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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Darius Biography DARIUS. The name of several Persian kings, and, like the Egyptian Pharaoh, titular and not personal. —The most famous of the name is called Darius I, or Darius Hystaspis, from his father’s name. (See Hystaspes.) He was born 558 b.c., and was a Persian and of the Achæmenian line. On the death of Cambyses (522 b.c.) he leagued himself with six other nobles to murder Smerdis the Magian, who had usurped the throne. The conspirators were successful in their plot, and Darius was chosen King. An account of these occurrences is given in the great Behistun inscription, which serves to supplement or correct the narrative of Herodotus. His position at first was very insecure, but his caution, skill, and energy enabled him to govern his vast dominions for 36 years. To strengthen himself, he married the daughter of Otanes, who had been the head of the conspiracy, and likewise took three wives from the royal household, viz., two daughters of Cyrus and one of Cyrus’s son, Smerdis. He then divided his empire into 20 satrapies and determined the exact amount of the taxation to be borne by each. In some of the remoter provinces great confusion seems to have prevailed after the death of Smerdis the Magian; and a proof of how little Darius could effect at first is afforded by the conduct of Orœtes, the Governor of Sardis, who for some time was quite defiant of his authority. The inscriptions of Darius contain the account of no fewer than 9 or 10 rebellions against his sway. Babylon also revolted, and Darius besieged the city unsuccessfully for two years. At last, however, it was taken by an extraordinary stratagem of his general, Zopyrus (516). It is more likely, however, that the account of the conquest of Babylon, as given by Herodotus (iii, 150), belongs to the first siege of the city. In the year 514 b.c. Darius is thought to have begun the great rock inscription of Behistun, which records the events of his reign. In 513 Darius, with an army of 700,000 (though this figure, given by Herodotus, is in all probability absurdly exaggerated), crossed the Bosporus by a bridge of boats, marched to the mouths of the Danube, crossed the river, and advanced against the Scythians. The expedition proved a failure. Darius retreated, but detached from his main force an army of 80,000 men, under Megabyzus, to conquer Thrace, while he himself returned to Asia, whence he extended his authority in the east as far as the Indus. About 501 b.c. the Ionian cities rose in revolt against Persian dominion. They were unsuccessful, the final victory of the Persians being achieved in the naval battle at Lade and the taking of Miletus (494). The assistance given by the Athenians and Eretrians to the Ionians, and the part which they had taken in the burning of Sardis, determined Darius, who was also influenced thereto by the banished Hippias, to attempt the subjugation of the whole of Greece. In 492 he sent Mardonius with an army into Thrace and Macedonia, and at the same time dispatched a fleet against the islands. The former was routed by the Brygi in Thrace, the latter was shattered and dispersed by a storm when rounding the promontory of Mount Athos. In 490 he renewed his attempt. His fleet committed great ravages in the Cyclades, but his army was entirely defeated at Marathon by the Athenians, under Miltiades, the tyrant of the Chersonese. In the midst of his preparations for a third expedition Darius died, about 486 b.c., and was succeeded by his son Xerxes. His tomb is still to be seen at Nakshi-Rustam. Darius was an able ruler, and he organized and wisely administered the kingdom which Cyrus had founded. His liberality to the Jews in connection with the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem is referred to in the Bible. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 500-501. |