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Biography of Darius, I
Name: Darius, I
Birth Date: 558 B.C.
Death Date: 486 B.C.
Place of Birth: N/A
Nationality: Persian
Gender: Male
Occupations: king
Darius, I
Darius I (558-486 BC), called "the Great," was a Persian king. A great conqueror and the chief organizer of the Persian Empire, he is best known for the unsuccessful attack on Greece which ended at Marathon.A member of a collateral branch of the Achaemenidian royal family, Darius apparently was not close to the throne when Cambyses died in 522 B.C. The story of Darius's accession is told most fully by the Greek Herodotus, whose version clearly reflects the official account set up by Darius's own order in the famous rock inscription at Behistun.According to Herodotus, Cambyses had had his brother Smerdis (Bardiya) executed, but while Cambyses was absent in Egypt, a Magian priest named Gaumata, trusting in a chance resemblance, put himself forward as Smerdis and seized the throne. Cambyses started back but died en route, and the false Smerdis was generally accepted. Darius, with the aid of a …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…Western world Marathon was a victory of enormous significance, to the Persians it was only a moderately serious border setback. Yet this defeat and peace in Asia Minor called for the conquest of all Greece, and Darius began the mighty preparations. A revolt in Egypt, however, distracted him, and he died in 486 B.C., leaving the next attack for his son Xerxes. Further Reading Herodotus's History is the principal source of information on Darius. Aeschylus's Persae is also important. The Behistun inscription is Darius's official account; it is contained in Roland G. Kent, Old Persian: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon (1950; 2d ed. rev. 1953). The fullest recent treatment of Darius is in A. T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (1948; rev. ed. 1959), which asserts that Darius was a usurper. Roman Ghirshman, Iran from the Earliest Times to the Islamic Conquest (1954), is more traditional. Richard Frye, The Heritage of Persia (1963), is also of interest.
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