See also:Memphis, See also:Edfu and the Great See also:Oasis. He called the high-See also:priest of See also:Sais, Uzahor, to See also:Susa (as we learn from his inscription in the Vatican), and gave him full See also:powers to reorganize the " See also:house of See also:life," the great medical school of the temple of Sais. In the See also:Egyptian traditions he is considered as one of the great benefactors and lawgivers of the See also:country (See also:Herod. ii. 1 ro, Diod. i. 95).

In similar relations he stood to the See also:

Greek sanctuaries (cf. his rescript to "his slave " Godatas, the inspector of a royal See also:park near See also:Magnesia, on the Maeander, in which he grants freedom of taxes and forced labour to the sacred territory of See also:Apollo. See See also:Cousin and See also:Deschamps, Bulletin de corresp. Kellen., xiii. (1889), 529, and Dittenberger, Sylloge inscr. graec., 2); all the Greek oracles in See also:Asia See also:Minor and See also:Europe therefore stood on the See also:side of Persia in the Persian wars and admonished the Greeks to attempt no resistance. About 512 Darius undertook a See also:war against the Scythians. A great army crossed the See also:Bosporus, subjugated eastern See also:Thrace, and crossed the See also:Danube. The purpose of this war can only have been to attack the nomadic Turanian tribes in the See also:rear and thus to secure See also:peace on the See also:northern frontier of the empire. It was based upon a wrong See also:geographical conception; even See also:Alexander and his Macedonians believed that on the See also:Hindu Kush (which they called Caucasus) and on the shores of the Jaxartes (which they called Tanais, i.e. See also:Don) they were quite near to the See also:Black Sea. Of course the expedition undertaken on these grounds could not but prove a failure; having advanced for some See also:weeks into the See also:Russian See also:steppes, Darius was forced to return. The details given by Herodotus (according to him Darius had reached the See also:Volga!) are quite fantastical; and the account which Darius himself had given on a tablet, which was added to his great inscription in Behistun, is destroyed with the exception of a few words. (See R.

W. Macan, Herodotus, vol. ii. appendix 3; G. B. See also:

Grundy, Great Persian War, pp. 48-64; J. B. See also:Bury in Classical See also:Review, See also:July 1897.) Although See also:European See also:Greece was intimately connected with the coasts of Asia Minor, and the opposing parties in the Greek towns were continually soliciting his intervention, Darius did not meddle with their affairs. The Persian wars were begun by the Greeks themselves. The support which See also:Athens and See also:Eretria gave to the rebellious See also:Ionians and Carians made their See also:punishment inevitable as soon as the See also:rebellion had been put down. But the first expedition, that of Mardonius, failed on the cliffs of Mt. See also:Athos (492), and the army which was led into See also:Attica by Datis in 490 was beaten at See also:Marathon. Before Darius had finished his preparations for a third expedition an insurrection See also:broke out in Egypt (486).

In the next See also:

year Darius died, probably in October 485, after a reign of See also:thirty-six years. He is one of the greatest rulers the See also:east has produced. 2. DARIUS II., OcHUS. See also:Artaxerxes I., who died in the beginning of 424, was followed by his son See also:Xerxes II. But after a See also:month and a See also:half he was murdered by his See also:brother Secydianus, or Sogdianus (the See also:form of the name is uncertain). Against him See also:rose a See also:bastard brother, Ochus, See also:satrap of See also:Hyrcania, and after a See also:short fight killed him, and suppressed by treachery the attempt of his own brother Arsites to imitate his example (Ctesias ap. Phot. 44; Diod. xii. 71, Io8; Pausan. vi. 5, 7). Ochus adopted the name Darius (in the See also:chronicles called Nothos, the bastard).

Neither Xerxes II. nor Secydianus occurs in the See also:

dates of the numerous Babylonian tablets from See also:Nippur; here the dates of Darius IL 3. DARIUS III., CODOMANNUS. The See also:eunuch See also:Bagoas (q.v.), having murdered Artaxerxes III. in 338 and his son See also:Arses in 336, raised to the See also:throne a distant relative of the royal house, whose name, according to See also:Justin x. 3, was Codomannus, and who had excelled in a war against the Cadusians (cf. Diod. xvii. 5 if., where his father is called Arsames, son of Ostanes, a brother of Artaxerxes). The new king, who adopted the name of Darius, took warning by the See also:fate of his predecessors, and saved himself from it by forcing Bagoas to drink the See also:cup himself. Already in 336 See also:Philip II. of Macedon had sent an army into Asia Minor, and in the See also:spring of 334 the See also:campaign of Alexander began. In the following year Darius himself took the See also:field against the Macedonian king, but was beaten at Issus and in 331 at See also:Arbela. In his See also:flight to the east he was deposed and killed by See also:Bessus (July 330). The name Darius was also See also:borne by many later dynasts of Persian origin, among them kings of See also:Persis (q.v.), Darius of Media Atropatene who was defeated by Pompeius, and Darius, king of See also:Pontus in the time of Antony. (ED.

End of Article: DARIUS (Pers. Darayavaush; Old Test. Daryavesh)

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