King of Persia from the Achaemenid dynasty, famous for his wars.
The son of the Persian ruler Hystaspes (Visstas), belonged to the younger branch of the ruling Achaemenid dynasty. Almost nothing is known about the beginning of his life. But, without a doubt, he was an outstanding person.
It can be considered historically reliable that before entering the history of the Ancient East under the name of Tsar Darius I, Darayavush already had considerable military experience, since war at that distant time was a normal state of all states, peoples and tribes.
Becoming the king of Persia, Darius by force of arms suppressed major uprisings against the ruling Achaemenid dynasty in Babylonia, Persia, Media, Margiana, Elam, Egypt, Parthia, Sattagidia and the rebellions of nomadic tribes in Central Asia.
Each such suppression of the anti-Persian uprising was a large military campaign, associated with the gathering of a large army, the involvement of allied troops from among the nomadic tribes, first of all, the seizure of rebellious cities and fortresses by attacks, the collection of military booty and the punishment of state criminals. The Persian king had to be not only a commander, but also a skillful diplomat, since it was more profitable to get along with the local nobility than to fight.
The Persian empire sought to expand 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 fell prey to the warlike Persians.
Around 518 BC e. 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. The Persian conquests in India continued until 509. Darius I sent the Greek sailor and geographer Skilaka 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 was unsuccessful for him. On the way to distant and unknown Scythia, Persian sailors built two floating bridges - one across the Bosphorus, 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. The foreigners had to leave the Black Sea region with huge losses.
Under Tsar Darius I, a series of Greco-Persian wars (500-449 BC) began, which went on with varying success. (There were three of them.) The main opponents of the Persian state in these wars were Athens and some Greek city-states on the Peloponnese.
The reason for the first Greco-Persian war 492 BC. e. 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 insurgent 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 revolt 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.
Darius I made two large military campaigns against the Greek states. The first took place in 492, 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 the Athos Cape, most of the Persian fleet was killed, 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, 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, the second campaign took place. The king sent a large army against Greece under the command of the experienced generals 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 most severe defeat on the Persians during the three Greco-Persian wars - in the famous Battle of Marathon. It happened on September 13, 490 BC. e. 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 aid, but were late for the battle.
The 60-thousandth Persian army was led by one of the best royal military leaders Datis. After the landing of the troops, the royal fleet anchored not far from Marathon. Persian seafarers, according to the tradition of the Ancient World, pulled small ships ashore in order to secure them in case of large sea waves and strong winds. The teams of many ships went ashore in order to take part in the collection of war 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 structure of the Greek battle formations, traditional for that time. He strove with a long phalanx of heavily armed Greek infantry to cover the entire width of the Marathon Valley. 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 against rocky hills, through which the Persian cavalry could not pass, especially under fire from Greek archers and slingers. On the flanks, cut-down trees were cut.
Having thus lengthened the phalanx of foot soldiers, Miltiades deliberately weakened its center, while strengthening its flanks. There were selected detachments of Athenian foot soldiers and a small number of Greek cavalry.
The army of the Persian king and the united army of the Athenians and Plateians stood for three days in combat positions against each other. Miltiades did not start the battle, because he was waiting for the promised help from Sparta. The Persians also waited, they hoped that their clearly 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 onto the Greek phalanx, which, in anticipation of the enemy's approach, froze, blocking the entire Marathon Valley in width. The very beginning of the battle promised the Tsar's commander a quick, in his opinion, victory. The "victorious" center of the Persian army with a ramming blow threw back the center of the Greek phalanx, which, by order of Miltiades, struck a counterstrike at the attacking enemy. Under the onslaught of the mass of people, she still resisted and did not break apart.
After this attack by the Persians, something happened that Datis had never expected. The wings of the Greek phalanx lengthened, and both flanks of the Greeks dealt strong blows at the attackers and threw them back. As a result, the flanks of the "victorious" center were exposed, which found itself in a semi-circle 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 tsarist soldiers beaten by the Greeks in the very center of the Marathon Valley.
The Persian army was seized by 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 run to the nearby coast and launch their ships. With all their sails and oars, they set off from the coast, fleeing the Greek archers.
In the Battle of Marathon, the Persian army was completely defeated and lost only 6400 people killed, not counting the prisoners and the wounded, of whom there were more than one thousand on the ships of the tsarist fleet that had gone to the east. On September 13, 490, the Athenians lost only 192 of their soldiers.
This victory inspired other Greek city-states to resist Persian rule.
Tsar 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 - the satraps, who were at the same time the commanders of those military forces that were in the territory of the satrapies. Among other things, their duties included the protection of state borders from robbery attacks by neighbors, especially nomadic tribes, conducting military intelligence and ensuring security along the communication routes.
The possessions of the governors became hereditary.
Under Darius I, the tax system was streamlined, which significantly strengthened the economic prosperity of the Persian state, and the royal treasury began to be steadily replenished by reducing financial abuse in the satrapies. Therefore, both internal indignation and revolts 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 was reorganized. Its core consisted of infantry and cavalry recruited from the Persians. This was no coincidence - the Persian rulers did not trust the troops that did not consist of Persians, since they were prone to treason and avoided risking their lives during military campaigns and battles.
The royal troops were led by military leaders who were independent of the satraps and subordinated only to Darius I personally. This allowed him to avoid the danger of major rebellions 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.
Old trade routes were kept exemplarily and new ones were built. The king was well aware that the prosperity of the state, as well as the income of the treasury and the Persian nobility, the main support of the Achaemenid dynasty, largely depends on the prosperity of foreign and domestic trade, the safety of the roads of Persia for merchants. Trade in Persia under Darius I also flourished because many lively trade routes from the Mediterranean to India and China passed through its territory.
The navigable canal from the Nile to the Suez was rebuilt, connecting wealthy Egypt with Persia. Tsar 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 power of Darius.
The minting of gold coins, which were named "Dariks" by the name of the tsar, significantly strengthened the financial system of the Persian state, in which gold and silver coins of neighboring countries, primarily Greek ones, 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 that 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 order, 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.
After the death of Cambyses II, who had no heirs, for some time seized power Gaumatawho was killed in a conspiracy. The king became the leader of the conspirators Darius of kind Achaemenids (522-486 BC)... He suppressed the rebellion of the Babylonians, subordinated to his power Ionia, re-attached to his kingdom Lydia and Phrygia... Then Darius moved with troops against the Scythians, but was defeated and retreated from the Scythian steppes, barely preserving 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, "Keepers of the kingdom" - had full power in the district, were responsible for the economy and trade, had the right to check the thread of the coin. 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.
Under the satraps, there were special officials under the control of the king. They controlled the activities of the satraps.
Satrapy - an administrative district in ancient Iran, a part of the state that ruled the tsar's governor - a satrap.
| Guardsman with a spear |
Good roads were laid throughout the state, which were well guarded and had a network of post stations. The main one was royal road.Every three miles, there were stations for messengers, where fresh horses were always kept ready. State communications and cargo intended for the king were delivered by special messengers. They rushed overhead, transferring cargo at post stations along relay race.
Relay race - sending messages to each other by messengers.
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| 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 supervise the satraps and all under-data - the secret police. The chief overseer and "secret messengers" eavesdropped on the conversations of people, looking for dissatisfied, then reported this to the chiefs.
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 flourish. Therefore, Darius began to conquer the 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 it.
Still, the Persians managed to conquer the islands of the Aegean Sea, Egypt, and the northwestern part of India. Material from the site
The Persian state became a huge empire, whose borders 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, and part of India. Part of the territory of the ancient Persian state today belongs to Iran.
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| Persian state of the Achaemenids in the VI-IV centuries. BC e. |
Darius I (550-486 BC) ruled 522-486. Don. e.
Darius I was a representative of the younger line of Achaemenids, but he became the Persian king as a result of a conspiracy. When King Cambyses, the eldest son of Cyrus the Great, died, the Medes magician Gaumata seized power in the country, posing as the youngest son of King Cyrus Bardius. The conspirators - the seven most noble Persians - decided to kill the impostor, and then they agreed that the king of Persia would be the one whose horse would be the first to laugh when they left the palace gates.
Gaumata was killed. Darius dealt a fatal blow to him. Now it was necessary to determine who would become the king. And then Darius decided to cheat. He agreed with his groom to hide behind the gates of the palace a mare, who had recently given birth to a foal from the horse Darius. As soon as the conspirators left the palace gates, Darius's horse, sensing a mare, rushed forward and whinnied ... The conspirators unanimously recognized Darius as king of Persia, but so that no one could further challenge his right to the royal throne, Darius married Cyrus the Great's daughter Atossa.
Darius I inherited a huge empire from Egypt to India. But conquered by Cyrus the Great, it began to fall apart. The conquered peoples did not want to remain under the rule of the Persians, uprisings broke out in one place, then in another. Darius had to gather an army and go on a campaign. He moved to Babylon, realizing that if he was able to suppress the rebellion there, then other peoples would calm down ...
Darius managed to conquer Babylon Then he went to Media and put it in order. This was followed by the invasions of Phenicia, Egypt, and a number of Greek cities. After that he went to India. The Persian empire acquired the dimensions that were under Cyrus the Great.
It was very difficult to manage such a giant territory. Messengers who galloped with important messages to the distant ends of the power were sometimes on the way for up to six months. Then Darius divided the state into satrapies, at the head of which he put his governors - the satraps. From the main cities of the satrapies, he ordered roads to be laid and posts to be established at small intervals where it was possible to change horses. Travel time has now been reduced to several weeks.
In 517 BC, Darius approached the borders of India. He did not meet much resistance. From the conquered lands, he formed the satrapy India. It was the farthest eastern province of the Persians. Darius did not move further to the east and returned to his lands. He was called the king of kings, as he conquered all the neighboring kingdoms.
Now Darius decided to conquer the countries along the lower Danube. In 512 BC, over a raised wooden bridge, he ferried troops to the eastern bank of the river and ended up in the possession of the Scythians. But these nomadic tribes did not intend to fight the well-armed army of the Persians. They drove their cattle to the distant steppes, burned everything behind them and filled the wells with water. Darius's army suffered from thirst and hunger. The warriors began to show discontent. The pursuit of the Scythians led to tangible losses, and Darius turned the troops back.
Once again in his native lands, the king of the Persians did not think about peace. He began to prepare his army for a new campaign. This time against the Greeks, based on the Balkan Peninsula. Darius ordered the construction of ships that could transport an army of many thousands across the sea. The ships were built, and in 490 BC the troops landed on the coast near the village of Marathon. There they were greeted by a well-organized, albeit small, Athenian army led by the commander Miltiades.
The Greeks fought desperately for their homeland and, despite the tenfold superiority of the Persians, won. Miltiades sent a messenger to Athens with good news. The messenger ran 42 kilometers from Marathon to Athens without stopping and, shouting to the townspeople: “Rejoice, we won!”, He died.
Darius suffered a crushing defeat for the first time. Frustrated, he returned to his homeland. He wanted to punish the Greeks, to restore his name to the invincible commander, but he failed to do this. Soon he died of some kind of illness. He was buried with great honors in a rock tomb near Persepolis. The throne of the Persian king was inherited by his son Xerxes, but the state began to fall apart again.
Daryavakhush belonged to the younger branch of the Achaemenid royal family and until 522 BC had no hope of ever taking the Persian throne. His life changed dramatically after he took part in the conspiracy of Otan and five other noble Persians against the then king in Persia. According to the official version (set out in the Behistun inscription and among Greek historians, in particular Herodotus), Otan suspected that an impostor was hiding under the name - the Median magician Gaumata (the real Bardia had been secretly killed several years earlier on the orders of his brother). By agreement among themselves, Otan and six of his companions entered the palace and killed the king (whether it was a real or indeed an impostor, it is now impossible to establish). Then the conspirators began to consult about which of them should take the throne. Finally, they decided to entrust the choice to the will of the gods, namely: whose horse will be the first to neigh at sunrise, when they leave the city gates, he will be the king. Daryavakhush turned out to be more successful in this experience than others - his stallion was the first to voice, and thus, according to the agreement, he became the Persian king. (Herodotus writes that Daryavakhush owed his success to the cunning of his groom - at night he brought the owner's stallion to one of the mares, whom he loved very much, at the city gates, when the next day the stallion passed this place, he rushed forward and whinnied loudly. )
Having hardly established himself in power, Daryavakhush had to suppress the uprisings that engulfed many Persian provinces. The rebellion in Babylonia, the very heart of the Persian state, was especially dangerous. According to the Behistun inscription, the following happened there: a certain Nidintu-Bel declared himself the son of the last Babylonian king Nabunaid and began to rule under the name of Nabukudurriutsur III. Dariavakhush personally led the campaign against the rebels. The first battle took place in mid-December 522 BC at the Tigris River and ended in victory for the Persians. Five days later they won a new victory in the area of \u200b\u200bZazana near the Euphrates. Nidintu-Bel fled to Babylon, but was soon captured and executed (impaled). Pacifying the country, Daryavakhush lived in Babylon for about three months. In February 521 BC, news reached him of a new uprising in the eastern satrapies: Persia, Media, Elam, Margiana, Parthia and Sattagidia. The most massive performance was in Margiana. Suppressing it, the satrap of Bactria Dadarshish killed more than 50 thousand people, and turned the country itself into a desert. At the same time, in Persia, a certain Vahyazdata declared himself king of Bardia and found wide support among the people. Dariavakhush was supposed to send troops to all ends of his state. At the end of February 521 BC, Vivan's royal army defeated Vahyazdata in the Gandutava region of Arachosia. But even then the rebels did not lay down their arms. It took two more battles (one took place in May near the city of Raha in Persia, the other in July near Mount Parga) to finally break their resistance. Vahyazdata was captured and executed along with 52 of his closest associates.
At the same time, almost all Media ended up in the hands of a certain Fravartish, who spoke under the name Khshatratu from the line of Median kings. This impostor also managed to establish his control over Assyria, Armenia, Parthia and Hyrcania. Dariavakhush sent his commander Vidarna against him. In May, a fierce battle took place in the Kundurush area. It killed 35 thousand Medes, and another 18 thousand were captured. In June, the Persians captured and executed Fravartish himself. King Vishtasp's father fought against the rebels in Parthia and Hyrcania. Finally, these satrapies were pacified only in June after the defeat of the main forces of the rebels in the area of \u200b\u200bPatigraban. The uprising in Armenia gave Daryavakhush a lot of trouble. The local inhabitants gave the Persians five big battles, but only in June 521 BC they were finally defeated at Mount Uyama and in the area of \u200b\u200bAutiara.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Persians were diverted to the outskirts of the empire, in August 521 BC the Babylonians rose again. Someone Arakhta (according to some testimonies, Armenian, according to others - Urart) passed himself off as the prince Nabukudurriutsur, the son of Nabunaid. He captured Babylon, Sippar, Borsippa, Uruk and proclaimed himself king. Dariavakhush sent an army against him, led by the Persian Vindafarny. In November 521 BC the rebels were defeated. Artakhta ended up in captivity and ended his life, like all other leaders of the rebels - was impaled. The city of Babylon lost its outer walls, which were destroyed by order of the king.
Having defeated all his enemies and consolidated his power, Dariavakhush embarked on new conquests. In 519 BC, he made a trip to the Tigrahauda Saks, who lived near the Aral Sea. In 517 BC, the Persians conquered the northwestern part of India, where at this time there were many small states. From these lands, the satrapy India was formed, which included the lower and middle reaches of the Indus River. It became the most extreme eastern province of the Achaemenid state. The Persians did not try to advance further east. But in the west, they made one acquisition after another. In the same year 517 BC, the Persian army led by Otana captured the island of Samos. The inhabitants of Lemnos and Chios voluntarily recognized the power of the Persians. About 516 BC Daryavakhush undertook a large campaign of conquest in the Northern Black Sea region. Having conquered the Greek cities on both banks of the Hellespont without a fight, he crossed the Bosporus into Thrace. From here the Persian army went to the lower reaches of the Danube and, crossing the eastern bank of the river, found itself in the possession of the Scythians. They did not dare to enter into open battle with the Persians and began to retreat into the depths of the steppes, driving off livestock, burning grass behind them and filling wells. Chasing their swift and constantly escaping cavalry, Dariavakhush brought his soldiers to complete exhaustion. Finally he realized the futility of his efforts and retreated back across the Danube.
He himself returned to Persia, and entrusted the European war to his commander Bagabukhsha. He conquered the Greek cities on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea and subdued the Thracian tribes to the Persian king. When the Persian army approached the borders of Macedonia, its king Alexander I hastened to declare his obedience and married his sister to a Persian nobleman. Persian garrisons remained in Macedonia and Thrace. About 512 BC, both of these countries formed the westernmost of the Persian satrapies called Skudra. That was the time of the greatest power of the Achaemenid state: at the end of Daryavakhush's life, it stretched from the Indus River in the east to the Ionian Sea in the west, from the Aral Sea in the north to the borders of Ethiopia in the south.
The next victim of the Persian conquests was to be mainland Greece. The prelude to a grand war with the Greeks was the powerful Ionian uprising that began in the fall of 499 BC and swept the entire western coast of Asia Minor in a short time from the Hellespont in the north to Caria in the south, as well as many of the Aegean islands. It came as a complete surprise to the Persians. The rebels, headed by the tyrant of Miletus Aristagoras, made a campaign into the interior of the country, took and burned the royal capital of Sardis. However, already in the summer of 498 BC they were utterly defeated at Ephesus. The remnants of their troops dispersed to their cities. At the end of 497 BC, hostilities shifted to Cyprus. The Ionians won a great naval battle, but then the Cypriots were defeated in a battle on land. The king of Salamis, Onesil, who led them, died in battle. However, it took the Persians another whole year to finally pacify the island. In 496 BC, the Persian generals won an important victory over the Carians who had joined the Greeks and began a siege of the Ionian cities. One by one, they were taken. Finally, in the spring of 494 BC, the Persians besieged Miletus from land, which was the main stronghold of the uprising. The large Ionian fleet prevented the siege of the city from the sea. But after the Persians won the naval battle at Lada, the blockade ring closed. In the fall, the Persians pulled up siege weapons to the city, and then took it by storm. Most of the Milesians died, the survivors were enslaved and driven to Persia. The city itself was severely destroyed and was never able to restore its former power. In 493 BC Chios and Lesbos surrendered. After which all Ionia was again under the rule of the Achaemenids. But Dariavakhush understood that Persian rule in Asia Minor and Thrace would be fragile as long as the Greeks of the Balkan Peninsula retain their independence. It seemed that the conquest of this relatively small country, which, moreover, was falling apart into many states at war with each other, would not be difficult for the Persians, but further events showed that the war with the Greeks could be very difficult.
The very first campaign against Hellas in 492 BC, led by Darius's son-in-law Mardonius, ended in failure - during a storm near the Athos Cape on the Chalcis peninsula, 300 Persian ships sank and about 20 thousand people died. The land army, which had to fight heavy battles with the insurgent Thracians, also suffered heavy losses.
The Persians took into account the complexity of the roundabout movement along the northern coast of the Aegean Sea and made a bold decision - to send the army by ships directly from Asia Minor directly to Attica. Military preparations were accompanied by diplomatic training, Darius hoped for a split in the enemy camp. The Persian army consisted of Hippias, expelled from Athens.
In 491 BC. e. Persian ambassadors were sent to all the policies of Balkan Greece, demanding complete obedience, or at least neutrality in the coming war. Many cities of the islands, Thessaly and Boeotia, submitted, but the most powerful city-states, Sparta and Athens, categorically rejected the demands. The Spartans threw the ambassadors into the well, and the Athenians threw them off the cliff.
In 490 BC. e. The Persians, under the command of Datis and the nephew of King Artaphernes, made another attempt at capture. The Persian army concentrated on the island of Samos, then was transported to Euboea. After some time on the Marathon Plain, just 40 km from Athens, numerous Persian troops landed. From the Marathon, it was possible to attack the main city of Attica by land, and the fleet only had to go around Cape Sunni in order to attack Athens from the sea. On the Marathon Plain on September 13, 490 BC e. one of the most famous battles of antiquity took place. The battlefield was a flat valley surrounded by mountains on the seashore, convenient for the actions of the irregular Persian cavalry. The Persians had 10 thousand of it, and, in addition, the army had a large number of foot archers.
The Athenian troops were commanded by ten strategists, and most of them doubted the possibility of resisting such a large Persian army and offered to limit themselves to the defense of the city. However, a different opinion was held by the strategist Miltiades, whose point of view ultimately won. Miltiades until recently was the ruler of the Athenian colony Chersonesos of Thrace and had the opportunity to get acquainted with the Persians, their military organization and manner of close combat. He persuaded fellow strategists not to sit out in the weakly fortified Athens, but to quickly go towards the enemy and give a decisive battle at Marathon. The ten thousandth foot army, most of which was the Athenian militia, approached the future place of the battle from Athens. I must say that an adult Athenian was often already a fairly experienced warrior. For this, a system of military-patriotic education was created. From the age of 18, young men underwent compulsory military service for two years and remained liable for military service until the age of 60. Much attention was paid to the issues of tactics, combat formations. The bulk of the army was made up of hoplites, heavily armed infantrymen operating in a dense formation - a phalanx. Strict discipline was established in the army.
Sparta took a wait-and-see attitude and did not send its troops, citing a religious holiday. The Lacodemon warriors arrived at the scene after the deed was done. A thousand people sent the small town of Plataea, allied to Athens, from Boeotia. Quantitatively, thus, the Athenian army was much inferior to the Persian, but qualitatively superior to it. The trained and close-knit hoplites who defended their policies were opposed by a multi-tribal untrained Persian army, many of whose soldiers themselves were natives of places captured by the Persian invaders.
Miltiades, knowing that the advantage of the Persians lies in the more numerous cavalry, which, as a rule, seeks to strike from the flanks, positioned his hoplites 1 km wide, resting their flanks against the mountains, for which they even had to stretch the formation. For the same purpose - to withstand the onslaught of the riders - the right and left wings of the Greek army had a greater number of ranks in depth than the center. The best hoplites of Athens were concentrated on the right, the left flank was given to the Plateians.
According to all the rules of Greek military science, when the Persians approached, the phalanx of the hoplites switched to a runaway march towards the enemy, in order to inflict a stronger blow themselves, and, in addition, to quickly overcome the space shot by archers. The Persians, however, succeeded in breaking through the Hellenic center. But on the flanks, the Persian cavalry could not cope with the persistent hoplites in any way, she had to retreat with heavy losses. Immediately Miltiades ordered the wings to close and turn to face the enemy units that broke through the center. For the Persians, a new strong attack by the phalanx that did not lose its formation turned into a disaster. They ran erratically, boarded ships and retreated. The total losses of the Greeks amounted to only 192 people, the enemy lacked six and a half thousand soldiers. A messenger was immediately sent to Athens - the warrior Phytipides. He covered several tens of kilometers at a run in full armor, shouted in the Athenian Agora "We have won!" and fell down dead. In memory of this legendary episode, medals in the marathon run - 42 km 192 m - are raffled off at the Olympic Games of our time.
The Persians still hoped to get ahead of Miltiades and attack Athens left without defenders from the sea, their fleet moved along the coast, but the Greek commander led his army on a forced march and arrived in the city before the enemy ships. After standing on the Athenian raid, the Persians, realizing the futility of further action, sailed to Asia Minor. The victory of the Athenians had important political consequences. For the first time, the Greeks gave a powerful rebuff to the Persians, an indirect blow was dealt to the reactionary circles of Hellas, the superiority of the democratic organization was proved in the war. The example of Athens inspired and encouraged the desperate inhabitants of the conquered city-states of Asia Minor, as well as other peoples of the East.
In subsequent years, Dariavakhush did not abandon the thought of a new campaign against Greece and carefully prepared for it, but he died before he could carry out his plans. Darius was buried in a tomb built by him and decorated with sculptures in the Nakshi Rustami rocks near Persepolis.
Subsequently, Darius, according to Herodotus, executed Ariand, who began to behave independently and even began to mint his own coin, which was the prerogative of only the king. The Persian Ferendat was appointed in his place. Polien, on the contrary, says that the Egyptians themselves rebelled, indignant at the cruelty of Ariand (he has Oriander). Darius went through the Arabian desert to Memphis and found in Egypt mourning for Apis. He announced 100 talents rewards for finding a new Apis and thus attracted the Egyptians, who left the rebels. It is believed that this happened in the 4th year of Darius, that is, in 518 BC. e. , from which we have a stele from the Serapeum with an inscription about the death of Apis. But the same inscription is from the 31st year of Darius, and indeed this story is somewhat similar to fiction. Diodorus says that the Egyptians greatly appreciated Darius for trying to atone for the misdeeds of Cambyses, and considered him one of their legislators. He also says that the priests did not allow him to put his statue next to the statue of Sesostris, for the latter de conquered the Scythians, but he did not. The absurdity of this story is obvious already from the fact that the Scythians are mentioned in the list of subject peoples, but it is characteristic of the Egyptian legends of later times. In any case, throughout the subsequent period of the reign of Darius, Egypt remained calm; demotic documents have been preserved, dating back to the 35th year of his reign.
In Egypt, Darius acts as a pharaoh and with the name Setut-Ra ("Descendant of Ra")... It is known that he was personally in Egypt, it is also known that temple buildings were undertaken on his behalf both in the Nile Valley and in the Great Oasis. The Hammamat mines were actively exploited for temple buildings during the reign of Darius; They were partly in charge of the indigenous (for example, Khnumabra, who traced his genealogy to the deified Imhotep), partly by the Persian architects, who were so influenced by Egyptian culture that they prayed to the Egyptian gods, and their inscriptions were made in Egyptian hieroglyphs. On the Isthmus of Suez, Darius left inscriptions, the cuneiform version of which reads as follows: “I commanded to dig a canal from the Pirav (Nile) river, flowing through Egypt, to the sea, coming from Persia. It was dug up, as I commanded, and ships sailed across it from Egypt to Persia, as was my will ... " The inscription of Darius, which tells of the great deed of channeling the canal through Wadi Tumilat, is set in five copies, with three Asian ordinary texts inscribed on one side, and Egyptian on the other. Here Darius acts as a real pharaoh: his image is placed under a winged solar disk; the deities of the two halves of the Nile link both Egypt under his name; here, somewhat adapting to the ancient Egyptian style, the list of peoples subject to the Persian kingdom is symbolically depicted. Here are hieroglyphic images of countries that are never, either earlier or later, found in Egyptian texts. Half of the names have not survived, and we do not know if Punt and Kush, mentioned in the Nakshirustam inscription, were among them. It is possible that the claim to possession of Punt stems from the resumption of navigation in the Red Sea. The cuneiform versions have been edited in a completely different way, far from reflecting the translation. They are, first of all, much shorter, beginning with the usual confession of Ahuramazda by the king; then Darius proudly says: "I am a Persian, and from Persia I subdued Egypt"... These words are probably not a formal phrase, but an allusion to the suppression of the excitement aroused by Ariand that took place.
The reasons for the victory of Darius over the rebels
Palace of Darius in Persepolis
Thus, in the course of 20 battles, in which about 150 thousand rebels died, the power of the Persian king was restored throughout the territory of the Achaemenid state. Darius' victories over the rebellious peoples are largely due to the lack of unity between them. Darius was supported by the regiments of the royal guard (the so-called 10 thousand "immortals"), the army of the satraps who remained loyal to him and the garrison troops, which, as a rule, in each region consisted of foreigners. Darius used these troops very skillfully, unmistakably determining which revolt was the most dangerous at the moment. Unable to conduct punitive operations simultaneously in all directions, Darius suppressed one uprising, and then the same army with which he suppressed the first uprising, he threw against other rebels.
Conquest of part of India
Conquests in the Aegean basin
At the same time, conquests continued in the Aegean Sea basin, where the island of Samos was the last large, independent state with a strong military fleet. The tyrant of Samos, Polycrates, was in 522 BC. e. treacherously killed by the Persian satrap Lydia Oret, and the island was ruled by the secretary of Polycrates Meander. Around 517 BC e. the Persian army, led by Otana, one of the 7 conspirators involved in the assassination of Gaumata, captured Samos after a surprise attack. The island was devastated and included in the Persian state, and Silosont, brother of Polycrates, who even before the rise of Darius was familiar with him and was able to render him a small service, was appointed its vassal ruler. One of the brothers of Silosont, Litocrates also went into the service of the Persians and was soon appointed ruler of the newly conquered island of Lemnos. In the same year 517 BC. e. recognized the Persian power and the island of Chios.
Darius' reforms
Administrative division
Statue of Darius
After that, Darius carried out a series of reforms. He divided the state into administrative-tax districts, which were called satrapies. Basically, the borders of the satrapies coincided with the old state and ethnographic borders of the countries that were part of the Achaemenid state. At the head of the districts were, as before, satraps, only now they were appointed not from local officials, but from among the Persians, in whose hands all the leading positions of the country were concentrated. Under Cyrus II and Cambyses II, civil and military functions were combined in the hands of the satraps. Now the satraps have become exclusively civil governors. In peacetime, the satraps had only a small personal guard at their disposal. As for the army, it was led by military leaders who were independent of the satraps and subordinate directly to the king. However, after the death of Darius, the separation of military and civilian functions was not strictly observed. Satraps and military leaders were closely associated with the central government and were under the constant control of the king and his officials, especially the secret police. The supreme control over the state and supervision of all officials was entrusted to the Hazarapat, who was at the same time the head of the king's guard.
Taxation
Darius's reforms led to significant changes in the system of agrarian relations. A part of the land was taken from the conquered peoples. The Achaemenids distributed this land with large estates for sovereign and hereditary possession to members of the royal family, representatives of the Persian nobility, high officials, etc. Such land holdings were exempt from paying state taxes. At the same time, such a system of land use was widely used, when the king planted his soldiers on the ground, who worked on the allocated allotments collectively in whole groups, served military service and paid a certain monetary and in-kind tax. Around 518 BC e. Darius established a new nationwide tax system. All satrapies were obliged to pay monetary taxes strictly fixed for each region, set taking into account the amount of cultivated land and the degree of its fertility. For the first time, taxes were also imposed on temples in the conquered areas. The Persians themselves, as the ruling people, did not pay monetary taxes, but, apparently, were not exempt from supplies in kind. The rest of the peoples, including the inhabitants of the autonomous states (for example, the Phoenicians, Cilicians, etc.), paid a total of about 7740 Babylonian silver talents (over 230 tons) per year. Moreover, most of this amount was accounted for by the peoples of the most economically developed countries of Asia Minor, Babylonia, Phenicia, Syria and Egypt. Countries deprived of their own silver mines, in order to pay taxes, had to acquire silver through the sale of agricultural and handicraft products, which contributed to the development of commodity-money relations.
Coin system
Sickle of Darius
Expansion of the territory of the uprising
After the departure of the Athenians, the Ionians sent their fleet to the Hellespont and captured Byzantium there. Most of Caria and Lycia went over to the side of the rebels. Soon the uprising spread to the island of Cyprus. The island's population was mixed, it consisted of Greeks and Phoenicians, between whom there was a long struggle. The Greeks joined the rebels, and the Phoenicians remained loyal to the Persian king. Thus, the uprising covered areas from the Hellespont to Cyprus. The unrest in Cyprus was especially dangerous for the Persians, since now in the hands of the rebels were a significant navy and the island's rich copper mines. In addition, by owning Cyprus, the Greeks could block the entry of Phoenician ships into the Aegean Sea.
Military action in Cyprus
The revolted Cypriots laid siege to the city of Amaphunt, loyal to the Persians. The Persian army, led by the commander Artibius, approached Cyprus by ships. The Phoenician fleet was also pulled there. Then the Ionians came to the aid of the rebellious Cypriots. The kings of the Cypriot cities chose Onesil, the younger brother of the Greek city of Salamis Gorga, the king of the Greek city of Salamis, the younger brother of the Persian king of the Greek city of Salamis, as the commander of the combined forces. In the naval battle that took place, the Ionians defeated the Phoenician fleet. But in the battle on land, due to the fact that some of the Cypriots betrayed the common cause and left the battlefield, the rebels were defeated. In this stubborn battle, the commanders of both armies, Persian Artibius and Cypriot Onesil, were also killed. The Persians restored the power of the Gorg in Salamis and during - 496 BC. e. took possession of all of Cyprus, having spent a whole year on the pacification of this island.
The defeat of the rebels
After being defeated in a land battle, the Ionians retreated from Cyprus, and the Persians began to conquer the cities of Asia Minor one after another. In 496 BC. e. the Eretrians, following the example of the Athenians, also left the rebels. At the end of 496 BC. e. in a stubborn battle near the river Marsyas, the Persians defeated the Carians, who joined the uprising. In this battle, 2,000 Persians and many more Carians died. Retreating, the Carians continued to resist, and even managed to destroy many of the Persian commanders, luring them into an ambush.
The Lydian satrap Artaphren and the commander of Otan joined forces and began to systematically pacify the rebels. Then, discouraged, Aristagoras handed over power in Miletus to one of the city's citizens, and he himself went to the Mirkin region in Thrace, where he soon died. There was no unity among the Greeks from the very beginning. Not all cities and regions joined the uprising, and its participants did not act simultaneously, which allowed the Persians to beat them in parts. As a result, when in the spring of 494 BC. e. a decisive naval battle took place at the island of Lada (now it is part of the mainland), which defended the entrance to the harbor of Miletus, the Samos and Lesbian ships went home. The battle ended in complete victory for the Persian fleet. Miletus's fate was sealed. In the fall of 494 BC. e. was taken and plundered, most of the population of Miletus was killed, and the survivors were taken to Susa, and then settled at the confluence of the Tigris into the Persian Gulf. In the spring of 493 BC. e. the Phoenician fleet captured the islands of Chios, Lesvos, causing a lot of destruction and cities on the Hellespont. After the suppression of the uprising in Asia Minor and punitive expeditions against the islands that took part in it, Persia began to prepare for a campaign in Balkan Greece. Darius' nephew and son-in-law Mardonius, married to his daughter Artazostra, was put in charge of a large expedition, which included both land and sea forces. In the composition of his troops were also Greeks from the regions subordinate to the Persians, whom the Persians tried to appease with various concessions.
Invasion of Greece by Mardonius
Warriors of the Persian army.
From left to right: Hadley infantrymen formed the first row of the Persian phalanx of archers; Babylonian archer; Assyrian infantryman. The warriors wear quilted jackets stuffed with horsehair - a typical type of oriental armor of that time.
Marathon battle
According to Herodotus, Darius intended to personally lead the campaign against Egypt and Athens, but during these gatherings, a great strife broke out among his sons because of the king's dignity, since, according to Persian custom, before the campaign, Darius had to appoint his successor. Before accession to the throne, Darius had three sons from his first wife, daughter of Gobrius (not porphyry-born), and after accession, four more from Atossa, daughter of Cyrus (porphyry-born). Of the former sons, Artobazan was the eldest, and of those born afterwards, Xerxes. As elder sons from different queens, both claimed power. Thus, Artobazan argued that he was the eldest in the family and that in all peoples, according to custom, power belongs to the elder (direct inheritance). Xerxes, on the other hand, based his claims on the fact that he was the son of Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, and Cyrus was the liberator of the Persians. In addition, Artobazan was born before Darius became king, and Xerxes - after the accession of Darius, when he was already the ruler of the Persians (that is, Artobazan and his brothers are almost bastards, while Xerxes is a porphyry-born heir).
Darius died in October 486 BC. e. at the age of 64, never having time to restore his power in