Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/960

>42 DAREIUS. now be assigned are the desire of curbing tribes which had been, and might be again, dangerous to the empire, especially during the projected invasion of Greece ; and perhaps too of laying open the way to Greece by the conquest of Thrace. The details of the expedition also are difficult to trace. Da- reius crossed the Thracian Bosporus by a bridge of boats, the work of Mandrocles, a Samian en- gineer, and commemorated his passage by setting up two pillars, on which the names of the tribes composing his army were recorded in Greek and Assyrian letters. Thence he marched through Thrace to the delta of the Danube, where he found a bridge of boats already formed by his fleet, which had been sent round in the mean time to the mouth of the river. This bridge he would have broken up after the passage of his army ; but by the ad- vice of Goes, the commander of the forces of Myti- lene, he left it guarded by the Greeks, many of whom served in his fleet, under their tyrants, with orders to break it up if he did not return within sixty days. The sixty days elapsed, and Milti- ADES, the tyrant of the Tlmician Chersonese, en- deavoured to prevail on his fellow officers to take Dareius at his word, and thus to cut off his retreat; but HiSTiAKUS, the tyrant of Miletus, pointed out the probability that, if so serious a blow were inflicted on the Persian power, they, the tyrants, >vho were protected by Persia, must fall. The bridge wiis therefore preserved, but <i feint was made of de- stroying it, in order to deceive the Scythians, who were thus rendered less active in the pursuit of Dareius. The king was now iu full retreat, his expedition having entirely failed, through the im- possibilit}' of bringing the Scythians to an engage- ment. If we .are to believe Herodotuh, he had penetrated far into the interior of Russia, and yet he had not been much distressed for provisions ; and he recrossed the Danube with so large an army, that he detached a force of eighty thoussmd men for the conquest of Thrace, under Megabazus, who subdued that country and Paeonia, and re- ceived the symbols of submission, earth and water, from Amyntas, the king of Macedonia. Dareius re-entered Asia b}' the Hellespont, which he cross- ed at Sestos, and stiiid for some time at Sardis, whence he sent (^Umes to reduce those maiitime cities on the north coast of the Aegean, Hellespont, and Bosporus, which still remained independent. The most important conquest of Otanes, were By- zantium, Chalcedon, and the islands of Inibrus and Lemnos. [Otanes.] Dareius himself then re- turned to Susa, leaving Artaphernes governor of Sardis. These operations were succeeded by a period of profound peace (about B. c. 505 — 501). The events which interrupted it, though insignificant in themselves, brought on the struggle in which the Athenians first, and then the other Greeks, repulsed the whole power of Persia. These events ^belong to the history of Greece, and to the biographies of other men. [AristagoravS ; His- TiAEUs; HiPPiAS,; Makdoxils; Miltiades; Artaphernes, &c. ; Thirlwall's Hid. of Greece, ii. c. 14.) It is a debated question whether Da- reius was accidentally involved in his war with Greece by the course of events, or whether he sim- ply took advantage of the opportunity to carry out a long cherished design. Herodotus took the lat- ter view, which seems to be borne out fully by the iDvasicm of Scythia, the reduction of Thi-ace, and DAREIUS. some minor circumstances. The period of peace which preceded the war was, no doubt, simply a matter of necessity, after the wars of the early part of the reign, and especially after the Scythian disaster. Even Thirlwall, who takes the other view (p. 191), attributes elsewhere an aggressive policy to Dareius (p. 19.9). So great, however, was Dareius's ignorance of the strength of the free states of Greece, that the force sent to subdue them was quite inconsiderable when compared with the army which marched to the invasion of Scythia. The battle of Marathon convinced him of his error, but still left him the idea that Greece must be easily crushed by a greater armament. He there- fore called out the whole force of his empire ; but, after three years of preparation, his attention was called off by the rebellion of Egypt, and the dis- pute between his sons for the succession [Aria- BiGNKS; Xerxes] ; and the decision of this dis- pute was ver}' soon followed by his death, b. c. 485, after a reign of 36 years, according to Hero- dotus (comp. Clinton, F. H. vol ii. p. 313), or 31, according to Ctesias. There are two other events in the reign of Da- reius which deserve notice : namely, the expedition against Libya, at the time of the Scythian expedi- tion (Herod, iv. 145 — 205), and the voyage of Scylax of Caryanda down the Indus, which led to the discoveiy and subjugation of certain Indian tril)es, whose position is uncertain (iv. 44). Dio- dorus (i. 33, 58, ^o) mentions some particulars of his relations to Egjpt, from which it appears that he devoted much attention to public works and legislative reforms in that as well as in the other parts of his empire. The children of Dareius were, by the daughter of Gobryas, whom he had married before he came to the throne, Artabazanes and two others; by Atossa, Xerxes, Hystaspes, Achaemenes, and Ma- sistes ; by Artystone, Arsames and Gobryas ; b}' Parmys, Ariomardas ; and by Phrataguna, the daughter of his brother Artanes, Abrocome and Hyperanthe. Diodorus mentions a daughter, Mandane. The inscriptions at Persepolis in which his name appears are fully described by Grote- fend {Bcilcuie) and Hockh. {Vet. Med. et Pers. Monuin.) Hbckh shews that the sepulchre which Dareius caused to be constructed for himself is one of those in the hill called Rachmed. (Herod, iii. 70—160, iv.— An., vii. 1—4; Ctes. Pers. 14— 19, ed. Lion; Diod. ii. 5, x. 17, xi. 2, 57, 74; Justin, i. 10, ii. 3, 5, 9, 10, vii. 3. For his rela- tions to the Jews, s^e Ezra. iv. 5, v. I ; Hagg. i. 1 ; ii. 1; Zech. i. 1; Joseph. Ant. xi. 3. $ 1.) 2. Dareius II., was named Ochus ( ^xos) be- fore his accession, and was then sumamed Nothus (Nj0os), from his being one of the seventeen bas- tard sons of Artaxerxes I. Longimanus, who made him satrap of Hyrcania, and gave him in marriage his sister Parysatis, the daughter of Xerxes 1. When SoGDiANUS, another bastard son of Arta- xerxes, had murdered the king, Xerxes II., he called Ochus to his court. Ochus promised to go. but delayed till he had collected a large army, and then he declared war against Sogdianus. Arba- rius, the commander of the royal cavalry, Arxames, the satrap of Egypt, and Artoxares, the satrap of Armenia, deserted to him, and placed the diadem upon his head, according to Ctesias, against his will, B. c. 424 — 423. Sogdianus gave himself up to Ochus, and was put to death. Ochus now