Darius I (Darius the Great, Darivaush, Darius
Hystaspis) (ca. 550–486 b.c.) king of Persia
Also called Darivaush or Darius Hystaspis, Darius I,
perhaps better known as Darius the Great, was a dis-
tant cousin of cyrus the great. What is known
about him comes from inscriptions on stones and other
evidence discovered in Persia, now modern Iran; any
contemporary histories have been lost. The writings
at Behistun, in the Zargos mountains in northwest-
ern Iran, were commissioned by Darius in 515 b.c.
and document his accomplishments, a sort of memo-
rial. Another source of information is the so-called
Cylinder of Cyrus, discovered in an archaeological ex-
cavation in Babylon, a city-state conquered by Darius
in 539 b.c. The inscription on the stone reads: “I [am]
Cyrus, the King of the World, the King of Babylon,
the King of Shumer and Akkad, the king of the four
regions.”
From these sources and others, historians have as-
certained that Darius was part of the royal family of the
Achaemenidae. When Cambyses II, son of Cyrus the
Great, was killed during a military expedition in Syria
in 522 b.c., the empire was ruled for a time by the fakir
Gaumata, who took the name Smerdis and claimed to
be of Cambyses’ family. Darius intended to take back the
empire in his family’s name, and, joined by “six noble
Persians” whose names are listed on the Behistun tablet,
he marched on the fortress where Gaumata was hiding
and murdered him.
As king, Darius soon faced a series of insurrec-
tions in portions of the Persian Empire, most notably in
Babylon, Media, Persia, Sagartia, and Susiana. In each
of these uprisings, men claiming to be directly related to
Cambyses rose up to declare Darius a usurper, includ-
ing one, Vahyazdata in Persia, who aimed to avenge the
death of Gaumata. Darius assembled an army of Persians
and some Medians and marched on each of these rebel-
lions, putting them all down by 519 b.c. These wars es-
tablished Darius as the unchallenged ruler of Persia and
also warned external enemies of his power and influence.
He fought the tribes of the Caucasus to the east of Per-
sia, and his administration of these areas and others were
documented by the historian Herodotus.
In addition to being a warrior, Darius is also known
for his civil rule of the areas he conquered, establishing
local governments and minting coinage—including, for
the first time, gold coins called darics, or “gold” in Per-
sian. He also saw the importance of exploration and sent
out several expeditions, including one down the Indus
River, to search out new territories, trading partners,
and commerce. (At what is now the Suez Canal, excava-
tors found a stone with a hieroglyphic reference to the
voyages of one of his ships on the Nile River.) Temples
dedicated to Darius were built in Memphis and other