King of Persia from the Achaemenid dynasty, known for his wars.
The son of the Persian ruler Hystaspes (Visshtas), belonged to the younger branch of the ruling Achaemenid dynasty. Almost nothing is known about his early 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 King Darius I, Darajavush already had considerable military experience, since war at that distant time was the normal state of all states, peoples and tribes.
Having become the king of Persia, Darius suppressed major uprisings against the ruling Achaemenid dynasty in Babylonia, Persia, Media, Margiana, Elam, Egypt, Parthia, Sattagidia and rebellions of nomadic tribes in Central Asia by force of arms.
Each such suppression of the anti-Persian uprising was a large military campaign, involving the collection of a large army, the involvement of allied troops from among the nomadic tribes, first of all, the seizure of rebellious cities and fortresses, the collection of military booty and the punishment of state criminals. The Persian king had to be not only a commander, but also a skilled diplomat, since it was more profitable to get along with the local nobility than to fight.
The Persian state sought to extend 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 became the prey of the warlike Persians.
About 518 B.C. 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. Persian conquests in India continued until 509. Darius I sent the Greek sailor and geographer Scylacus 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 the 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. Foreigners had to leave the Black Sea region with huge losses.
Under King Darius I, a series of Greco-Persian wars (500-449 BC) began, which went on with varying success. (There were three in total.) The main opponents of the Persian state in these wars were Athens and some Greek city-states on the Peloponnese peninsula.
The reason for the first Greco-Persian war in 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 rebellious 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, Darius I gathered a large fleet, which defeated the Greeks in a battle near the island of Lede, not far from Miletus. The uprising 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.
Against the Greek states, Darius I made two large military campaigns. 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 Cape Athos, most of the Persian fleet was lost, 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 against Greece a large army under the command of experienced commanders 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 heaviest 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 assistance, but they were too late to start the battle.
The 60,000th Persian army was led by one of the best royal commanders, Datis. The tsarist fleet, after the landing of the troops, anchored not far from Marathon. Persian sailors, according to the tradition of the ancient world, dragged small ships ashore to protect them in case of great sea waves and strong winds. The crews of many ships went ashore in order to take part in the collection of military 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 construction of the Greek battle formations, traditional for that time. He sought to cover the entire width of the Marathon valley with a long phalanx of heavily armed Greek infantry. 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 on rocky hills through which the Persian cavalry could not pass, especially under fire from Greek archers and slingers. On the flanks, notches were made from cut down trees.
By lengthening the phalanx of foot soldiers in this way, Miltiades deliberately weakened its center, while at the same time strengthening its flanks. Selected detachments of Athenian foot soldiers and a few Greek cavalry stood there.
The army of the Persian king and the combined army of the Athenians and Plataeans 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 well-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 on the Greek phalanx, which, in anticipation of the approach of the enemy, froze, blocking the entire Marathon valley in width. The very beginning of the battle promised the royal commander an early, in his opinion, victory. The "victorious" center of the Persian army with a ramming blow threw back the center of the Greek phalanx, which, on the orders of Miltiades, launched a counterattack on the attacking enemy. Under the onslaught of the human mass, she nevertheless withstood and was not torn apart.
After this attack by the Persians, something happened that Datis did not expect. The wings of the Greek phalanx lengthened, and both flanks of the Greeks dealt heavy blows to the attackers and drove them back. As a result, the flanks of the "victorious" center were exposed, which ended up in a semicircle 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 royal soldiers beaten by the Greeks in the very center of the Marathon Valley.
The Persian army was seized with 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 reach the nearest shore and launch ships. They, with all sails and oars, set off away from the coast, fleeing from the Greek archers.
In the Battle of Marathon, the Persian army was completely defeated and lost only 6,400 people killed, not counting the prisoners and wounded, of whom there were more than one thousand on the ships of the tsarist fleet that had gone east. On the day of September 13, 490, the Athenians lost only 192 of their warriors.
This victory inspired other Greek city-states to resist Persian domination.
King 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 - satraps, who at the same time were commanders of those military forces that were on the territory of the satrapies. Among other things, their duties included protecting the state borders from robbery attacks by neighbors, primarily nomadic tribes, conducting military intelligence and ensuring security along the communications routes.
The possessions of the governors became hereditary.
Under Darius I, the tax system was streamlined, which significantly strengthened the economic well-being of the Persian state, and the royal treasury began to steadily replenish by reducing financial abuses in the satrapies. Therefore, both internal indignations and rebellions 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 underwent reorganization. Its core was made up of infantry and cavalry recruited from the Persians. This was no coincidence - the Persian rulers did not trust the troops, which consisted of non-Persians, because they were prone to treason and avoided risking their lives during military campaigns and battles.
The royal troops were led by commanders who were independent of the satraps and subordinated only personally to Darius I. This allowed him to avoid the danger of major uprisings 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.
The old trade routes were maintained exemplarily and new ones were built. The king was well aware that the well-being of the state, as well as the income of the treasury and the Persian nobility, the main support of the Achaemenid dynasty, largely depended on the prosperity of foreign and domestic trade, the safety of Persian roads for merchants. Trade in Persia under Darius I flourished also because many busy trade routes from the Mediterranean to India and China passed through its territory.
The shipping canal from the Nile to Suez was restored, which connected rich Egypt with Persia. King 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 authority of Darius.
The minting of gold coins, which were called "dariks" after the name of the king, significantly strengthened the financial system of the Persian state, in which gold and silver coins of neighboring countries, primarily Greek, 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, which 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 command, 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, he seized power for a while Gaumata who was killed in a conspiracy. The leader of the conspirators became king Darius from the genus Achaemenid (522-486 BC). He crushed the revolt of the Babylonians, subjugated Ionia, again annexed to his kingdom Lydia and Phrygia. Then Darius moved with the troops against the Scythians, but was defeated and retreated from the Scythian steppes, barely saving 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, "guardians of the kingdom" - had full power in the district, were responsible for the economy and trade, had the right to check coins. 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.
When the satraps were special officials, subject to the king. They controlled the activities of the satraps.
Satrapy - an administrative district in ancient Iran, a part of the state that ruled the royal governor - a satrap.
| Guardsman with spear |
Solid roads were laid throughout the state, which were well guarded and had a network of postal stations. The main one was royal road. Every three miles it had stations for messengers, where fresh horses were always kept ready. State messages and goods intended for the king were delivered by special messengers. They raced on horseback, passing 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 oversee the satraps and all subjects - the secret police. The chief overseer and "secret messengers" eavesdropped on people's conversations, looking for those who were dissatisfied, then reported this to the bosses.
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 prosperity. Therefore, Darius began to conquer 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 to.
But still, the Persians managed to conquer the islands of the Aegean Sea, Egypt, the northwestern part of India. material from the site
The Persian state became a huge empire, the borders of which 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, Phoenicia, Syria, the Chaldean kingdom, Assyria, part of India. Part of the territory of the ancient Persian state today belongs to Iran.
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| The Persian state of the Achaemenids in the VI-IV centuries. BC e. |
Darius I (550-486 BC) reigned 522-486 Don. e.
Darius I was a member of the younger line of the 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 power in the country was seized by the Median magician Gaumata, who pretended to be the youngest son of King Cyrus Bardia. The conspirators - the seven most noble Persians - decided to kill the impostor, and then agreed that the king of Persia would be the one whose horse neighs first when they leave the palace gates.
Gaumata was killed. Darius dealt him the fatal blow. Now it was necessary to determine who would become king. And then Darius decided to cheat. He agreed with his groom to hide a mare outside the gates of the palace, which had recently given birth to a foal from the horse of Darius. As soon as the conspirators left the gates of the palace, Darius’s horse, sensing a mare, rushed forward and neighed ... The conspirators unanimously recognized Darius as the king of Persia, but so that no one could challenge his right to the royal throne in the future, Darius married the daughter of Cyrus the Great 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 manages to suppress the uprising there, then other nations will calm down ...
Darius managed to conquer Babylon. Then he went to Media and put things in order in it. This was followed by invasions of Phoenicia, Egypt, and a number of Greek cities. After that he went to India. The Persian state acquired the dimensions that were under Cyrus the Great.
It was very difficult to manage such a gigantic territory. The messengers who rode with important messages to the far ends of the state were sometimes on the road for up to six months. Then Darius divided the state into satrapies, at the head of which he put his governors - satraps. From the main cities of the satrapies, he ordered roads to be laid and posts to be established at short intervals where horses could be changed. Now the travel time has been reduced to a few weeks.
In 517 BC, Darius approached the borders of India. He did not meet much resistance. From the occupied lands, he formed the satrapy of India. It was the furthest eastern province of the Persians. Darius did not move further east and returned to his lands. He was called the king of kings, as he conquered all the neighboring kingdoms.
Darius now decided to conquer the countries along the lower Danube. In 512 BC, on a wooden bridge, he transported troops to the eastern bank of the river and ended up in the possession of the Scythians. But these nomadic tribes were not going to fight with the well-armed army of the Persians. They drove their cattle to the distant steppes, burned everything behind them and filled up the wells with water. Darius' army was suffering from thirst and hunger. The soldiers began to show discontent. The pursuit of the Scythians led to significant losses, and Darius turned his 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 thousands of troops across the sea. The ships were built, and in 490 BC, troops landed on the coast near the village of Marathon. There they were met 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, they won. Miltiades sent a messenger to Athens with good news. The messenger ran non-stop from Marathon to Athens for 42 kilometers 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 as an invincible commander, but this was not possible. He soon died of some disease. 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 power 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 king then ruling 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 a few years before by order of his brother). Having agreed among themselves, Otan and six of his associates entered the palace and killed the king (whether it was a real or really an impostor, it is now impossible to establish). Then the conspirators began to deliberate about which of them should take the throne. Finally, they decided to entrust the choice to the will of the gods, namely: whose horse is the first to neigh at sunrise, when they leave the city gates, that one will be king. Daryavahush turned out to be more successful in this experience than others - his stallion was the first to vote, 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, but when the stallion passed by this place the next day, he rushed forward and neighed loudly. )
Having barely 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 Nabukudurriutzura III. Daryavahush personally led the campaign against the rebels. The first battle took place in mid-December 522 BC near the Tigris River and ended in victory for the Persians. Five days later they won a new victory in the area of Zazana near the Euphrates. Nidintu-Bel fled to Babylon, but was soon captured and executed (put on a stake). Pacifying the country, Darya Vakhush lived in Babylon for about three months. In February 521 BC, news of a new uprising in the eastern satrapies reached him: Persia, Media, Elam, Margiana, Parthia and Sattagidia. The most massive was the performance 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. Daryavahush had to send troops to all parts of his state. At the end of February 521 BC, the royal army under the command of Vivan defeated Vahyazdata in the Gandutava region in 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 of Media fell into the hands of a certain Fravartish, speaking under the name of Khshatratu from the family of the Median kings. This impostor managed to establish his control also over Assyria, Armenia, Parthia and Hyrcania. Daryavahush sent his commander Vidarna against him. In May, a fierce battle took place in the area of Kundurush. 35,000 Medes fell in it, and another 18,000 were captured. In June, the Persians captured and executed Fravartish himself. The king's father Vishtasp 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 Patigraban area. The uprising in Armenia brought a lot of trouble to Daryavakhush. The locals gave the Persians five great battles, but it was not until June 521 BC that they were finally defeated at Mount Uyama and in the locality of Autiara.
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 again rose. A certain Arakhta (according to some testimonies, an Armenian, according to others, an Urartian) pretended to be Prince Nabukudurriutsur, the son of Nabunaid. He captured Babylon, Sippar, Borsippa, Uruk and proclaimed himself king. Daryavakhush sent an army against him, led by the Persian Vindafarna. In November 521 BC, the rebels were defeated. Artakhta was captured and ended his life, like all other rebel leaders - he was put on a stake. The city of Babylon lost its outer walls, which were destroyed by order of the king.
Having defeated all his enemies and having consolidated his power, Daryavakhush set about new conquests. In 519 BC, he made a campaign against the Tigrahaud Saks, who lived near the Aral Sea. In 517 BC, the Persians conquered the northwestern part of India, where at that time there were many small states. From these lands, the satrapy of India was formed, which included the lower and middle reaches of the Indus River. It became the easternmost province of the Achaemenid state. The Persians did not try to move 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. Around 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, having crossed to the eastern bank of the river, ended up in the possessions of the Scythians. They did not dare to engage in open battle with the Persians and began to retreat deep into the steppes, stealing cattle, burning grass behind them and filling wells. Chasing their swift and constantly elusive cavalry, Daryavahush brought his warriors 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 subjugated 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 B.C., these two countries formed the westernmost of the Persian satrapies called Skudra. That was the time of the highest power of the Achaemenid state: at the end of the life of Daryavakhush, 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 powerful Ionian uprising that began in the autumn of 499 BC served as a prelude to a grandiose war with the Greeks, which in a short time covered the entire western coast of Asia Minor from the Hellespont in the north to Caria in the south, as well as many islands of the Aegean Sea. It came as a complete surprise to the Persians. The rebels, led by the tyrant of Miletus Aristagoras, made a campaign deep into the country, took and burned the royal capital of Sardis. However, already in the summer of 498 BC, they were utterly defeated near Ephesus. The rest of their troops dispersed to their cities. At the end of 497 BC, hostilities moved to Cyprus. In a great naval battle the Ionians were victorious, but at the same time 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 commanders won an important victory over the Carians who had joined the Greeks and began the siege of the Ionian cities. One by one they were taken. Finally, in the spring of 494 BC, the Persians laid siege to Miletus from land, which was the main stronghold of the uprising. A large Ionian fleet interfered with the siege of the city from the sea. But after the Persians won the naval battle of Lada, the blockade closed. In autumn, the Persians brought siege weapons to the city, and then took it by storm. Most of the Miletians died, the survivors were enslaved and driven to Persia. The city itself was badly damaged and has never been able to restore its former power. In 493 BC Chios and Lesbos capitulated. After that, all of Ionia was again under the rule of the Achaemenids. But Daryavakhush understood that Persian rule in Asia Minor and Thrace would be fragile as long as the Greeks of the Balkan Peninsula retained their independence. It seemed that the conquest of this relatively small country, which was also disintegrating into many states at war with each other, would not be difficult for the Persians, but subsequent events showed that the war with the Greeks could be very difficult.
The very first campaign against Hellas in 492 BC, led by the son-in-law of Darius Mardonius, ended in failure - during a storm near Cape Athos on the Chalkis Peninsula, 300 Persian ships sank and about 20 thousand people died. The land army, which had to fight heavy battles with the rebellious Thracians, also suffered heavy losses.
The Persians took into account the complexity of the bypass movement along the northern coast of the Aegean Sea and made a bold decision - to transport the army by ship directly from Asia Minor directly to Attica. Military preparations were accompanied by diplomatic training, Darius counted on a split in the camp of the enemy. The Persian army included Hippias, who was expelled from Athens.
In 491 BC. e. Persian ambassadors were sent to all the policies of the 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 policies, 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 king's nephew Artaphernes made another attempt to 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, a large Persian landing force landed. From Marathon, it was possible to attack the main city of Attica by land, and the fleet only needed to go around Cape Sunni 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 them, and, in addition, there were a large number of foot archers in the army.
The Athenian troops were commanded by ten strategists, and most of them doubted the ability to resist such a large Persian army and offered to confine themselves to the defense of the city. However, the strategist Miltiades had a different opinion, whose point of view eventually won. Miltiades had recently been the ruler of the Athenian colony of Thracian Chersonese and had the opportunity to get acquainted with the Persians, their military organization and the manner of close combat. He convinced his fellow strategists not to sit out in weakly fortified Athens, but to quickly go towards the enemy and give a decisive battle at Marathon. A ten thousandth foot army approached the future place of the battle from Athens, most of which were the Athenian militia. I must say that an adult Athenian was often already quite an 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 questions of tactics and combat formations. The basis of the troops were hoplites, heavily armed infantrymen operating in close formation - the phalanx. Strict discipline was established in the army.
Sparta took a wait-and-see position and did not send its troops, citing a religious holiday. The warriors of Lakodaemon arrived on the scene when the deed was already done. A thousand people were sent by the small town of Plataea allied to Athens from Boeotia. Quantitatively, therefore, the Athenian army was much inferior to the Persian, but qualitatively superior to it. The trained and united hoplites who defended their cities were opposed by a diverse, untrained Persian army, many of whose soldiers were themselves natives of the 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, placed his hoplites at a width of 1 km, resting their flanks on the mountains, for which they even had to stretch the line. With the same purpose - to withstand the pressure of the horsemen - the right and left wings of the Greek army had more ranks in depth than the center. The best hoplites of Athens 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 hoplite phalanx switched to a runaway march towards the enemy in order to inflict a stronger blow themselves, and in addition, quickly overcome the space shot by the archers. The Persians, however, managed to break through the Hellenic center. But on the flanks, the Persian cavalry could not cope with the persistent hoplites, she had to retreat with heavy losses. Immediately, Miltiades ordered the wings to close and turn to face the enemy units that had broken through the center. For the Persians, a new strong attack by the phalanx that did not lose formation turned into a disaster. They fled erratically, boarded ships and retreated. The total losses of the Greeks amounted to only 192 people, the enemy missed six and a half thousand soldiers. A messenger was immediately sent to Athens - the warrior Fitipides. Fully armed, he overcame several tens of kilometers on the run, shouted “We won!” at the Athenian Agora! and dropped dead. In memory of this legendary episode at the modern Olympic Games, medals are awarded in the marathon run - 42 km 192 m.
The Persians still hoped to get ahead of Miltiades and attack Athens left without defenders from the sea, their fleet was moving along the coast, but the Greek commander also led his army in a forced march and arrived in the city before the enemy ships. Having stood on the Athenian raid, the Persians, realizing the futility of further actions, sailed to Asia Minor. The Athenian victory had important political consequences. The Greeks for the first time gave a powerful rebuff to the Persians, an indirect blow was dealt to the reactionary circles of Hellas, and the superiority of the democratic organization in war was proved. The example of Athens inspired and encouraged the desperate inhabitants of the conquered city-states of Asia Minor, and other peoples of the East.
In subsequent years, Daryavakhush did not leave 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 works of sculpture in the rocks of Nakshi Rustami 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 the king alone. 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 traveled across the Arabian Desert to Memphis and found Apis in mourning in Egypt. He announced a 100 talent reward for finding a new Apis and thereby 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 on 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 his efforts to make amends 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, because the latter subdued 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 Egyptian legends of a later time. In any case, during the entire subsequent time of the reign of Darius, Egypt remained calm; demotic documents dated back to the 35th year of his reign have been preserved.
In Egypt, Darius appears 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 in the reign of Darius; they were partly in charge of the natives (for example, Khnumabra, who traced his genealogy to the deified Imhotep), partly by Persian architects, who were so influenced by Egyptian culture that they prayed to the Egyptian gods, and their inscriptions were made in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Darius left inscriptions on the Isthmus of Suez, the cuneiform version of which reads: “I ordered to dig a canal from the river Pirav (Nile), flowing through Egypt, to the sea coming from Persia. It was dug up, as I commanded, and the ships sailed along it from Egypt to Persia, as was my will ... " Darius's inscription, which tells of the great work of drawing a canal through the Wadi Tumilat, is in five copies, with three Asian common texts inscribed on one side and an Egyptian one on the other. Here Darius acts as a real pharaoh: his image is placed under the 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, a list of peoples subject to the Persian kingdom is symbolically depicted. Here are hieroglyphic images of such countries that never, neither earlier nor later, are 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 on the Red Sea. The cuneiform versions are edited in a completely different way, far from reflecting the translation. First of all, they are much shorter, starting with the usual confession by the king of Ahuramazda; then Darius proudly says: “I am a Persian, and from Persia I subjugated Egypt”. These words are probably not a formal phrase, but an allusion to the pacification of the excitement excited by Ariand that took place.
Reasons for Darius' victory over the rebels
Palace of Darius in Persepolis
Thus, during 20 battles, in which about 150 thousand rebels died, the power of the Persian king was restored throughout the territory of the Achaemenid state. The victories of Darius over the rebellious peoples are largely due to the lack of unity between them. Darius was supported by regiments of the royal guard (the so-called 10 thousand "immortals"), an army of satraps who remained loyal to him and garrison troops, which, as a rule, consisted of foreigners in each region. Darius used these troops very skillfully, accurately determining which rebellion was most dangerous at the moment. Not being able to conduct punitive operations simultaneously in all directions, Darius suppressed one uprising, and then threw the same army, with which he suppressed the first uprising, against other rebels.
Conquest of part of India
Conquests in the Aegean Sea
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 navy. The tyrant of Samos Polycrates was in 522 BC. e. treacherously killed by the Persian satrap of Lydia Oret, and the secretary of Polycrates Meander began to rule the island. About 517 B.C. 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 Siloson, the brother of Polycrates, who even before the rise of Darius was familiar with him and managed to render him a small service, was appointed its vassal ruler. One of Siloson's brothers, Lithocrates also went to 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 Persian rule and the island of Chios.
Reforms of Darius
Administrative division
Statue of Darius
After that, Darius carried out a number of reforms. He divided the state into administrative-taxable 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 the same as before, the 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, only a small bodyguard was at the disposal of the satraps. As for the army, it was led by military leaders who were independent of the satraps and reported directly to the king. However, after the death of Darius, the separation of military and civilian functions was not strictly observed. The satraps and military leaders were closely connected with the central administration 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 Khazarapat, who was also the head of the king's guard.
Taxation
The reforms of Darius led to significant changes in the system of agrarian relations. Part of the land was taken away from the conquered peoples. The Achaemenids distributed this land in large estates in sovereign and hereditary possession to members of the royal family, representatives of the Persian nobility, high-ranking officials, etc. Such land holdings were exempted 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 land, who cultivated the allocated plots collectively in whole groups, served military service and paid a certain monetary and in-kind tax. About 518 B.C. e. Darius established a new nationwide tax system. All satrapies were obliged to pay strictly fixed monetary taxes for each region, established taking into account the amount of cultivated land and the degree of its fertility. For the first time, temples in conquered areas were also taxed. The Persians themselves, as the ruling people, did not pay monetary taxes, but, apparently, were not exempt from natural supplies. The rest of the peoples, including the inhabitants of autonomous states (for example, the Phoenicians, Cilicians, etc.), paid a total of about 7740 Babylonian talents of silver (more than 230 tons) per year. Moreover, most of this amount accounted for the peoples of the most economically developed countries of Asia Minor, Babylonia, Phoenicia, Syria and Egypt. Countries deprived of their own silver mines had to acquire silver by selling agricultural products and handicrafts in order to pay taxes, which contributed to the development of commodity-money relations.
monetary system
Sickle Darius
Expanding the territory of the uprising
After the Athenians left, 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. The uprising soon spread to the island of Cyprus. The population of the island was mixed, it consisted of Greeks and Phoenicians, between which there had been a struggle for a long time. The Greeks joined the rebels, while the Phoenicians remained loyal to the Persian king. Thus, the uprising swept the areas from the Hellespont to Cyprus. The unrest in Cyprus was especially dangerous for the Persians, since now the significant navy and rich copper mines of the island were in the hands of the rebels. In addition, by holding Cyprus, the Greeks could block the entry of Phoenician ships into the Aegean.
Military operations in Cyprus
The rebellious Cypriots laid siege to the city of Amaphunt, loyal to the Persians. The Persian army, led by the commander Artibius, approached Cyprus on ships. The Phoenician fleet was also drawn there. Then the Ionians arrived to help the rebellious Cypriots. The kings of the Cypriot cities chose Onesil, the younger brother of the king of the Greek city of Salamis Gorg, who had fled during the uprising against the Persians, 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 part of the Cypriots betrayed the common cause and left the battlefield, the rebels were defeated. In this stubborn battle, the commanders of both armies, the Persian Artibius and the Cypriot Onesil, also perished. The Persians restored the power of Gorg in Salamis and during - 496 BC. e. took possession of all of Cyprus, spending a whole year on pacifying this island.
The defeat of the rebels
Having been defeated in a land battle, the Ionians retreated from Cyprus, and the Persians began to conquer the cities of Asia Minor one by one. 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 Marsia River, 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 Persian commanders, luring them into an ambush.
The Lydian satrap Artafren and the commander Otan joined forces and began to systematically pacify the rebels. Then, discouraged, Aristagoras transferred power in Miletus to one of the citizens of the city, 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 at the same time, 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 forms part of the mainland), which defended the entrance to the harbor of Miletus, the Samos and Lesbos ships went home. The battle ended with the complete victory of the Persian fleet. The fate of Miletus was sealed. In the autumn of 494 BC. e. was taken and plundered, most of the population of Miletus was slaughtered, 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, Lesbos, causing much destruction there 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. At the head of a large expedition, which included both land and sea forces, Darius' nephew and son-in-law Mardonius, married to his daughter Artazostre, was placed. His army also included Greeks from 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: the Hadley infantry formed the first rank of the Persian phalanx of archers; Babylonian archer; Assyrian infantry. The warriors are wearing 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 began among his sons over the kingship, since, according to Persian custom, Darius had to appoint his successor before the campaign. Even before accession to the throne, Darius had three sons from his first wife, the daughter of Gobrius (not porphyry-born), and after accession, four more from Atossa, daughter of Cyrus (porphyry-born). Of the former sons, Artobazanus was the eldest, and of those born after, Xerxes. As eldest sons from different queens, both of them claimed power. So, Artobazan argued that he was the eldest in the family and that among all peoples, power, according to custom, belongs to the eldest (direct inheritance). Xerxes based his claims on the fact that he is the son of Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, and Cyrus is 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 purple-born heir).
Darius died in October 486 BC. e. at the age of 64, without having had time to restore his power in