Published February 11, 2019 Show
4 min read The pivotal Persian ruler Darius I (550–486 B.C.) came to power at age 28 and quickly proved himself a great military leader and an even greater administrator. His ascension to king of the Persian Empire was cloaked in intrigue. It’s thought he may have staged a coup to claim the throne. Some Persians viewed Darius as a usurper, and many subjects in distant lands saw the succession crisis as an opportunity to rebel. As a result, Darius spent his first three years quelling uprisings. With his elite imperial guard, known as the Ten Thousand Immortals, he commandingly restored order to the realm and expanded its scope. He advanced its eastern frontier to the Indus River and its western boundary beyond the Bosporus, the strait separating Asia from Europe. Organizational geniusMore significant than his conquests, though, were the measures he took to consolidate his vast dominion. Darius demonstrated an organizational genius rivaled by few ancient or modern rulers. He divided the empire into some 20 provinces (called satrapy), governed by appointed local officials (satraps) with minimal interference from their Persian overlords. He set the amount of annual tax due from each province and sent agents to watch his distant satraps and ensure they weren’t overtaxing their subjects. Those “eyes and ears of the king” kept sedition to a minimum. Both taxation and trade were facilitated by coins Darius issued, a practice he adopted from Lydian and Greek rulers. Unlike gold or silver ingots that had to be weighed to determine their value, Persian coins—depicting Darius as a warrior—had uniform values and were easily exchanged. He improved on an irrigation system that was in place during Cyrus’s reign, stimulating a significant expansion of agriculture and settlement throughout the empire’s parched landscape. Irrigation tunnels called qanats moved water from underground sources at high elevations, and bridges resembling the Roman aqueducts that would follow centuries later carried the water to distant villages. Traders, troops, and imperial spies moved smoothly on roads built by Darius (and maintained by his successors). The greatest of those was the Royal Road, which stretched more than 1,500 miles, from Ephesus on the Aegean Sea to Susa in western Iran, the empire’s administrative center. Other roads led south from Susa to Pasargadae, Cyrus’s former stronghold and burial place, and to Persepolis, where Darius and his heirs built a splendid palace complex. Caravans of traders riding donkeys or camels took about three months to traverse the Royal Road, but royal dispatches could be relayed from Susa to Ephesus in a week by a network of 111 courier stations set at equal intervals along it. A Persian identityUnder Darius’s rule, Zoroastrianism became the state religion, providing a cohesive sense of identity across his far-flung empire. Yet Darius did not impose the belief system on those of other faiths. His subjects in conquered lands could continue to worship their own gods and keep their own cultural traditions. All of these measures helped Darius stimulate trade and productivity. Accordingly, the standard of living in Persia rose, and Persian dominance in the Near East became entrenched. Darius I ruled for more than three decades. He lost battles against the Greeks (including the famous battle of Marathon) in the years leading up to his death in 486 B.C. But Persia would exist as a political entity for more than a thousand years, and many old Persian traditions endure to this day. This text is an excerpt from the National Geographic special issue The Most Influential Figures of Ancient History. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. Top Questions What is Darius the Great known for?How did Darius the Great come to power?How was Darius the Great influential?Summary Read a brief summary of this topicDarius I, byname Darius the Great, (born 550 bc—died 486), king of Persia in 522–486 bc, one of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty, who was noted for his administrative genius and for his great building projects. Darius attempted several times to conquer Greece; his fleet was destroyed by a storm in 492, and the Athenians defeated his army at Marathon in 490. Ascent to monarchyDarius was the son of Hystaspes, the satrap (provincial governor) of Parthia. The principal contemporary sources for his history are his own inscriptions, especially the great trilingual inscription on the Bīsitūn (Behistun) rock at the village of the same name, in which he tells how he gained the throne. The accounts of his accession given by the Greek historians Herodotus and Ctesias are in many points obviously derived from this official version but are interwoven with legends. According to Herodotus, Darius, when a youth, was suspected by Cyrus II the Great (who ruled from 559 to 529 bc) of plotting against the throne. Later Darius was in Egypt with Cambyses II, the son of Cyrus and heir to his kingdom, as a member of the royal bodyguard. After the death of Cambyses in the summer of 522 bc, Darius hastened to Media, where, in September, with the help of six Persian nobles, he killed Bardiya (Smerdis), another son of Cyrus, who had usurped the throne the previous March. In the Bīsitūn inscription Darius defended this deed and his own assumption of kingship on the grounds that the usurper was actually Gaumata, a Magian, who had impersonated Bardiya after Bardiya had been murdered secretly by Cambyses. Darius therefore claimed that he was restoring the kingship to the rightful Achaemenid house. He himself, however, belonged to a collateral branch of the royal family, and, as his father and grandfather were alive at his accession, it is unlikely that he was next in line to the throne. Some modern scholars consider that he invented the story of Gaumata in order to justify his actions and that the murdered king was indeed the son of Cyrus. Darius did not at first gain general recognition but had to impose his rule by force. His assassination of Bardiya was followed, particularly in the eastern provinces, by widespread revolts, which threatened to disrupt the empire. In Susiana, Babylonia, Media, Sagartia, and Margiana, independent governments were set up, most of them by men who claimed to belong to the former ruling families. Babylonia rebelled twice and Susiana three times. In Persia itself a certain Vahyazdata, who pretended to be Bardiya, gained considerable support. These risings, however, were spontaneous and uncoordinated, and, notwithstanding the small size of his army, Darius and his generals were able to suppress them one by one. In the Bīsitūn inscription he records that in 19 battles he defeated nine rebel leaders, who appear as his captives on the accompanying relief. By 519 bc, when the third rising in Susiana was put down, he had established his authority in the east. In 518 Darius visited Egypt, which he lists as a rebel country, perhaps because of the insubordination of its satrap, Aryandes, whom he put to death. Fortification of the empireHaving restored internal order in the empire, Darius undertook a number of campaigns for the purpose of strengthening his frontiers and checking the incursions of nomadic tribes. In 519 bc he attacked the Scythians east of the Caspian Sea and a few years later conquered the Indus Valley. In 513, after subduing eastern Thrace and the Getae, he crossed the Danube River into European Scythia, but the Scythian nomads devastated the country as they retreated from him, and he was forced, for lack of supplies, to abandon the campaign. The satraps of Asia Minor completed the subjugation of Thrace, secured the submission of Macedonia, and captured the Aegean islands of Lemnos and Imbros. Thus, the approaches to Greece were in Persian hands, as was control of the Black Sea grain trade through the straits, the latter being of major importance to the Greek economy. The conquest of Greece was a logical step to protect Persian rule over the Greeks of Asia Minor from interference by their European kinsmen. According to Herodotus, Darius, before the Scythian campaign, had sent ships to explore the Greek coasts, but he took no military action until 499 bc, when Athens and Eretria supported an Ionian revolt against Persian rule. After the suppression of this rebellion, Mardonius, Darius’ son-in-law, was given charge of an expedition against Athens and Eretria, but the loss of his fleet in a storm off Mount Athos (492 bc) forced him to abandon the operation. In 490 bc another force under Datis, a Mede, destroyed Eretria and enslaved its inhabitants but was defeated by the Athenians at Marathon. Preparations for a third expedition were delayed by an insurrection in Egypt, and Darius died in 486 bc before they were completed. What was one thing that encourage international trade in the Persian Empire?The Persian emperor, Darius, also facilitated trade by standardizing the gold coin that bore his name, the daric. This meant that merchants now had a common measure of value wherever they went in the empire.
How did Darius strengthen?Darius was considered an excellent leader and brilliant administrator who strengthened Persia by letting those he conquered live on in peace. Darius I (548-486 BC) assumed the throne of Persia at age 28.
How did the Persian promote trade?To maintain their trade system, the Persians developed a sophisticated system of standardized weights and measure. The Persians also had an extensive system of roads that served their trade system as well as their military.
How did Darius unite the Persian Empire?Answer and Explanation: Darius built on the governmental innovations of his predecessors in several ways. He organized the Persian Empire into provinces. Then, he made the taxes in each province payable with whatever the province produced best, be it precious metals, animals, food, etc.
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Which of the following actions by Darius strengthened the Persian empire by encouraging trade
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