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Darius the Great or Darius I of Persia (550–486 BCE) was the third Achaemenid Zoroastrian emperor. According to Encyclopedia Iranica, Darius held the Persian Empire at its strongest peak, and that the decay and downfall of the empire commenced with his death and the coronation of his son, Xerxes.

Darius is believed to have ascended the throne by removing the usurper Gautama with the assistance of six other Persian noble families and becoming crowned emperor the next morning. Following his ascension, Darius met with rebellions throughout the Empire which Darius squashed each time. A major event in Darius's life was his expedition to punish Athens and Eritrea and subjugate Greece. Darius added to the empire by conquering Thrace and Macedon, invading the Saka, which were Iranian tribes who had invaded Medes and even killed Cyrus.

Darius organized the empire, by dividing it into provinces and placing governors to govern it. He set a new monetary system, along with making Armaic the official language of the empire. Darius also worked on construction projects throughout the empire, primarily on Susa, Babylon, and Egypt. As well, Darius created a codification of laws for Egypt.

Early life
Darius was born as the eldest son to Hystaspes and Rhodogune during 550 BCE. Hystaspes was a leading figure of Persis which was the homeland of the Persians. According to Herodotus, Hystaspes was satrap of Persis, while the Behistun Inscription shows that Hystaspes was satrap of Bactria in 522 BCE.

Also according to Herodotus (III.139), prior to seizing power Darius served as a spearman (doryphoros) in Cambyses' Egyptian campaign (528-525 BCE), and was "'of no consequence at the time'."

Accession to the Persian throne
There are several accounts on the accession of Darius. According to the account of Herodotus, Ctesias, Trogus and Xenophon, Cambyses had left Patizeithes in charge of the kingdom when he had headed for Egypt. Following this, he sent Prexaspes to murder Smerdis. After the murder of Smerdis, Patizeithes put his brother who resembled Smerdis on the throne and made him the emperor. the Usurper Guatama was a Majian and claimed to be Smerdis the son of Cyrus and brother of Cambyses, during his power he destroyed cultic shrines of the nobility one of the explanations of why he did such was that he had adopted Zoroastrianism. During his eight month of reign, Otanes discovered that the current emperor was an imposter, and along with 6 other Persian nobles including Darius created a plan to kill the imposter. After killing the imposer, his brother and other magians, Darius was crowned emperor the following morning.

According to Darius, whose views can be found on the Behistun Inscription, Darius had known that the emperor of that time was Gaumata, the usurper. Therefore, Darius slayed the usurper and took the throne upon himself. However, certain scholars believe that there was no usurper and only Smerdis. Their theory is that Darius had used the tale that Smerdis was dead and the look-alike Gaumata had usurped the throne as justification for his actions that he had done to gain accession to the throne.

Babylonian revolt
After the murder of Smerdis, widespread revolts had occurred throughout the Empire, primarily on the eastern side. Darius was ready to assert his position as emperor even by violence, and thus took his armies throughout the empire, suppressing the revolts, one by one. The Babylonian revolt had occurred while Otanes and a large amount of the army was absent, and was considered by Darius, that the Babylonians had taken advantage of him. An angered Darius gathered up the remaining forces of the army and headed towards Babylon. At Babylon, the public had closed the gates and set up a series of defenses against the emperor.

There, Darius encountered mockery and taunting from the rebels. The famous saying from this battle derives from a Babylonian who had said "Oh yes, you will capture our city, when mules shall have foals." For one a half years, Darius had become frustrated at the inability of his armies to capture Babylon. He had tried many tricks and stratergies, and at one point had even tried the method that Cyrus the Great had used when he had initially captured Babylon. The situation changed in the favor of Darius, when one of the mules of Zopyrus foaled. At the time, it was believed to be a great miracle, and that it was an act of God. A plan was made for a pretend deserter of high ranking to enter the Babylonian camp, and gain the trust of the Babylonians. Afterward, the Persians would quickly surround and take over the city with the pretend Babylonian general who helped Darius conquer Babylon.

Persian invasion of Greece
Darius's European expedition was a major event in his reign. Starting with the Scythians, Darius conquered Scythia, Thrace and many cities of the northern Aegean, while Macedonia submitted voluntarily. The Asiatic Greeks and Greek islands had submitted to Persian rule by 510 BCE. They were being governed by tyrants responsible to Darius.

Nonetheless, there were certain Greeks who were pro-Persian such as the Medizing Greeks which were largely grouped at Athens. This improved Greek-Persian relations as Darius opened his court and treasuries to the Greeks that wanted to serve him. These Greeks served as soldiers, artisans, statesmen and mariners for Darius. However, Greek fear of the Persians becoming very strong and the constant interference by the Greeks in Ionia and Lydia were all stepping stones in the conflict that was yet to come between Persia and Greece.

When Aristagoras organized the Ionian revolt, Eritrea and Athens supported him by sending ships to Ionia and burning Sardis. Persian military and naval operations to quell the revolt ended in the Persian reoccupation of Ionian and Greek islands. However, anti-Persian parties gained more power in Athens, and pro-Persian aristocrats were exiled from Athens and Sparta. Darius responded by sending a group of troops led by his son-in-law across the Hellespont. However, the battle was lost due to a violent storm and harassment by Thracians.

Determined to punish Athens, Darius send a second army consisting of 20,000 men under Datis who captured Eritrea and moved onwards to Marathon. In 550, at the Battle of Marathon, the Persians were defeated by a heavily armed Athenian army with 9,000 men who were supported by 600 Plataeans and 10,000 lightly armed soldiers led by Miltiades. The defeat at Marathon marked the end of the First Persian invasion of Greece.

Death


Darius planned to launch another expedition in person after Datis's defeat at the Battle of Marathon. However, a revolt in Egypt and failing health prevented Darius from launching the expedition. He died in October 486 after being embalmed and entombed in the rock-cut sepulcher which had been preparded a few years earlier at Naqš-e Rostam. Xerxes, who was the oldest son of Darius and Atossa and was designated to be the successor of Darius.

Organization
Early in his reign, Darius wanted to organize the loosely organized empire with a loose system of taxation which had been passed down to him from Cyrus and Cambyses. To do this, Darius created twenty provinces (archi) which were called satrapies which were assigned to a satrap (archon) and handed out fixed tributes that the nations in the satrapies must pay. A complete list is preserved in the catalog of Herodotus, beginning from Ionia and listing the other satrapies from west to east excluding Persis which was the land of the Persians and the only province which was a conquered land. The tributes from each satrap that were paid in silver were measured with the Babylonian talent, and those that paid in gold are measured in the Euboic talent. The total tribute from the satraps comes to a number less than 15,000 silver talents.

The majority of the satraps were of Persian origin and were members of the royal house or the six great noble families. These satraps were personally picked by Darius to monitor these provinces, which were divided into sub-provinces with their own governors which were chosen either by the royal court or by the satrap. The assessment of the tribute was accomplished by Darius sending a commission of men to evaluate the expenses and revenues of each satrap. To ensure that one person did not gain too much power, each satrap had a secretary who observed the affairs of the state and communicated with Darius, a treasurer who safeguarded provincial revenues, and a garrison commander who was responsible for the garrisons and the troops. As well, royal inspectors who were the "eyes" and"ears" of Darius completed further checks over each satrap.

There were headquarters of imperial administration at Persepolis, Susa, and Babylon while Bactria, Ecbatana, Sardis, Dascyclium and Memphis also had branches of imperial administration. Darius chose Armaic as a common language, and Armaic soon spread throughout the empire. However, Darius gathered a group of scholars to create a separate language system only used for Persis and the Persians, which was called Aryan script which was only used during official inscriptions.

Economy
Before 500 BCE, Darius had introduced a new monetary system which was based on silver coins with a weight averaging to be around 8g and gold coins averaging to be 5.40 g. The gold coin was called dārayaka and was probably named after Darius.

In order to improve trade, Darius built canals, underground waterways, and a powerful navy. e further improved the network of roads and way stations throughout the empire, so that there was a system of travel authorization by King, satrap, or other high official, which entitled the traveler to draw provisions at daily stopping places.

Religion
Darius was an adherent to the Zoroastrian faith, and believed that Ahura Mazda had appointed him to be the emperor of the Persian Empire. At inscriptions, such as the Behistun Inscription, he mentions that he believes he is chosen by Ahura Mazda to be the emperor. Darius had dualistic convictions and believed that each rebellion in his kingdom was the work of Drug the enemy of Asha. Darius believed that because he lived righteously by Asha, Ahura Mazda supported him. In many cuneiform inscriptions denoting his achievements he presents himself a devout believer perhaps even convinced that he had a divine right to rule over the world. In the lands that were conquered by the Persian Empire, Darius followed the same Achaemenid tolerance that Cyrus had shown, and later Achaemenid emperors would show. He supported faiths and religions that were "alien" as long as the adherents were submissive and peaceable, sometimes giving them grants from his treasury for their purposes. He had funded the restoration of the Jewish temple which had originally been decreed by Cyrus the Great, presented favour towards Greek cults which can be seen in his letter to Gadatas, and supported Elamite priests. He had also observed Egyptian religious rites related to kingship and had built the temple for the Egyptian God, Amun.

Construction
During Darius's Greek expedition, Darius had taken on building programs in Susa, Egypt and Persepolis. He had linked the Red Sea to the Nile river by building a canal which ran from modern Zaqāzīq to modern Suez. To open this canal, he traveled to Egypt in 497, where the inauguration was done among great fanfare and celebrations. Darius also built a canal to connect the Red Sea and Mediterranean. On this visit to Egypt, he even erected monuments and executed Aryandes on the accounts of treason. When Darius returned back to Persis, he found that the codification of Egyptian law had been finished.

As well, Darius had sponsored large construction projects in Susa, Babylon, Egypt, and Persepolis. The monuments that Darius build often had inscriptions which were in the official languages of the Persian Empire which were, Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian and Egyptian hieroglyphs. To construct these monuments, Darius had hired a large number of workers and artisans of diverse nationalities. Several of these workers were even deportees who had been employed just for these projects. These deportees enhanced the economy and even improved international relations with neighboring countries that these deportees arrived from.