As the rules of the Persian king Darius the first. King Darius: who is he, famous facts, life story and biography

The history of the Ancient World tells about the great military campaigns, the seizure of vast territories of neighboring countries and the many years of enslavement of peoples. Non-stop interstate wars were a habitual action of that time. Under these conditions, the wisdom and military talent of the rulers of antiquity came to the fore, among which Tsar Darius stood out in particular. Who is this, how did he come to power, and what economic heights did the Persian Empire reach under him?

Rise to power

During the military campaign of King Cambyses, the Persian throne is occupied by the priest Gaumata. Having killed the younger brother of the ruler Bardia, Gaumata, using the external similarity with the latter, declares himself the ruler of the Persian Empire. Having learned about the fraudulent seizure of power, Cambyses hastily returns to the capital, but mysteriously dies along the way.

Initially, the covert coup d'état went unnoticed. The liar confidently played the role of a representative of the royal family of the Achaemenid state, and only a chance helped to reveal the deception.

Warlord Otan, noticing something was wrong, asks one of the concubines of the harem to carefully examine the new king. When the new emperor was asleep, the girl studies the face of the false Bardia and notices a stunning fact - the ruler has no ears. The new circumstance speaks of one thing - the person who seized power was punished for wrongdoing, which could not happen to a representative of the royal family.

Otan shares the news with a narrow circle of people belonging to noble families of aristocrats. The decision was made to kill the liar. After the death of Gaumat, 7 people claim the throne. All of them unanimously agree on an unusual lot - the new king will be the one whose horse neighs first at sunrise the next day. Darius was the winner.

The first steps of King Darius

The troubled events that took place at the top of the empire made many enslaved peoples doubt the power of Darius. Mass uprisings began throughout the state.

After a violent crackdown on protests that left nearly 200,000 dead, the new ruler began to develop and expand his empire:

• Administrative reform. A stable system of state administration has been created, and the military continent has been enlarged.
• Single language. Aramaic became the official state language. Anticipating possible discontent, the offices of large countries were allowed to duplicate documents in their native language.
• Money. A single banknote - gold - was introduced into circulation daric(coin weight 8.4 grams).
• taxes. A progressive system of taxation has been developed - the amount of the tax depends on the fertility of the lands of a separately selected area.

During his reign, which is almost 36 years, on the territory located from Egypt to India, Darius creates an effective mechanism for governing the country. After his death, economic growth stopped, and the empire itself began to fall apart.

Military campaigns and expansion of the territory

Despite his young age, and Darius became king at the age of 28, the new ruler was always marked by military victories. Having established order and discipline in the state, the talented commander began to conquer neighboring countries:

• India. The territory of modern India in 517 BC consisted of numerous and small states. The underdeveloped tribes were fragmented, which allowed the Persians to capture the entire western part of the territory of South Asia.
• Thrace. The lands of present-day Romania and Turkey in 512 BC called Thrace. Almost half a million troops of the Persian Empire captured all the cities located both on the Black Sea coast and inside the contingent without any problems.
• Aegean islands. Preparations for the fight against the uncompromising Athens and Sparta began with the capture of all the key islands of the Aegean Sea.

Despite the enslavement of the peoples of many countries, in the days of the Ancient World, Darius was considered the softest tyrant.

Failures of King Darius

After conquering most of Asia, Darius began to look towards the northern part of Europe. Starting from 507 BC, after the campaign against the Scythians, the first failures began:

• Black Sea Scythians. The tsar personally led the military campaign to the shores of the Black Sea. The Scythians, seeing the number of Persians, did not go out into open battle. Retreating to the endless steppes, they burned their houses, drove away their cattle, and covered their wells with earth. The bloodless and tired army is forced to return home with nothing.
• Greeks. It was 490 BC, the Persians landed on Attica and approached the city of Marathon. On September 12 of the same year, the famous Battle of Marathon takes place, during which the invincible army of the Persian Empire fails.

Do you know that:

1. The military leader Otan, who played a key role in Darius' accession to the throne, received the northern part of Asia Minor as a reward.
2. During the passage of an unusual lot, which decided the issue of the new ruler of Persia, Darius cheated and agreed with the court groom Ebar. The latter arranged so that it was the horse of Darius who neighed first.
3. Many historians believe that there was no mention of any priest of Gaumata, and as a result of a coup d'état, the real brother of Cambyses, Bardius, was killed.
4. The only inhabitants of the empire that did not pay taxes were the Persians. Acting as the ruling people, representatives of this nation occupied all key positions in the state.
5. The personal guard of King Darius was called the army of "immortal warriors". The composition consisted exclusively of Persians, and the total number exceeded 10,000 people.

Persia never knew such a wise statesman as King Darius. Who he is can be characterized by simple theses: a great military strategist, an economic reformer and a just ruler of his people. It was under him that the Persian Empire reached its maximum prosperity, and later only the ancient Romans could compete with the territory of the occupied lands.

After the death of Cambyses II, who had no heirs, he seized power for a while Gaumata who was killed in a conspiracy. The leader of the conspirators became king Darius from the genus Achaemenid (522-486 BC). He crushed the revolt of the Babylonians, subjugated Ionia, again annexed to his kingdom Lydia and Phrygia. Then Darius moved with the troops against the Scythians, but was defeated and retreated from the Scythian steppes, barely saving the army. During his reign, a number of reforms were carried out. So, in 515 BC. e. Darius divided his state into 20 satrapies. Their managers are satraps, "guardians of the kingdom" - had full power in the district, were responsible for the economy and trade, had the right to check coins. The special duty of the satraps was to collect taxes from the population.

Ionia - the western coast of Asia Minor, inhabited by the Greeks, who founded their colonies there Miletus, Halicarnassus, Smyrna, Ephesus.

When the satraps were special officials, subject to the king. They controlled the activities of the satraps.

Satrapy - an administrative district in ancient Iran, a part of the state that ruled the royal governor - a satrap.

Solid roads were laid throughout the state, which were well guarded and had a network of postal stations. The main one was royal road. Every three miles it had stations for messengers, where fresh horses were always kept ready. State messages and goods intended for the king were delivered by special messengers. They raced on horseback, passing cargo at post stations along relay race.

Relay race - sending messages to each other by messengers.

Darius I

It was said that Darius could dine in Babylon with fish that was caught in the Mediterranean in the morning. The capital was moved to Susa, near Babylon. A special service was created to oversee the satraps and all subjects - the secret police. The chief overseer and "secret messengers" eavesdropped on people's conversations, looking for those who were dissatisfied, then reported this to the bosses.

The main residences of the king were in Ecbatana, Susa, Babylon and Persepolis. In each of these cities, Darius lived for one specific season.

Persian kingdom during the reign Darius I (522-486 BC) reached power and prosperity. Therefore, Darius began to conquer neighboring lands. As already mentioned, the Persians were defeated during the campaign against the Scythians. Greece, this small country and its freedom-loving people, the Persians also did not conquer, although they really wanted to.

But still, the Persians managed to conquer the islands of the Aegean Sea, Egypt, the northwestern part of India. material from the site

The Persian state became a huge empire, the borders of which stretched from the Ionian coast to India, from the Black Sea to Egypt.During its heyday, the powerful Persian kingdom occupied a large territory: Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Phenicia, Syria, the Chaldean kingdom, Assyria, part of India. Part of the territory of the ancient Persian state today belongs to Iran.

The Persian state of the Achaemenids in the VI-IV centuries. BC e.

The Persian state of the “king of kings” is one of the designations of the most ancient state, which was created by the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in the 6th-4th centuries. BC e. It was also called the First Persian Empire. It was located in Western Asia and in northeast Africa. Near the end of the 6th century BC e. the territory of the country was so vast that on its borders were:

• in the east - the river Indus;
• in the west - the Aegean Sea;
• in the south - the rapids of the Nile River;
• in the north - Transcaucasia.

End of Median rule

Before the formation of the Persian state of the "king of kings", the situation was as follows. The founder of Persia located here is considered the legendary Khakhamanish (700-675 BC), who belonged to the Achaemenid family. Hence the name of the inhabitants of the country - the Achaemenids, the capital in it was the city of Anshan. In the 7th century BC e. The people of the Persians fell under the rule of the Medes.

In 553 BC. e. the Persians, oppressed by the Medes, rose to fight against the dominion of Media. The uprising was led by Cyrus II, who ruled over them. They organized a strong army, and already after three years he managed to defeat Media. But he didn't stop there. With his huge army, he went further west.

Conquest of the peoples

Along the way, Cyrus conquered one country after another. After defeating Lydia, he set his sights on Babylonia. But it was not possible to take the large and very well-fortified city of Babylon in a swoop. And then Cyrus went to the trick. On one of the dark nights, the locals celebrated a big holiday. By order of their leader, the Persian soldiers diverted the water of the Euphrates River into another channel, previously prepared by them.

As a result of this, the river that flowed through the city became very shallow, and the soldiers forded their way along it into the city. They took the celebrating residents by surprise during a grand feast. Thus, Cyrus II conquered both the city and the Babylonian kingdom as a whole in one night.

After that, the power of the Persians over themselves was voluntarily recognized by Palestine, Syria, and Phoenicia. As a result, the state ruled by Cyrus II reached the Indian borders in the east, and the Greek cities in the west.

The big plus of Cyrus II as a ruler was that he respected the orders, laws and religion of the conquered peoples. This contributed to the fact that in the conquered territories, local residents rarely expressed their dissatisfaction and did not raise uprisings.

Persian Empire of the "King of Kings"

After Cyrus II died in battle against the Masagetiv tribes at the age of 70, the conquests did not stop, they were continued by his son Cambyses. In 525 BC. e. he subjugated Egypt, but soon died. After him, Darius I ascended the throne, his cousin (522-486 BC), who ruled Persia for 36 years. His subjects called him the title "king of kings".

He inherited a huge country, the borders of which he constantly expanded. He made successful trips to such regions as Greece, India, Asia Minor, and the Northern Black Sea region. The king surrounded himself with unheard-of luxury. He had a detachment of guards, numbering up to 10 thousand. In his state, Darius I carried out a number of fundamental reforms aimed at improving governance in the territories subject to him.

Reforms of Darius

The improvements carried out in his state by King Darius I were as follows.

• The country was divided into 20 separate regions, called satrapies, headed by the governor - the satrap. He controlled the collection of taxes, the performance of military and labor duties, as well as daily economic affairs.
• The military formations in the satrapies were placed under the command of individual military leaders who were subordinate to the king himself and independent of the governors. Both military leaders and satraps were obliged to watch each other and report to the king.
• Throughout the country, Darius sent officials called "the ears of the king." When they suddenly came to one or another satrapy, they reported to the king about violations. The punishments for crimes were terrible. Thieves and robbers lost their arms and legs, and traitors were subjected to terrible torture.
• Each satrapy had its own taxes. A single monetary unit was introduced - the golden darik. In 515 BC. e. the capital Persepolis (or Parsu) was founded, which became a symbol of royal power.

Having existed for about two centuries, the Persian state of the “king of kings” fell around 330 AD. e. under the strong pressure of the troops of Alexander the Great, becoming part of his great empire.

Symbols of power

In addition to the designation of a large state, the word "state" has another meaning. This is a symbol of royal power along with the scepter.

The first is a golden ball, which is crowned with a crown or cross, which implies power over the earth. The sovereign apple is already found on Roman coins issued under Emperor Augustus.

The second is a rod, the prototype of which is. Initially, it was borrowed by the bishops of the church as a sign of the power of the shepherd, and then, in a shortened form, by European sovereigns. They already existed in Ancient Greece.

The Russian tsars also had a power and a scepter. The first attribute came to us from Poland, for the first time as a symbol of royal power was used in 1557 under Ivan the Terrible. The scepter began to be used from 1584, when Fedor Ioannovich was married to the kingdom.

Darius I, Darayavaush (? - 486 BC)

Biography. The son of the Persian ruler Hystaspes (Vishtaspa), belonged to the younger branch of the ruling Achaemenid dynasty. Almost nothing is known about his early life. But, without a doubt, he was an outstanding person.

It can be considered historically reliable that Darayavaush, before entering the history of the Ancient East under the name of King Darius I, already had considerable military experience, since war at that distant time was the normal state of all states, peoples and tribes.

Having become the king of Persia, Darius suppressed major uprisings against the ruling Achaemenid dynasty in Babylonia, Persia, Media, Margiana, Elam, Egypt, Parthia, Sattagidia and rebellions of nomadic tribes in Central Asia by force of arms.

Each such suppression of the anti-Persian uprising was a large military campaign, involving the collection of a large army, the involvement of allied troops from among nomadic tribes, first of all, the seizure of rebellious cities and fortresses, the collection of military booty and the punishment of state criminals. The Persian king had to be not only a commander, but also a skilled diplomat, since it was more profitable to get along with the local nobility than to fight.

The Persian state sought to extend its expansion primarily to rich lands that could constantly replenish the royal treasury. That is why King Darius I drew attention to the neighboring Indian states. Since there was no agreement among them, they became the prey of the warlike Persians.

Around 518 B.C. Darius conquered the northwestern part of India - the western bank of the Indus River. Then - the northwestern part of the Punjab, located east of this river. Persian conquests in India continued until 509 BC. Darius I sent the Greek sailor and geographer Scylacus to explore the Indus River to the Arabian Sea.

After the successful Indian campaign of the Persian army, Darius I decided to subjugate the Scythians of the northern Black Sea region. However, the new campaign of 511 BC. was unsuccessful for him. On the way to the distant and unknown Scythia, Persian sailors built two floating bridges - one across the Bosporus, the other across the Danube. To protect the latter, Darius I had to leave a large detachment. The Persians lost the war in the endless steppe, and the Scythians retained their independence. Foreigners had to leave the Black Sea region with huge losses.

Under King Darius I, a series of Greco-Persian wars (500-449 BC) began, which went on with varying success. (There were three in total.) The main opponents of the Persian state in these wars were Athens and some Greek city-states on the Peloponnese peninsula.

The reason for the first Greco-Persian war of 492 BC. there was an uprising of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, which were under the yoke of the satrap - the governor of the king of Persia. The uprising was started by the city of Miletus. Then Athens sent 20 warships with an army on board to help the rebellious Greeks of Asia Minor. Strong Sparta refused to help the rebels.

To cut off the communications of the rebellious cities on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea, Darius I gathered a large fleet, which defeated the Greeks in a battle near the island of Lede, not far from Miletus. The uprising of the Greek cities in Asia Minor was brutally suppressed. The help of Athens was the reason for Darius I to declare war on the Hellenic world on the other side of the Aegean Sea.

Against the Greek states, Darius I made two large military campaigns. The first took place in 492 BC, when the king sent an army to Greece under the command of his son-in-law Mardonius. The land army marched along the southern part of Thrace, and the fleet moved along the sea coast. However, during a severe storm near Cape Athos, most of the Persian fleet was lost, and their ground forces, having lost support from the sea, began to suffer heavy losses in frequent clashes with the local population. In the end, Mardonius decided to go back.

In 491 BC. Darius I sent ambassadors to Greece, who were supposed to bring the freedom-loving Greeks into submission. A number of small Greek city-states could not resist and recognized the power of the Persians over themselves. But in Athens and Sparta, the royal ambassadors were killed.

In 490 BC. the second trip took place. The king sent against Greece a large army under the command of experienced commanders Datis and Artaphernes. The Persian army was delivered to European territory by a huge fleet. The Persians destroyed the city of Eritrea on the island of Euboea and landed near Marathon, just 28 kilometers from Athens.

It was here that the Greeks inflicted the heaviest defeat on the Persians during the three Greco-Persian wars - in the famous Battle of Marathon. It happened on September 13, 490 BC. near the small Greek village of Marathon, which was destined to go down not only in military history, but also in the history of the international Olympic movement.

The Greek army, commanded by the experienced commander Miltiades (one of the ten Athenian strategists), consisted of 10 thousand hoplite warriors from Athens and one thousand of their allies from Plataea (Boeotia). About the same number were poorly armed slaves. The Spartans promised to send significant military assistance, but they were too late to start the battle.

The 60,000th Persian army was led by one of the best royal commanders, Datis. The tsarist fleet, after the landing of the troops, was at anchor not far from Marathon. Persian sailors, according to the tradition of the ancient world, dragged small ships ashore to protect them in case of great sea waves and strong winds. The crews of many ships went ashore in order to take part in the collection of military booty on the battlefield after the victorious end of the battle with the Greeks.

The Persians began the battle as usual - the basis of their construction was the "victorious" center, which was to split the enemy system into two parts. Miltiades was well acquainted with the military art of the Persians and ventured to change the construction of the Greek battle formations, traditional for that time. He sought to cover the entire width of the Marathon valley with a long phalanx of heavily armed Greek infantry. Thanks to this, it was possible to avoid encirclement, because the Persian commander had light cavalry, but Miltiades did not. The flanks of the phalanx rested on rocky hills through which the Persian cavalry could not pass, especially under fire from Greek archers and slingers. On the flanks, notches were made from cut down trees.

By lengthening the phalanx of foot soldiers in this way, Miltiades deliberately weakened its center, while at the same time strengthening its flanks. Selected detachments of Athenian foot soldiers and a few Greek cavalry stood there.

The army of the Persian king and the combined army of the Athenians and Plataeans stood in combat positions against each other for three days. Miltiades did not start the battle because he was waiting for the promised help from Sparta. The Persians also waited, they hoped that their well-visible numerical superiority would intimidate the enemy.

The Persians were the first to start the battle. Their huge army, poorly observing the formation, began to roll on the Greek phalanx, which, in anticipation of the approach of the enemy, froze, blocking the entire Marathon valley in width. The very beginning of the battle promised the royal commander an early, in his opinion, victory. The “victorious” center of the Persian army with a ramming blow threw back the center of the Greek phalanx, which, on the orders of Miltiades, launched a counterattack on the attacking enemy. Under the onslaught of the human mass, she nevertheless withstood and was not torn apart.

After this attack by the Persians, something happened that Datis did not expect. The wings of the Greek phalanx lengthened, and both flanks of the Greeks dealt heavy blows to the attackers and drove them back. As a result, the flanks of the "victorious" center were exposed, which ended up in a semicircle and was utterly defeated. Datis, no matter how hard he tried, could not restore order in his troops. And besides, he did not have a large reserve to send him to help the royal soldiers beaten by the Greeks in the very center of the Marathon Valley.
The Persian army was seized with panic, and it rushed to the seashore, to its ships. By order of Miltiades, the Greeks, having restored the solidity of their phalanx, began to pursue the fleeing enemy.

The Persians managed to reach the nearest shore and launch ships. They set off with all sails and oars away from the coast, fleeing from the Greek archers.

In the Battle of Marathon, the Persian army was completely defeated and lost only 6,400 people killed, not counting the prisoners and wounded, of which there were more than one thousand on the ships of the tsarist fleet that had gone east. On the day of September 13, 490 BC. the Athenians lost only 192 of their warriors.

This victory inspired other Greek city-states to resist Persian domination.

King Darius I became famous as a major statesman, politician and military reformer. Under him, the huge Persian state was divided into satrapies - administrative tax districts. They were headed by the royal governors - satraps, who at the same time were commanders of those military forces that were on the territory of the satrapies. Among other things, their duties included protecting the state borders from robbery attacks by neighbors, primarily nomadic tribes, conducting military intelligence and ensuring security along the communications routes.

The possessions of the governors became hereditary.

Under Darius I, the tax system was streamlined, which significantly strengthened the economic well-being of the Persian state, and the royal treasury began to steadily replenish by reducing financial abuses in the satrapies. Therefore, both internal indignations and rebellions against the royal power became much less.

To strengthen the power of Persia, King Darius I carried out a serious military reform. First of all, the tsarist army underwent reorganization. Its core was made up of infantry and cavalry recruited from the Persians. This was no coincidence - the Persian rulers did not trust the troops, which consisted of non-Persians, because they were prone to treason and avoided risking their lives during military campaigns and battles.

The royal troops were led by commanders who were independent of the satraps and subordinated only personally to Darius I. This allowed him to avoid the danger of major uprisings in the country, in which troops stationed in the satrapies could take part. The military leaders had the right to act independently in critical situations, guided only by the interests of the Persian state. The old trade routes were maintained exemplarily and new ones were built. The king was well aware that the well-being of the state, as well as the income of the treasury and the Persian nobility, the main support of the Achaemenid dynasty, largely depended on the prosperity of foreign and domestic trade, the safety of Persian roads for merchants. Trade in Persia under Darius I flourished also because many busy trade routes from the Mediterranean to India and China passed through its territory.

The shipping canal from the Nile to Suez was restored, which connected rich Egypt with Persia. King Darius I took care of the development of the fleet and the safety of maritime trade, the well-being of coastal port cities, which brought considerable income to his treasury. According to the historians of the Ancient World, the Egyptians revered the Persian ruler on a par with their pharaohs-legislators. Even the inhabitants of distant Carthage recognized, albeit nominally, the authority of Darius.

The minting of gold coins, which were called "dariks" after the name of the king, significantly strengthened the financial system of the Persian state, in which gold and silver coins of neighboring countries, primarily Greek, were in circulation. The introduction of a gold coin into circulation testified primarily to the financial well-being of Persia under King Darius I. Gold mines on its territory were a special concern of the tsarist administration.

Large incomes allowed the warlike king to maintain a huge mercenary army and fortresses, which stood not only on the borders of Persia, but also inside it.

Darius I, according to the tradition of that time, began to prepare for his death long ago. By his command, in the rocks of Nakshi-Rustam, near the city of Persepolis, a royal tomb was built, which was decorated with magnificent sculptures. She became the last refuge of the most powerful ruler of ancient Persia. His direct heirs showed neither military leadership and diplomatic talents, nor consistency in foreign policy.

Having reached its peak during the reign of Darius I, the Achaemenid state after his death began to steadily decline, primarily due to military defeats, and lose its possessions.

(r. 522–486 BC), considered the greatest of the Achaemenids. Born ca. 550 BC The son of Hystaspes (Vishtaspa), satrap of Parthia and Hyrcania in eastern Persia, a descendant in the junior line of the founder of the Persian royal dynasty, Achaemenes. The circumstances of his rise to power are obscure. At the age of 28, he served as a spearman under his distant relative, King Cambyses, when he died or, it is possible, was killed, on his way from Egypt to suppress the rebellion of a certain Gaumata, who declared himself Bardius (or Smerdis), brother of Cambyses. Darius immediately assumed the royal title and hurried to the center of unrest Media. Gaumata and his supporters died, having previously been defeated in several bloody battles. Darius rewarded the six nobles who supported his claim to the throne by giving them and their children a privileged position at court and in the administration.

Before order could be restored, unrest had to be suppressed in almost all provinces. Darius expanded the borders of his state to the northwestern regions of India, making the Indus River its border, and in the north - to the Caucasus, subjugating Armenia. The ambitious plans of the king spread to Europe. Through Thrace, he reached the Danube, but was defeated by the Scythians and in 512 BC. turned back. After 13 years, the cities of Ionia, demanding independence, revolted, during which the Asian Greeks, subjects of the Persian monarch, received help from mainland Greece. In 492 BC Darius decided to take over Greece and gathered a large army. His first campaign ended in Thrace after the death of the Persian fleet during a storm off the coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula. The second military expedition also ended in failure. In 490 BC The Persian army suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Marathon. Darius died in November 486 BC before he could complete preparations for his next campaign.

The creation of the Persian state began under Cyrus the Great (r. 559–529 BC), but became the main work of Darius I's life. The trilingual inscription carved high on a rock in Behistun (Bisutun), village near Hamadan, in western Iran. Darius is depicted standing in front of nine rebellious leaders chained, and the text in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian tells about his victories and devotion to the god Ahuramazda and lists 25 peoples obedient to the king. Their envoys are also shown as tributaries on the reliefs in Persepolis and Susa, where magnificent palaces were erected by order of the monarch, for the decoration of which all the wealth of the state was involved.

As a ruler, Darius was distinguished by generosity and insight. The local heads of the satrapies were given considerable autonomy, but they bore a heavy burden of responsibility for the collection of tribute, paid both in money and in kind. At the same time, each region supplied its products: incense came from Arabia, mules from Cappadocia, grain and fish from Egypt, etc. Trade was encouraged in every possible way in the country. A single gold coin darik was introduced for the entire state, which activated the circulation of money; standardized measures and weights; the function of a single trading language began to perform Aramaic; roads and canals were built, in particular the great royal route from Sardis, in the western part of Asia Minor, to Susa, east of the Tigris, and the canal that connected the Nile with the Red Sea ..

Darius died at the age of sixty-four and was succeeded by his son Xerxes I.

Darius II Oh

(reigned 423-404 BC), nicknamed Not, i.e. "bastard", son of Artaxerxes I (r. 464–424 BC) and his Babylonian concubine Kosmartidena. Father made Okh satrap of Hyrcania, a province in the southeastern Caspian region. In 423 BC Ocha's half-brother Xerxes II, who had been on the throne for only forty-five days, was killed. Oh (Wahouka), with the support of the army, was proclaimed king and immediately proceeded to the wholesale destruction of his potential rivals. In 409 BC he managed to cope with the rebellion in Media. Oh was heavily influenced by his abusive wife Parysatis. At the end of his reign, the king became involved in the Peloponnesian War in Greece, ordering his satraps in Asia Minor Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus to conclude an alliance with Sparta and declare war on Athens. While in Media, Darius II fell ill and died in Babylon in March 404 BC.

Darius III

(r. 336-330 BC), nicknamed Kodoman, the last of the Achaemenids. The son of Arces, nephew of Artaxerxes II, was placed on the throne in 336 BC. at the age of forty-five, the eunuch-regicide Bagoy. However, Darius III turned out to be not a puppet ruler at all and soon got rid of Bagoy, forcing him to drink a cup of poison that he had prepared for his monarch. The following year, he put down an uprising in Egypt. In 336 BC Philip II, the king of Macedonia, gathered an army and invaded Asia Minor, and two years later Philip's son, Alexander, entered the land of Persia. In 333 BC Darius was defeated at the battle of Issus, in the region of Cilicia (in the southeast of Asia Minor), and his wife and daughters were captured by Alexander. In 331 BC, at the battle of Gaugamela, near Arbela (now Erbil in northern Iraq), Darius was again defeated and, leaving Babylon, Susa and Persepolis to the Greeks, fled east. In 330 BC he was treacherously murdered by one of his satraps, Bess.