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Biographies: Darius the Great
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Darius I the Great (Old Persian: Darayavaush) was the third legitimate Achaemenid Emperor. During his reign Darius nearly rebuilt the Achaemenid Empire from the ground up, embarked on several great building projects, and brought Persia to its greatest territorial extent.
Very little is known about Darius in his youth. Darius was probably born some time around 550 B.C. though there is no way to be sure, his father was Hystaspes (Cyrus the Great’s cousin) and his mother is unknown. According to Herodotus when Darius was twenty years old Cyrus the Great had a dream about Darius’ future, for this reason he sent Hystaspes back to Persia to keep an eye on Darius. When Cyrus died a few days later and Cambyses took the throne he either appointed or confirmed Hystaspes as Satrap of Parthia, this would prove to be important in the life of Darius. It seems that Darius got his first taste of combat and his first real mention in history during Cambyses’ conquest of Egypt in 525 where we learn that he was already the arstibara (lance carrier and commander of the Royal Guard). This is all that is known about Darius before the momentous events that would catapult him to the forefront of the army and beyond.
From 525 to 522 all was peaceful in Darius’ life, but then something most unexpected happened. In 522 B.C. a revolt erupted in Persia, led by a Magian (a Persian subject people) named Gaumata. However Gaumata claimed that he was the brother of Cambyses, Bardiya, whom Cambyses had secretly killed. Because the people did not know that Bardiya was dead they followed Gaumata. Cambyses when he heard the news was driven out of his mind and he quickly gathered his army, which was still in Egypt and he marched for Persia. While the army was camped in Syria Cambyses unexpectedly died, either due to suicide or an accident while getting in the saddle. Darius as the late Cambyses’ arstibara was named army commander by the troops. Meanwhile in Persia a group of six noblemen (Otanes, Gobryas, Intaphrenes, Hydranes, Megabyzus, and Ardumanis) had discovered the truth about Gaumata and were undecided on what to do. When Darius and his army arrived in the city of Susa the six nobles joined him there and together they decided to kill Gaumata. When Gaumata arrived at the fortress of Sikayauvatis in the city of Nisaia in Media Darius along with his fellow nobles walked in and killed him (none of the guards interfered during this action, for reasons unknown). Following the death of Gaumata the conspirators now had to decide who was to become king. According to Herodotus they briefly discussed the idea of democracy, but this was obviously added. In the end it was the head conspirator, Otanes, who decided to give up his better claim to the throne to Darius, all the others soon followed suit and Darius became the next Great King (it is interesting to note that both Darius’ father and grandfather were still alive at this time, but rejected the idea of being king).
But Darius would not be given time to savor his new position, for 4 days later rebellions began all over the empire, starting with Assina in Elam and Nidintu-Bel in Babylon. From Elam and Babylon the flames spread, eventually coming to include Persia itself when another man claming to be Bardiya, Vahyazdata revolted against Darius. Realizing he had to act fast to solidify his position Darius arranged a marriage with a woman named Atossa, Cambyses’ wife and sister in order to improve his familial position. Following this Darius embarked on a campaign to defeat the rebels fighting a total of 19 battles against them in a single year. Darius first struck against Babylon at Opis, winning such a great victory against them that the Elamites gave up Assina without a fight when Darius told them to hand him over. Shortly there after Babylon fell to Darius and he personally killed Nidintu-Bel. But this was not the end of the rebellions, for not long after Nidintu-Bel’s death Vahyazdata rose up in rebellion in Persia, he was followed by Elam (again), Media, Assyria, Egypt, Parthia, Margiana, Sattagydia, and Scythia. These revolts were soon joined by Lydia, Armenia, and Sagartia. Darius now had his hands full with enemies, but he did have some allies, in particular his father still ruled in Parthia and two satraps, Dadarsi and Vivana were close friends of Hystaspes. Darius realized that the Median rebellion was central to his campaign against the rebels. For this reason he sent some troops under Hydranes (one of the nobles who had helped killed Gaumata) to the pass of Deh Bid to keep Vahyazdata and the Median rebel Phraortes from linking up. This proved to be a wise decision on Darius’ part as Hydranes was able to keep his position in the pass against furious assaults by Phraortes and Vahyazdata. Next Darius sent troops under an unknown commander named Vaumisa to keep the Armenians from linking up with Phraortes, while Vaumisa ultimately failed his presence proved troublesome to Media. In the east Hystaspes, Dadarsi, and Vivana held out against the various rebel forces and Vivana was even able to make a number of gains against Vahyazdata. After this the various armies retired for the remainder of the winter months, thus giving time to Darius to make plans for his attacks. When spring came in April 521 Darius prepared for a massive strike against Media which he led personally, a second army led by Artavardiya attacked Persia. It did not take long before Darius and Phraortes engaged in combat. At a place called Kunduru Darius defeated Phraortes decisively and when Phraortes tried to escape after the battle he was quickly caught and killed. A relative of Phraortes tried to carry on the fight from Sagartia, but he was captured and killed by a Median officer that served Darius. In Persia Artavardiya encountered and defeated Vahyazdata, who fled east ward after the defeat with Artavardiya on his trail. In Armenia a new Persian assault finally succeeded in breaking into the Armenian interior, it did not take long to link up with the forces of Vaumisa. With these victories no one could doubt Darius’ ultimate victory. In Parthia the rebellion there was crushed by the combined forces of Darius himself, his father, and Dadarsi in early July. Soon afterwards Vahyazdata was captured by Artavardiya and killed. Darius was now the undisputed Great King of Persia and was crowned in Pasargadae, but then unexpectedly Babylon revolted again under a man named Arakha. Darius responded by sending Intaphrenes (another one of the nobles who had helped killed Gaumata) to crush it, which he did in a short amount of time. There were still a few more pockets of resistance left, Margiana, Elam (for a third time), Lydia, and Scythia. Margiana was dealt with swiftly before the end of the year and Elam was crushed in 520/519. Lydia, which had not rebelled militarily yet, was dealt with by Darius when he replaced the Lydian satrap with Otanes, as a thank you for supporting him. And finally the Scythians were dealt with in 519 when Darius appointed a new king for them. Finally after years 3 years and a few months the fighting was over, Darius was now, for real, the undisputed Great King of the Achaemenid Empire, it is believed that the Jewish prophet Zechariah was speaking of Darius’ recent victory when he wrote that the whole world was now at peace.
With Darius’ victory over the rebels in 519 the Achaemenid Empire was whole once more. Darius having now solidified his empire internally now needed to continue to conquer in order to give his empire strong borders. Later in the year 519 Darius conquered the Scythians on the Caspian Sea to stop the raids originating from there. In 515 Darius led his armies east and he conquered the Indus River valley in what is now modern Pakistan and India, not much is known of this campaign. The inclusion of the Indus heralded in several changes in the Achaemenid Empire, such as the founding of a new capital at Persepolis (Old Persian: Parsa) and the introduction of new currency. After some years of peace Darius set out once again to war. In 513 he set out for the territory of the European Scythians, or Sacae, by crossing the Bosporus into Thrace and conquering the eastern part of that country. Following this Darius advanced to the Danube where Ionian Greek subjects of his built a temporary bridge, which was ordered to be destroyed once Darius crossed into modern Romania. Now in Scythian territory he attempted to destroy them, but the Scythians would not fight Darius and they constantly retreated. According to Herodotus the Persians chased the Scythians as far as the Oaros River (Modern Volga) but this has been dismissed as a mistake and/or an exaggeration. Most historians believe that Darius chased the Scythians as far as the Dnepr, before turning back on the advice of Gobryas, his arstibara. When Darius returned from his Scythian campaign he left the matter in the hands of the satraps of Asia Minor, who conquered the rest of Thrace, subdued Macedonia, the Greek towns in the Cyrenaica, and the islands of Lemnos and Imbros. In the period between the conquests of the satraps and the beginning of Darius’ war with Greece was a peaceful time in Persia.
Here we shall examine the various peacetime accomplishments of Darius the Great. According to Persian sources shortly after becoming king Darius believed that the Persian people needed a writing script of their own, instead of the writing scripts of foreigners. For this reason Darius commissioned the invention of a Persian writing system, today known as Old Persian. Darius’ next great internal achievement is one of longest lasting. The system of satrapies was already in place by the time of Darius, but it was unwieldy and there was no fixed system of tributes or taxation. Darius solidified the system into fixed tax districts and he imposed a fixed tribute system as well with the tribute demanded reflecting that particular area’s wealth. In 515 after the Indus was conquered Darius introduced a new system of money in the Achaemenid Empire. A new gold piece called the daric (Old Persian: darayaka) and the silver siglos. All currency was to be held to the daric-siglos standard from then on. Another important invention was the Royal Road system. The roads crisscrossing Persia and its empire were already in existence, but Darius introduced a system of buildings called pirradazis where a person could stay for the night and perhaps change horses. Many times these pirradazis had an inspector, called the king’s eyes in residence. These inspectors were granted passports by the ministry that employed them which allowed them food and water while resting. Darius also reformed the calendar; this would heavily influence later eastern astronomy. Another important achievement of Darius was the setting up of large granaries all over the empire for the purpose of feeding the army. These granaries would allow the Persians to maintain a large army no matter where it was in the empire, as a result the granaries would be a major contention point in all future Persian wars. Darius also patronized various endeavors in the world of trade, the new currency that he instituted shows this quite clearly in hindsight. One of things that Darius did to promote trade was to fund an expedition down the Indus River, this expedition, led by Scylax of Caryanda charted a new sea trade route going from the Indus to Egypt. Darius following the example of Cyrus was also very tolerant of other religions in his reign; this is shown in his actions in Egypt, the Greek lands, and Israel. In Egypt Darius did much there that earned him the respect of the people; he gave funds and commissions for several new temples all over Egypt. He also was a major proponent of the reopening of the medical school at Sais. In the case of the Greeks Darius showed a great interest in the cult of Apollo, often lavishing rather exorbitant gifts on temples dedicated to the cult. In Israel the case was that the Babylonian governor of the area kept impeding the construction of the Great Temple. When the Jews sent word of this to Susa Darius ordered a search of the archives there, when the scribes found Cyrus’ original order Darius told the Jews to continue building.
Darius also embarked on many great building projects over his time as king. Darius was a great builder in his time, one of the things he did for the architectural world was spearhead the creation of separate and distinct Persian building styles. The most famous building project of Darius the Great was the construction of the palace-city of Parsa (Greek: Persepolis). Building began in 515 and the most important parts, such as the Audience Hall (Old Persian: Apadana) and Treasury were completed in 490 B.C. A winter palace (Old Persian: Tachara) was added that year to the list of buildings, but Darius did not see it completed. Darius also built marvelous palaces in the city of Susa, which was Darius’ favorite residence for most of his reign. Darius built palaces in Ectbana and Babylon, though they paled in comparison to Parsa and Susa. Besides palaces Darius also built great public works, the most famous being the canal he built in Egypt. Following the voyages of Scylax of Caryanda Darius decided to build a canal to connect the Red Sea and the Nile River. This canal was probably built on the ruins of one started by Egyptian river lord, Necho I (who lived in the 7th century B.C.). The great canal of Darius was completed in 498, a testament to its chief benefactor’s vision and patronage of trade and building.
The last events of the life of Darius the Great is undoubtly the most remembered of all. The thirteen years between the conclusion of the great campaign against the Scythians and war with Greece is not well recorded either by Herodotus or Darius himself in his autobiography, though it seems that there was some conflict with a random Scythian tribe or two. The pace of record seems to pick up again around 499 when word reached Darius that for a seemingly spontaneous reason the Greek cities in Asia Minor were revolting against Persian rule (the reason for revolt is believed to have been high taxes). This came as a surprise to Darius, for no one had revolted against him for 23 years by that time. Darius ultimately decided to send a massive army against the rebelling Greeks, while he went to Egypt to oversee the final stages of the construction of the canal there. At first the Greeks enjoyed a good measure of success against the Persians, pushing them back to their regional capital at Sardis. However at Sardis, Darius’ brother Artaphernes (the satrap of Lydia), managed to hold on to the central areas of the city, despite furious Greek attacks. The rebelling Greeks also attempted to take the island of Cyprus, but they were defeated by the Persian navy. Despite their early victories the tide turned against the Ionian Greeks, the chief rebel city of Miletus was sacked by Persian forces in 494 and after this the remaining cities fell to the four Persian commanders (Hymaees, Daurises, Artaphernes, and Otanes) with ease. To help secure the region Darius sent his son-in-law Mardonius across the Bosporus into Macedonia, to fully incorporate the area into Persia, this he did in 492. In 490 Darius would order a new campaign in the region of Greece led by a Mede named Datis and Artaphernes (this Artaphernes is Darius’ nephew, not his brother). Herodotus has held that this campaign was to punish the cities of Athens and Eretria for helping the Ionians 2 years before, but some modern historians claim that the size of the army being sent shows that the aim was most likely to have been to conquer the Aegean islands between Asia Minor and Greece, in order to form a buffer zone between Greece and Persia. What ever the reason the Persians conquer the Aegean islands one by one, then the mainland city of Eretria was attacked after the fall of Delos on September 1, 490 (the alternate view holds that the Persians attacked Eretria because that city held the island of Euboa, which the Persians wanted). Whatever the reason Datis and Artaphernes attacked and destroyed Eretria, sending many former inhabitants as slaves to Elam. On September 5 Datis landed at Marathon and prepared to march to Athens (the alternate view holds that the Persians were seeking to return the former dictator of Athens, Hippias, to his throne). It did take long for the Athenians to learn of the landing and they maneuvered an army to block the road, but did not attack the Persians. On September 10 after 5 days of waiting and plundering Datis and Artaphernes decided to leave Marathon, this was when the Athenians launched their attack. The battle of Marathon was seen as great victory by the Greeks, but was seen as a rearguard action by the Persians, thus came the end of the first Greco-Persian War. In the aftermath of Marathon Darius decided that the recent war had proven that Greece had to be conquered in order to secure the stability of the region. But it was not to be for in 486 the satrapy of Egypt suddenly rebelled against Persian authority, and in October, 485 Darius I the Great died at the age of 64
Darius the Great was a truly amazing Persian king; he took a near ruined empire and transformed it into the first superpower the world had ever known. Perhaps the greatest tribute to him was from his enemies in Athens, who admitted to being greatly saddened at the death of Darius, they would later begin to copy some of his administrative institutions, this is regarded as the greatest compliment of all. |
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