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DARIEN DARIUS 687 ply of provisions, trusting to obtain what they needed from the English colonies ; but the Dutch and English East India companies had united in procuring orders from the king for- bidding any one to render them any assistance. Thus abandoned to the resources of the country and the effects of the climate, their numbers were rapidly reduced by disease. Paterson lingered eight months, waiting for assistance from Scotland, and not till almost all had died or departed did .he abandon the settlement, which he was the last to leave. Meantime, 1,300 men under Oapt. Campbell had left Scot- land, but did not arrive till after the departure of the colonists. Upon their arrival they were threatened by a Spanish force of 1,500 men and 11 ships. On the second day after land- ing, Capt. Campbell with 200 men attacked and dispersed the Spanish camp; but on his , return to the fort he found it blockaded by the Spanish squadron, and' all hope of retreat or aid dispelled. After a siege of nearly six weeks the colonists capitulated, except Camp- bell, who escaped, reached New York, and sailed for Scotland. Not more than 30 of the colonists returned to their native country; among these was Paterson, who afterward made an unsuccessful attempt to renew the enterprise. The story of the colony is told in Eliot Warburton's novel, " Darien." DARIEN, Gulf of, a portion of the Caribbean sea, on the N. coast of Colombia, bounded W. by the isthmus of Darien or Panama. It is about 70 m. long from N. to S. and 25 m. from E. to W. Its shores are steep, generally inaccessible from shoals, and in some parts the anchorage is unsafe. It terminates at the south in the bay of Choco, which receives the river Atrato. DARIEN, Isthmus of. See PANAMA. DARIUS (Gr. AapeZof ; Heb. Daryavesh ; Pers. Dariyavus, in several inscriptions), the name of several kings of Media and Persia. I. Darius the Mede, represented in the book of Daniel as the successor of Belshazzar. Ac- cording to the theory of Markus von Niebuhr, the personal name of Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus, was Darius, Astyages being a na- tional and not a personal name, and that king the Darius the Mede of the book of Daniel. Another hypothesis is that he was identical with the Cyaxares II. mentioned by Xenophon in the Cyropaedia as the son of Astyages and maternal uncle of Cyrus, who married his daughter. Being an indolent, luxurious man, Cyaxares, according to Xenophon, left the real exercise of power entirely in the hands of Cy- rus, who succeeded him ; and his name may for this reason have been passed over by other historians, who represent Cyrus as the immedi- ate successor of Astyages. Josephus seems to have adopted this view, since he says that Babylon was taken by Darius and Cyrus his kinsman, and that Darius was the son of As- tyages and was known among the Greeks by another name, which he does not mention. 249 VOL. v. 44 Still another theory is that Darius the Mede was a member of the royal Median family, and was merely viceroy at Babylon for two years, until Cyrus came to reign there in per- son. This appears to be corroborated by the expression in Daniel, " Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chal- deans." In the words of Rawlinson, "Upon the whole, it must be acknowledged that there are scarcely sufficient grounds for determining whether the Darius Medus of Daniel is identi- cal with any monarch known to us in profane history, or is a personage of whose existence there remains no other record." II. Darius Hystaspis, son of Hystaspes (Pers. Vistaspa or Ustaaspi), of the royal race of the Achsemeni- dae, reigned 521-486 B. C. According to He- rodotus, he was marked out for the empire during the life of Cyrus, who saw him in a dream with wings overshadowing Asia and Europe. Cambyses dying without issue, and no other son of Cyrus surviving, Darius was the hereditary successor to the throne. He conspired with Otanes and five other nobles to dethrone the psuedo-Smerdis (the Gomates of the Behistun inscription), whom the magi had made king of Persia during the absence of Cambyses. After the death of the usurper, Otanes wished to establish a democracy, but the others voted to set up a monarchy, and agreed that the seven should ride out at sunrise the next day,, and that he whose horse first neighed should be declared king. Darius, ac- cording to Herodotus, secured the prize by a trick, in collusion with his groom, who station- ed a mare well known to his master's horse in the suburbs through which they were to ride. To strengthen himself on the throne, he married a daughter of Otanes, a daughter of Smerdis, and two daughters of Cyrus, one of whom, Atossa, attained great influence at his court. He was a monarch of great abilities, enterprising, despotic, and cruel, and may be regarded as the organizer of the Persian em- pire. He was a zealous adherent of the ancient Aryan or dualistic religion of his nation, and restored its supremacy over the rival creed of Magism. He divided Persia into 20 satragjes, determined the amount of their contributions in produce or precious metals, and established stated communication by means of couriers be- tween the 127 provinces of the empire. The siege of Babylon, which revolted and defended its independence with the most desperate de- termination, lasted, according to Herodotus, 20 months. The city was conquered only by the self-sacrifice of Zopyrus, who, having horribly mutilated his face, went over into the besieged city, complained of the king's cruelty, became commander of the defending army, and be- trayed it to Darius. The monarch wreaked his vengeance by impaling 3,000 of the chief citizens, and destroying the walls of the city (517). This narrative of the Greek historian, however, is not supported by the inscription