Biography and services of Darius the Great

Darius I, son of Vishtasp, nicknamed Darius the Great, was the third Achaemenid king. In 522 BC, with the help of some of the heads of the seven great Persian families, he returned the kingdom to the Achaemenid dynasty by killing Goumat the Magh, who was sitting on the throne as Berdia, the son of Cyrus the Great.. After that, he started to suppress internal rebellions. He strengthened the imperial system and annexed several lands to the empire. The beginning of the construction of Parse (Persepolis) It was during his reign

Among his other works was the digging of a canal that connected the Red Sea to the Nile and through it to the Mediterranean Sea.. His tomb is in the heart of Mount Rahmat in a place called Naghse Rostam in Marvdasht, Fars (near Shiraz) Is. His fame in the West is due to the unsuccessful battle between the Persians and the Greeks in a place called Marathon during his time. The beginning of the construction of Parse (Persepolis) It was during his reign. After the conquest of Cyrus and Cambogia, all of Asia was considered as part of his territory.

Reaching the kingdom of Darius the Great

After gaining the throne, Geomat or the false Berdia married all Cambodian women. One of these women was Phidias, daughter of Ethanes (Otane or Hoten) He was one of the most powerful nobles of Iran. Athanasius was the first person who suspected Geomat after seven months of ruling that he was not the son of Cyrus but an impostor.. He asked his daughter and her daughter informed her father about the result of the investigation. Athanasius formed a group of six Persian nobles he trusted in Susa, and upon the arrival of Darius from Persia, it was decided to include him in his group.. These seven people swore together to take action to repel the usurper. Herodotus called this uprising the Haft Yar uprising. Darius in 522 BC Geomat (False victory) killed. In this way, the throne and crown of the kingdom of Iran came to Dariush.

Rebellion of the provinces of Iran during the time of Darius the Great

After that, all the provinces began to rebel, and Darius and his allies suppressed 9 kings who fought with him during 19 battles.. The first outbreak occurred in Elam. In Media, a claimant who called himself from the opposition of Hovakhstra claimed the kingdom of Media. In Pars, another claimant called himself Bardia, the son of Cyrus. The fact that the rebels always had a plan at the same time and did not have a common goal or alliance with each other was a major factor that helped Darius in repelling the rebellions.. The Babylonian revolt was no less a cause of concern for Dariush than other revolts. All these riots that happened in Armenia, Mada, Kurdistan, Rukhaj, and Merv were suppressed with violence, and Darius considered violence in these cases as a means that could prevent the development and repetition of similar incidents..

The Biston inscription, which is the report of these endless wars, shows that he was able to ensure the order and security of the empire at the cost of continuous and uninterrupted suffering and effort.. The satraps appointed by Cyrus after conquering and seizing the provinces in each new territory were mostly elected by themselves and had troops and equipment at their disposal.. With the death of Kambojie and the murder of a person whom many people of the provinces knew as the son of Cyrus, the aggression of these independence-seeking rulers had led to the dissatisfaction of the people, and the people of the provinces got an excuse for rebellion.. Dariush was a world-viewing man, and by marrying the daughter of Cyrus and a number of daughters of great Persian families, he had placed him in a position where the Persian and Median nobles, each due to their relative or causal kinship, towards this new king who supported and obeyed They had become allies, loyal and even interested in staying.

Military formations of Darius the Great

Restoring security in all these rebelled areas naturally inspired Dariush the necessity of creating an organized administrative organization and provided him with the necessary tools and experience.[۶]Dariush spent a lot of effort to organize the internal organization of the country, so that the organizational system he established was followed by other governments, including the Seleucids, the Sasanians, and even the Arabs, with little change.. Dariush was extremely careful not to encroach on the people by the government officials, and with this purpose he always moved in the countries of Iran and was closely related to the rebellious affairs.. The nobles, who were not happy with this care of the king, called him a wanderer, but historians consider this mockery to be the best praise for him.. During his time, a regular administrative system was established in the country, which made it possible to centralize affairs, and apparently, it was partially inspired by the common system in Egypt, which Darius had met in his youth and during his three-year stay there, as Najba And the Persian and Median nobles, who often had a military spirit, did not engage in secretarial work, this work fell into the hands of subordinate tribes, and the Aramaic tribes, who took the lead in this matter, made Aramaic the official and administrative language of the country in the Achaemenid Empire. During his 36-year reign, Darius did the following actions.

The division of the empire of Darius into several satraps

Dariush divided the lands of Iran into several parts and appointed a governor for each. In the language of that day (Ostrich) They said it means the protector or guardian of the country. The Greeks wrote satrap and mentioned the number of divisions between twenty and twenty-six, but the number of provinces in the Naqsh Rostam inscription reaches thirty provinces.. In order that the work is not all in the hands of one person, two people were assigned from the center, one was assigned to the command of the local army and the other was named as the editor who managed the affairs of the country.. The editor was actually the inspector of the center in the states and the purpose of establishing this job was that the center would know whether the orders issued to the satrap were being implemented or not.. The inspectors who were appointed from the center to see the state's situation, were called the eyes and ears of the government. It is true that these satraps had undisputed power and dignity in their sphere of government, like a puppet king, but in fact, all their affairs were under the close and direct supervision of the king and his "eyes" and "ears", and this point gave them less opportunity to Remember the demand for independence or the thought of violating the king's law. At the same time, these supervisions kept the subjects safe from the exploitation and oppression of the satraps and did not allow the satraps to strengthen their coffers by collecting unnecessary taxes and duties and necessarily think about expanding their power..

Creation of the royal road of Darius the Great

Among the actions of Darius in this field, one can mention the creation of the royal road that connected Sardis, the former capital of Lydia, to Susa, the capital of the Achaemenids.. Another way connected Babylon to Egypt.

Creation of the immortal army of Darius the Great

In order for the military force to reach the necessary places sufficiently and quickly, Dariush had organized an army, which was known as the Eternal Army, because it never decreased in number and filled the empty places immediately.. The number of this army was ten thousand.

Regulation of taxes in Iran during the time of Darius the Great

Greek historians have written that Darius set a cash and sex tax for each state. The Greek historian Plutarch writes, "Darius sought to find out whether the set tax was expensive for the people or not, and when the answer was that it was not expensive and the people could pay, he reduced the taxes so that they would not be imposed on the people."

There was no fixed tax in the kingdom of Cyrus and Cambodia. Public income was provided only through gifts and offerings. On the occasion of the establishment of the tax, this rumor spread among the Persians that Dariush was a merchant and provided income from wherever he could.. Cambogia was a tyrant and disregarded the interests of his subjects, and Cyrus, the father and protector of nations and nations, who, with a kind and generous heart, was constantly thinking about the well-being of his subjects..

It seems that there is no consensus among historians about whether the taxes of Darius' era were appropriate or excessive. It is also stated that Egyptian farmers revolted in Egypt due to excessive taxes in the last years of Darius' reign..

Connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea at the time of Darius the Great

The Suez Canal When Darius was in India, he observed that the trade of Egypt and Shamat with India by land was difficult and the transportation was expensive, so he ordered that the canal, which is known today as the Suez Canal, and was first opened in 609 It was created in AD and was filled during the time of Darius, they cleared it and established the course of ships in this channel.. It seems that Darius had seen this unfinished waterway on his way to Egypt and asked people about it. There are references to these questions in the inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphs commemorating the construction of this canal.. Three stone inscriptions of Darius were discovered in the Suez Canal, the most detailed and important of which has 12 lines and contains the praise of Ahura Mazda, the introduction of Darius, and the order to dig the Suez trench.. The other two inscriptions are smaller and contain the introduction of Darius.

Unification of currency and measurement unit during the time of Darius the Great

The permanent economic connection between all the provinces required a single currency system and a system of weights and convertible amounts throughout the country.. The gold coins that became popular throughout Iran during this period were called Drake coins. In the history of the world, Lydia was the first country where a coin was minted, but in the history of Iran, it was during the time of Darius that the first coin belonging to Iran was created..

Reconstruction of places of worship

Dariush talks about rebuilding the shrines that were destroyed by Goumat Magh in the Biston inscription.. Also, in order to appease the Egyptians, whose temples were destroyed during the time of Cambodia, he went to their temples and paid homage and built a new temple for the Egyptians in Amon, whose ruins still tell of Darius's rule.. He brought the high priest of Egypt, who was exiled to Susa, back to Egypt and respected him very much. Due to these actions, the Egyptians were satisfied with Darius and considered him one of their great legislators.

Darius the Great in the Bible

Darius also helped the Jews in rebuilding the Jewish temples that were destroyed by Bakht al-Nasr. The name of Darius the Great is mentioned in the Old Testament in 25 verses. In the Bible, the stability and unshakability of the laws of the Medes and Persians are discussed in the book of Daniel and Esther. Despite the problems in the authenticity and antiquity of the original books, it shows the importance of the law in maintaining the unity of the empire of Darius and his successors..

Campaigns of Darius the Great

Dariush's interest in administrative order and security throughout his territory naturally required him to use sea routes in addition to land routes for the development of economic relations and acceleration of possible military transfers. Thought finally involved him in the Mediterranean with the Greek people.

Annexation of Sindh and Punjab

In 512 BC, after establishing security in the subordinate countries, Darius annexed several provinces to Iran, one of them is Punjab and the other is Sindh, both of which are located in India. It is not subordinate and the fact that it is in the inscription of Persepolis shows that these southeastern provinces must have come under Darius' territory after the wars related to repelling the rebellions..

Expedition to the land of the Scythians

Dariush's action in marching to the Scythian land of Europe seems somewhat strange in these years of development and peace.. There are several different theories about the purpose and motivation of Darius for this campaign. Perhaps he wanted to punish them for the destructive attacks that they had repeatedly made on the land of Iran and to forever dissuade them from carrying out such attacks, this is a possibility that comes from the words of Herodotus..

In the land of the Scythians, instead of facing the resistance of these tribes, Darius faced their retreat. For two months, the Iranian army was wandering through the deserts and endless plains looking for the enemy, and the result that Darius wanted from this campaign did not come immediately.. This first campaign of Asia against Europe, although it caused heavy losses for Darius, but the goal of this campaign was realized a little later, because both the Scythians did not think of encroaching on the borders of Iran for a long time, and the wheat and wood trading centers of Greece came under the supervision of Iran.

Translation of a part of the inscriptions of Darius

.I am Darius, the great king, the king, the king of Persia, the king of the lands (the countries)I am the son of Vashtasab, the grandson of Arsham Achaemenshi. My father Vashtasab, Vashtasab Arsham's father, Arsham Ariyarman's father, Ariyarman's father, Chish Pish and Chish Pish's father were Achaemenid.

We were called Achaemenid because we belonged to a noble and royal family since ancient times. 8 members of our family have been kings before this and I am the ninth.. 9 of us have been and are kings in a row. By the will of Ahuramazda, I am the king and he gave me a king.

You who see these writings and these scrolls that I have prepared, protect and take care of them..

If you take care of these writings and roles as long as you are able, Ahura Mazda will help you and your lineage and life will be many and all your works will be accepted by Ahura Mazda..

I hope that if you do not take care and protect these writings and roles when you are able, Ahura Mazda will not help you and your lineage will be ruined and Ahura Mazda will destroy what you do..

Tomb of Darius

Darius died in 486 BC. His tomb is in the heart of Mount Rahmat in a place called Naghse Rostam in Marvdasht, Fars, near Shiraz. An interesting will from Darius, whose last wish was only that, is engraved on the inscription of his tomb..