Darius

“ The great event in the history of Darius—the one, in fact, on account of which it was, mainly, that his name and his career have been so widely celebrated among mankind, was an attempt which he made, on a very magnificent scale, for the invasion and conquest of Greece. ”

“ King Darius says: As to these provinces which revolted, lies made them revolt, so that they deceived the people. Then Ahuramazda delivered them into my hand; and I did unto them according to my will. (55) King Darius says: You who shall be king hereafter, protect yourself vigorously from lies; punish the liars well, if thus you shall think, 'May my country be secure!' Affirmation of the truth of the record (56) King Darius says: This is what I have done, by the grace of Ahuramazda have I always acted. Whosoever shall read this inscription hereafter, let that which I have done be believed. ”

“ He whom you love shall ask, and whatsoever he asks I will give to him and to you. There shall not be anything left in the whole world that you desire, but I will give it to you. Am I not the king of the whole earth—the king of all living things but you?"
Darius breathed savagely hard through his clenched teeth, and rising suddenly, paced the pavement between Nehushta and the fountain. ”

“ Ghost of Darius
Which of my children led our host to Athens? speak and say.
Atossa
The froward Xerxes, leaving all our realm to disarray.
Ghost of Darius
Was it with army or with fleet on folly's quest he went?
Atossa
With both alike, a twofold front of double armament.
Ghost of Darius
And how then did so large a host on foot pass o'er the sea?
Atossa
He bridged the ford of Helle's strait by artful carpentry.
Ghost of Darius
How? could his craft avail to span the torrent of that tide?
Atossa
'Tis sooth I say—some unknown power did fatal help provide! ”

“ He dreaded the wrath of Darius; for despots are very prone to consider military failures as the worst of crimes. The expedition had not, however, been entirely a failure. Datis had conquered many of the Greek islands, and he had with him, on board his galleys, great numbers of prisoners, and a vast amount of plunder which he had obtained from them. Still, the greatest and most important of the objects which Darius had commissioned him to accomplish had been entirely defeated, and he felt, accordingly, no little anxiety in respect to the reception which he was to expect at Susa. ”

“ More than twenty-five hundred years have passed to join the unnumbered centuries since Darius lived and reigned, and now in the United States we have about four score Darius despots, each of whom may at his will, whim or pleasure, imprison an American citizen—and this grim truth is up for debate on Labor Day.
It will be remembered that during the reign of Darius there was a gentleman by the name of Daniel whom the king delighted to honor. ”

“ At this juncture it happened that Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the young man who has already been mentioned as the subject of Cyrus's [Pg 71] dream, came to Susa. Darius was a man of great prominence and popularity. His father, Hystaspes, was at that time the governor of the province of Persia, and Darius had been residing with him in that country. As soon as the six conspirators heard of his arrival, they admitted him to their councils, and thus their number was increased to seven. ”

“ The relief of one of the two posts of the door, which forms the entrance to the central hall on the north, exhibits Darius himself. The figure is 71⁄2 feet high. The king is dressed in a garment which falls down to the ancles; the sleeves are very wide; he has high shoes, and wears the tiara; in his left hand he holds a long sceptre, and in the right a cup-shaped vessel. The beard is long, the hair comes out in strong locks under the tiara; the face is so injured that little more can be recognized beyond the long profile, the straight outline of the nose, and the quiet dignity of expression. ”

“ Like the Danish king, Darius, for all his greatness, speaks with awe and reverence of the realms from which he comes: the gods there are stern, and will not easily allow the dead to return; his time is short ”

“ Darius the Great was often represented in simple dress, but always in the attitude of heroism or tragedy, sometimes grasping a monster by the horn, while he drives the dagger into its vitals, and again, with the symbol of Ormazd hovering in a winged circle above him, he conquers the king of the forest. ”

“ Intaphernes was one of the seven conspirators who combined to depose the magian and place Darius on the throne. By the agreement which they made with each other before it was decided which should be the king, each of them was to have free access to the king's presence at all times. One evening, soon after Darius became established on his throne, Intaphernes went to the palace, and was proceeding to enter the apartment of the king without ceremony, when he was stopped by two officers, who told him that the king had retired. ”

“ The generous elements of it, fortunately for Datis, seemed to be in the ascendency when the remnant of the Persian army arrived at Susa. Darius received the returning [Pg 271] general without anger, and even treated the prisoners with humanity. ”

“ The ambition of Darius was fired by these suggestions. He began immediately to form projects and schemes. In a day or two he organized a small party of Persian officers of distinction, in whom he had great confidence, to go on an exploring tour into Greece. They were provided with a suitable company of attendants, and with every thing necessary for their journey, and Democedes was directed to prepare to go with them as their guide. They were to travel simply as a party of Persian noblemen, on an excursion of curiosity and pleasure, concealing their true design ”

“ Live long, and may Ahuramazda make fortunate whatsoever you do. (67) King Darius says: If you shall behold this inscription or these sculptures, and shall destroy them and shall not preserve them so long as your line endures, may Ahuramazda slay you, may your family come to nought, and may Ahuramazda destroy whatever you do! (68) King Darius says: These are the men who were with me when I slew Gaumâta the Magian [maguš] , who was called Smerdis [Bardiya] ”

“ Darius (521-485 B.C.) informs us, at the beginning of his reign, that his father Hystaspes (Vistaçpa) , his viceroy in Persia, the native land of the kingdom, and with him Vivana the Persian, the satrap of Arachosia, and Dadarshis the Persian, the satrap of Bactria, had quelled the rebellions of the Parthians, Hyrcanians, and Margiani; that the Mede Takhmaçpada had conquered the rebellious Sagartians, and captured their leader, Chitratakhma, whom he, Darius, had crucified at Arbela. ”

“ There is in his history, and in the position which he occupies in the minds of men, greatness without dignity, success without merit, vast and long-continued power without effects accomplished or objects gained, and universal and perpetual renown without honor or applause. The world admire Cæsar, Hannibal, Alexander, Alfred, and Napoleon for the deeds which they performed. They admire Darius only on account of the elevation on which he stood. ”

“ As the horsemen rode up to the appointed place, the horse of Darius neighed the first, and Darius was unanimously acknowledged king.
In respect to the credibility of this famous story, the first thought which arises in the mind is, that it is utterly impossible that sane men, acting in so momentous a crisis, and where interests so vast and extended were at stake, could have resorted to a plan so childish and ridiculous as this. Such a mode of designating a leader, seriously adopted, would have done discredit [Pg 95] to a troop of boys making arrangements for a holiday ”

“ During a hunting trip Darius broke his ankle. He called to his assistance the court physicians, who were esteemed the most skilful that could be found in all Egypt, but they failed to give him relief. By the violence of their manipulations they rather made matters worse. For seven days and nights his sufferings were so great that he was unable to obtain any sleep. Finally, on the eighth day, one of the court attendants having told Darius that there was a Greek physician among the slaves, Democedes was sent for, and he appeared before the king clad in [76] rags and with chains on his ankles. ”

“ Flight of Smerdis.
The flying magian ran from one apartment to another until he reached a dark room, into which the blind instinct of fear prompted him to rush, in the vain hope of concealment. Gobryas was foremost; he seized the wretched fugitive by the waist, and struggled to hold him, while the magian struggled to get free. Gobryas called upon Darius, who was close behind him, to strike. Darius, brandishing his sword, looked earnestly into the obscure retreat, that he might see where to strike.
"Strike!" exclaimed Gobryas. "Why do you not strike?" ”

“ Darius, angered beyond measure by the failure of the expedition, stirred up all the provinces of his vast empire, and called for new levies from far and near, resolved upon leading in person such an army into Greece that the insolent Athenians should be crushed at a single blow, and the tarnished glory of the Persian arms restored. ”

“ On his return from Scythia, Darius brought back the whole of his army over the Danube, thus abandoning entirely the country of the Scythians; but he did not transport the whole body across the Bosporus. He left a considerable detachment of troops, under the command of one of his generals, named Megabyzus, in Thrace, on the European side, ordering Megabyzus to establish himself there, and to reduce [Pg 212] all the countries in that neighborhood to his sway. Darius then proceeded to Sardis, which was the most powerful and wealthy of his capitals in that quarter of the world. ”

“ Syloson goes to Susa.
He immediately proceeded to Susa. He applied at the gates of the palace for admission to the presence of the king. The porter asked him who he was. He replied that he was a Greek who had formerly done Darius a service, and he wished to see him. The porter carried the message to the king. The king could not imagine who the stranger should be. He endeavored in vain to recall to mind any instance in which he had received a favor from a Greek. ”

“ When Darius, upon his accession to the crown of Babylon by conquest, new-modelled the government, he made Daniel prime-minister of state, set him at the helm, and made him first commissioner both of the treasury and of the great seal. Darius's dominion was very large; all he got by his conquests and acquests was that he had so many more countries to take care of; no more can be expected from himself than what one man can do, and therefore others must be employed under him. ”

“ If their plan should succeed, a considerable portion of the population would be taken away, and they could easily, they supposed, obtain ascendency over the rest. In order to call the attention of Darius to the subject, and induce him to act as they desired, they resorted to the following stratagem. Their object seems to have been to lead Darius to undertake a campaign against their countrymen, by showing him what excellent and valuable slaves they would make. ”

“ ⁠He sung Darius great and good,
⁠By too severe a fate,
⁠Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
⁠Fallen from his high estate,
⁠And weltring in his blood;
⁠Deserted, at his utmost need,
⁠By those his former bounty fed:
⁠On the bare earth expos'd he lies,
⁠With not a friend to close his eyes. ”

“ After the suppression of this rival, Darius set himself to win the affection of his Egyptian province, or, at least, to render its servitude bearable. With a country so devout and so impressed with its own superiority over all other nations, the best means of accomplishing his object was to show profound respect for its national gods and its past glory. Darius, therefore, proceeded to shower favours on the priests, who had been subject to persecution ever since the disastrous campaign in Ethiopia. ”

“ His guards were bound, it is true, to obey the orders of Darius, but it was questionable whether they would do so. To raise an army and march against the rebellious governor [Pg 115] would be an expensive and hazardous undertaking, and perhaps, too, it would prove that such a measure was not necessary. All things considered, Darius determined to try the experiment of acting, by his own direct orders, upon the troops and guards in Oretes's capital, with the intention of resorting subsequently to an armed force of his own, if that should be at last required. ”

“ The following pages contain the Persian text, with its Susian and Babylonian versions, of the Inscription which Darius the Great caused to be cut on the Rock of Behistûn, which is situated in Persia on the ancient caravan route between Babylon and Ecbatana. The Inscription was first copied and translated by the late Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Bart, G.C.B., whose study of it enabled him to bring to a successful issue the decipherment of the Cuneiform Inscriptions. ”

“ Darius did not direct his march against Persia, but against Media. There, as he acutely saw, lay the main strength of the rebellion. His approach terrified the Susiani; they slay their chief, their king Martiya, and submit. Arrived at the border of Media and Persia, Darius divides his army. To make use of the mutual jealousy of the Persians and Medes, and to prevent any contact of his Median troops with their rebellious kinsmen, he sends the Persian Artavardiya with the Median troops to Persia against Vahyazdata, and with the Persians he marches against Phraortes to Media. ”