In 517 BCE Darius traveled to Egypt, where he won the support of the country’s priests by restoring their privileges. A few years later the Persians used Egypt as their territorial base to push westward and occupy Libya. From Egypt, Darius shifted his focus eastward to India. Before invading that country, however, the Persian king organized an exploratory naval mission, which first traveled along the Indus River to the Indian Ocean and from there first west and then northward to the Red Sea, reaching Egypt near the present-day Suez 30 months later. Darius then marched to India and seized the Indus Valley as far south as the region of Sind in present-day southeastern Pakistan.
A Median officer pays homage to the Persian king of kings Darius I the Great. During the reign of Darius I, the Persian Achaemenid Empire reached its zenith of power. Darius I ruled a vast empire, which extended from the river Jaxartes (Syr Darya) in Central Asia to Libya in North Africa, and from the Indus River in South Asia to the Danube River in southeastern Europe. (Roger Wood/Corbis)
The next campaign of Darius brought him to Europe. The principal objective of this campaign was to establish Persian control over the Scythians of the Danube River basin. Persian army units marched through Thrace (present-day European Turkey, northeastern Greece, and southern Bulgaria), while the Persian fleet sailed through the Black Sea to the mouth of the Danube to build a bridge for the army to cross. The Scythians declined the challenge and retreated deep into the interior of their territory, forcing the Persian monarch to overextend his communication lines and food supplies. Darius, however, refused to play their game and returned home. As a result of this European campaign, the north Aegean Sea region as well as Macedonia accepted Persian suzerainty.
Darius divided the Persian Empire into provinces, or satrapies, each with its own governor, or satrap. Provinces were assessed to determine the amount of taxes each was expected to pay. Taxes were paid to the central government in the form of annual tribute. Darius also introduced the first Persian gold and silver coins. These coins came to represent the monetary standard of the Achaemenid state. He also invested heavily in construction projects, including roads and canals. Darius recognized the importance of an efficient communication system and the fundamental role of roads and highways in facilitating the movement of troops, merchants, and trade caravans. The most impressive of these highways was the Royal Road, which linked the capital city of Susa in southwestern Iran to the city of Sardis in western Asia Minor. Darius also ordered the building of a canal between the Red Sea and the Nile, a forerunner to the Suez Canal, which was constructed more than 2,000 years later in the second half of the 19th century. Darius’s other building projects included numerous royal residences and palaces. Among these, the most impressive was the magnificent palace complex of Persepolis in southern Iran. This ambitious project was completed by his successors.
PROVINCES OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE UNDER DARIUS I
According to the Greek author Herodotus, the Persian king Darius I divided his vast empire into 20 satrapies, or provinces. In his long and detailed inscription at Bisotun in western Iran, Darius listed 23 countries as the provinces contained in his empire. These included Persia, Elam, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Sardis, Ionia, Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, Parthia, Drangiana, Aria, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Gandhara, Sattagydia, Arachosia, Sind, Skudra, and Petasos-wearing Ionians. In another inscription, this one at Naqsh-e Rostam in southern Iran, Darius enumerated 29 provinces. This list excluded Persia but included Media, Elam, Parthia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana, Chorasmia, Drangiana, Arachosia, Sattagydia, Gandara, Sind, Amyrgian Scythians, Scythians with pointed caps, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Armenia, Cappadocia, Sardis, Ionia, Scythians who are across the sea, Skudra, Petasos-wearing Ionians, Libyans, Ethiopians, men of Maka, and Carians. The list from Naqsh-e Rostam demonstrates that at the zenith of its power, the Persian Achaemenid state extended from Sind and Gandhara in present-day Pakistan to Libya in North Africa.
In 499 BCE, the Ionians of Asia Minor revolted against the authority of the Persian king. With assistance from Athens and Eretria, the rebels sacked and burned the city of Sardis in present-day western Turkey. The Persians suppressed the Ionian revolt in 493 BCE. However, to prevent future military and political interference from Athens and other city-states of mainland Greece, Darius organized a campaign to attack and occupy Athens and Eretria. In 492 BCE a Persian army seized Thrace and Macedonia, but the mission was aborted. The Persians withdrew a short time later as a result of bad weather and clashes with local tribes. In 490 BCE, the Persians crossed the Aegean Sea and captured Cyclades and Eretria on the island of Euboea. After they had landed on the Greek mainland, however, they were defeated by the Athenians in the Battle of Marathon. Though they were forced to retreat to their ships, the Persians proceeded with their attack on Athens but were forced to withdraw when they realized that the city and its residents had organized their defenses. Darius planned to return and complete the conquest of Greece, but he died in 486 BCE. The tomb of Darius is located at Naqsh-e Rostam near Persepolis in the southern Iranian province of Fars.
See also: Ancient Cities: Bisotun Inscription; K&Q, Achaemenid: Cambyses II; Xerxes I; Primary Documents: Document 9; Document 10; Document 12; Document 13
Further Reading
Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2006.
Burn, A. R. “Persia and the Greeks.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2, edited by Ilya Gershevitch, 292–391. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Cook, J. M. The Persian Empire. New York: Schocken, 1983.
Curtis, John. Ancient Persia. London: British Museum Publications, 1990.
Frye, Richard N. The Heritage of Persia. Cleveland and New York: World Publishing, 1963.
Frye, Richard Nelson. The History of Ancient Iran. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1984.
Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. New York: Penguin, 2003.
Kent, Roland G. Old Persian. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1950.
Wiesehöfer, Josef. Ancient Persia. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.
Darius II
Darius II was a king of the Achaemenid dynasty who ruled from 423 to 404 BCE. He did not succeed his father, Artaxerxes I, when the latter died in 424 BCE. Artaxerxes I was succeeded first by his son Xerxes II, who was murdered by his brother Sogdianos. The usurper, however, quickly alienated the elite palace guards when he executed their commander. Recognizing a golden opportunity to seize the throne, another son of Artaxerxes I, Ochos, who served as the governor of Hyrcania (Old Persian: Varkana, modern-day Gorgan), on the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea, organized an army, marched against his brother, and defeated Sogdianos. The defeated usurper was put to death after only six and a half months on the throne.
Ochos then ascended the throne as Darius II. Sometime after becoming king, Darius II was forced to fight his brother Arsites, who was backed by Artyphios, son of the capable Persian commander Megabyxos. After suffering two defeats, the king’s army managed to overcome the rebel prince and suppress the revolt. Both Arsites and Artyphios were executed. A revolt in Media in western Iran in 409/408 BCE was also put down, but another uprising on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea in the region of present-day Gilan in northern Iran continued for some time.
The most serious challenge to Persian rule during the reign of Darius II came from Sardis in western Anatolia. Sometime around 416 BCE, the Persian governor of Sardis, Pissouthnes, revolted against the authority of the Persian king. As the satrap since 440 BCE, Pissouthnes had established deep-rooted ties with the local population and had organized an army that included Greek mercenaries. Darius II sent one of his commanders, Tissaphernes, to suppress the revolt. Tissaphernes crushed the revolt and restored order. As a reward for his performance, Darius II appointed Tissaphernes the satrap (governor) of Sardis.
The crisis, however, did not pass. The son of Pissouthnes, a man by the name of Amorges, res
umed his father’s revolt with assistance from Athens between 414 and 412 BCE. This miscalculation by an overconfident Athens proved to be disastrous for the Athenians. Darius II responded to the Athenian meddling by dropping any pretense of neutrality in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) and threw all of his support behind the Spartan alliance, which was fighting Athens and its allies. The Persian backing ultimately allowed Sparta to defeat Athens and emerge as the supreme power on mainland Greece. After the Athenian fleet, which had been sent to capture Syracuse, was destroyed in 413 BCE, the Spartan navy also imposed its domination over the eastern half of the Aegean Sea. Meanwhile, the Persian governor Tissaphernes used the war between Sparta and Athens as an opportunity to reestablish Persian control over the Greek cities on Asia Minor’s western coast and to arrest the rebellious Amorges.
Showing his interest in a positive outcome in Asia Minor, Darius II appointed his second son, Cyrus (Cyrus the Younger), as the commander of Persian forces in the west. Cyrus, who nurtured a dream of becoming the ruler of the Persian Empire after the death of his father, was determined to cultivate the friendship of the Greeks, particularly the Spartans, who could provide him with troops in his impending confrontation with his older brother, Artaxerxes (future Artaxerxes II), over the succession to the Persian throne. Not surprisingly, Cyrus was thus anxious to hasten an end to the Peloponnesian War so he could recruit Greek mercenaries seeking new employment. Thus, Cyrus contributed generously to the Spartan war efforts, enabling the Spartans to defeat the Athenians and end the war in 404 BCE.
Shortly after the conclusion of war among the Greeks, Darius II died. He was succeeded by his older son, Artaxerxes. Some historians of Achaemenid Iran have identified the reign of Darius II as the period when the gradual decline of the Persian Empire began. These scholars point to the growing restlessness in various provinces of the empire but also cite the mounting influence of court eunuchs and their involvement in palace intrigues and plots. The tomb of Darius II is located at Naqsh-e Rostam, the necropolis of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty near Persepolis in southern Iran.
See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Artaxerxes I; Artaxerxes II
Further Reading
Burn, A. R. “Persia and the Greeks.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2, edited by Ilya Gershevitch, 292–391. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Cook, J. M. The Persian Empire. New York: Schocken, 1983.
Curtis, John. Ancient Persia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Ghirshman, R. Iran from the Earliest Times to the Islamic Conquest. New York: Penguin, 1978.
Darius III
Darius III, the last king of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty, ruled from 336 to 330 BCE. He was a relative of Artaxerxes III, who ruled the Persian Achaemenid Empire from 359 to 338 BCE. The reign of Darius III came to an end after Alexander the Macedon invaded and defeated the armies of the Achaemenid Empire in 333 and 331 BCE.
In 338 BCE, the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes III was murdered, together with most of his sons, by Bagoas, a close confidant of the king who had performed brilliantly in the Persian reconquest of Egypt. Bagoas was not only an intelligent and capable commander but was also a ruthless and ambitious individual who dreamed of ruling the Achaemenid Empire. He kept Arses, one of the sons of Artaxerxes III, alive so he could use him as a puppet king. Arses, however, discovered the truth about the role of Bagoas in the murder of his father and brothers and tried to remove the conspirator, but Bagoas murdered Arses and his sons as well. Thus, the Achaemenid royal house was destroyed several years before the invasion of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Macedon. In a desperate search for a legitimate heir to the throne who could claim a direct link to the Achaemenid male line, the satrap (governor) of Armenia, Artashata (Ochos), known to the Greeks as Codommanos, was chosen as the new king. Artashata ascended the throne as Darius III (Old Persian: Daryavaush III).
The ambitious Bagoas retained his position and power, but soon the king and the minister were on a collision course. Darius III and Bagoas were not strangers. During the reign of Artaxerxes III, Bagoas had been sent by the king to subdue the rebellious Cadusii, a nomadic group that inhabited the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea. The young Darius III had participated in the campaign against the Caspian mountaineers, displaying exceptional valor on the battlefield, which won him great praise and recognition. Bagoas suppressed the Cadusii revolt successfully, and Ochos was appointed the satrap of Armenia. Now the prince and the minister were back together fighting over who should rule the Achaemenid Empire. When Darius III tried to wrest the reins of power from the ambitious courtier, Bagoas tried to poison the king, but Darius was informed of the plot. The king forced the conspirator to drink the poisoned cup himself and end his own life.
After the death of Bagoas, Darius III tried to reestablish the authority of the central government, but he did not have sufficient time to reorganize. Dark clouds were gathering on the western frontiers of the empire. The rise of a young, powerful, and aggressive Macedonia posed a direct threat not only to the Achaemenid state but also to the Greek city-states, which were on the verge of being swallowed up by a superior military force. Toward the end of Artaxerxes III’s reign, Macedonia under its king Philip II had emerged as a strong and unified state. In 340 BCE, Philip attacked Perinthos in northern Greece with the goal of establishing himself as the master of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, which connected the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. Alarmed by Macedonia’s aggression, the Athenians sent an embassy to Artaxerxes III and requested an alliance with the Persian king. With support from Athens, Artaxerxes III sent an army that ejected the Macedonians from Perinthos, but Philip persisted nonetheless. He marched with a large force against Greece and defeated the armies of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE, permanently ending the independence of the Greek city-states. In 337 BCE, Philip organized the League of Corinth and declared his goal conveniently as the liberation of the Greek cities, which remained under Persian rule. In 336, he dispatched an army to Asia Minor as the first step toward a full-fledged invasion of the western provinces of the Achaemenid Empire. The planned invasion, however, came to a sudden end when Philip was assassinated in July 336.
The news of Philip’s death provided temporary relief, but the Macedonian throne was passed to his son Alexander, who was determined to use his father’s well-trained and well-organized army to attack Asia. In the spring of 334 BCE, Alexander crossed the Hellespont and began his conquest of Asia Minor. Darius had failed to prepare his armies for a Macedonian attack. The Macedonians therefore defeated an Achaemenid force at Granicus, where Alexander was almost killed. The Macedonian victory allowed Alexander to capture Sardis in western Asia Minor. The next confrontation between the two sides took place in 333 BCE at Issus in present-day southern Turkey near the city of Iskandarun. The battle resulted in a defeat for Darius III and his army. Darius fled the battlefield, and his mother, wife, infant son, and two of his daughters as well as several noble Persian ladies “fell into Alexander’s hands” (Arrian: 2.12). Moving south along the present-day Lebanese coast, Alexander seized Tyre in southern Lebanon after a siege of seven months. While Alexander was in Syria, “envoys from Darius came with a request for the release of his mother, wife and children” (Arrian: 2.14). They also delivered a letter from Darius to Alexander in which the Persian king appealed for alliance and friendship between the Persian Empire and the kingdom of Macedonia. Alexander refused to release the members of the Persian royal family and dismissed a peaceful resolution to the conflict. From Syria and Phoenicia, Alexander marched against Gaza and then Egypt before turning east once again to confront Darius and his army in the Battle of Arbela in present-day northern Iraq on October 1, 331 BCE. The Achaemenid army was defeated once again after Darius III fled the battlefield.
As Alexander began his march on Babylon and Susa, Darius sought refuge in the summer capital of Hagmatana/Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan) in western Iran. Meanwhile, Alexander sei
zed Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, the latter of which he destroyed by setting its palace complex on fire. After Alexander departed Persepolis, Darius and the Persian nobles accompanying him left Ecbatana for eastern Iran. They probably planned to connect with loyal units and commanders in the eastern provinces of the empire, particularly Bactria and Sogdiana; raise an army; and strike back. It is not certain what happened at this point. Some historians maintain that Darius refused to flee any farther, forcing his loyal commanders to imprison him in a wagon. Regardless, by the time Alexander caught up with Darius III, the Achaemenid king was already dead, probably murdered by Bessus (the governor of Bactria) and the other Persian nobles who were fleeing with him. With the death of Darius III in the summer of 330 BCE, the Persian Achaemenid Empire came to an end.
See also: K&Q, Achaemenid: Arses; Artaxerxes III; Peoples: Alexander of Macedon (the Great); Bessus
Further Reading
Arrian. The Campaigns of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. New York: Dorset, 1986.
Briant, Pierre. From Cyrus to Alexander. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2006.
Burn, A. R. “Persia and the Greeks.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2, edited by Ilya Gershevitch, 292–391. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Cook, J. M. The Persian Empire. New York: Schocken, 1983.
Diodorus Siculus. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. London: William Heinemann, 1933.
Wiesehöfer, Josef. Ancient Persia. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.
Sogdianos
Sogdianos was one of the sons of Artaxerxes I (r. 465–424 BCE), a king of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty (r. 550–330 BCE) who ruled for a short time after killing his older brother, Xerxes II, in 423 BCE. After the death of Artaxerxes I, his son Xerxes ascended the throne. Forty-five days after Xerxes II had assumed the reins of power, Sogdianos killed his brother and proclaimed himself the king. His actions while on the throne quickly alienated the members of the royal court and the leaders of the army. He especially angered the elite palace guards by murdering their commander. Recognizing a golden opportunity to seize the throne, another son of Artaxerxes I, Ochos, who served as the governor of Hyrcania (Old Persian: Varkana; modern-day Gorgan), on the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea, raised an army, marched against his brother, and defeated Sogdianos. In his campaign against Sogdianos, Ochos enjoyed the support of Arshama, the Persian governor of Egypt and the head of the palace cavalry. Sogdianos was put to death after only six and half months on the throne. Ochos then ascended the throne as Darius II and ruled from 423 to 404 BCE.
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