DAREIOS I, THE SON OF HYSTASPES, 522-485 B.C.— FIRST PERIOD: CIVIL WARS.

I. "THERE was not a man, neither Persian nor Mede, nor any one of our family, who could dispossess that Gaumata, the Magian of the empire. The people feared him exceedingly. He slew many who had known old Bardiya. For that reason he slew them, 'lest they should recognize me that I am not Bardiya, the son of Kurush.' No one dared any thing concerning Gaumata, the Magian, until I arrived. Then I prayed to Ahura-Mazda ; Ahura-Mazda brought help On the tenth day of the month Bagayadish" (the first month, March-April), "then it was that I, with my faithful men, slew that Gaumata, the Magian, and the men who were his chief followers. The fort named Sikathauvatis, in the district Nisaya in Media, there I slew him. I dispossessed him of the empire. By the grace of Ahura-Mazda I became king; Ahura-Mazda granted me the empire."

to me.

Thus Dareios, in the Behistûn record. The lengthy and highly adorned narratives of the Greek historians afford a valuable commentary to this brief and pithy statement. Valuable, for overladen as they are with trumped up anecdotes, speeches of Greek invention, and facts misrepresented because not understood, they still supply us with a continuous thread of action, enabling us to make out the main features of a most dramatic incident. We may pretty safely reconstruct it as follows:

2. After Kambyses' death, his army, on the homeward march, declared in favor of the supposed Bardiya. Dareios hastened to Persia and, before deciding on a course of action, secretly wrote to the Satraps of the several provinces, to try and secure their assistance. The result was not encouraging. There seem to have really been only two on whom he could implicitly rely, besides his own father, who was Satrap in Parthia. This convinced him. that it would be imprudent to proceed openly and violently, since most people believed in the usurper, and Bardiya, had he been alive, would now have been the natural and legitimate heir of his childless brother. Besides, the Magian had taken care to ingratiate himself with the provinces, by notifying them all, as soon as he assumed the sceptre, that he "granted them freedom from war-service and from taxes for the space of three years." He was therefore far from unpopular, and Dareios wisely shrank from a civil war, the issue of which would have been more than doubtful. A bold stroke, an accomplished fact-such was the only safe and practical solution, and Dareios decided on a daring deed, which would have been impossible but for certain Persian customs, on which he cleverly built his plans.

3. We have seen (see p. 279), that the Persian nation was first constituted by the fusion of several tribes-probably originally seven-under the leadership of Akhæmenes, the head of the noblest of them, the Pasargadæ. But although this particular family thus became invested with hereditary royalty, great privileges were awarded to the heads of the six other

(PERSEPOLIS.)

(Note the Negro in the lower left-hand corner.

tribes or clans, who were, in fact, the king's peers and enjoyed perfect equality with him, short only of the royal power itself. They all wore the royal headdress,—the tall kidaris or tiara; they could enter the royal presence at all times, unannounced; they were the king's companions and advisers by right of birth, and it was only from their families he could choose his first wife, his queen, as it was into their families that he married his own sons and daughters, his brothers and sisters. On this ancient and sacred custom Dareios built his simple plan. The heads of the seven tribes-he being one of them and their leader-should present themselves at the palace gates, alone, without any followers; the pretender could not possibly deny himself to them without violating a fundamental law of the empire, and he would, by so doing, arouse suspicion ; once inside the palace, their own bravery and opportunity should do the rest. The six chiefs agreed to stand by Dareios and dare the venture with him. They could take their own time to mature the plot, for one who gave himself out as a son of Kyros could not, without betraying himself, attempt any thing against the seven princes. Yet he seems to have felt some uneasiness, since, as the inscription tells us, he removed from Persia into Media, and there established himself not in the capital, Agbatana, but in a mountain castle. This removal considerably increased the difficulty and danger for the conspirators, since he was there surrounded by his brother-Magi, who, as we have seen, formed a separate and powerful class in the country. Still, the plan arranged by the seven

princes could not well be altered; indeed it became more urgent than ever that it should be carried out. They fearlessly rode up to the castle gate, Dareios pretending that he was the bringer of a message to the king from his father Hystaspes, the heir presumptive. As he had foreseen, they passed, unchallenged and unhindered by the guards. A few moments. later and the usurper had ceased to live, after a brief and desperate scuffle with some attendants.* The retinue of the seven, which had been left at some distance behind, now hastened to their support and prevented a popular outbreak. This day was set apart for all coming times, to be celebrated by a festival in memory of "the slaughter of the Magian." The Greeks, utterly misunderstanding the purport of this festival, gravely asserted that a slaughter of whatever Magians were met with on the street, took place every year on the anniversary of that day, so that no Magi showed themselves out-doors as long as it lasted. Almost immediately after this feat of boldness, Dareios was proclaimed king, probably by previous agreement with his companions, and with. the consent of his father Hystaspes, who continued to govern his distant province. In his great inscription he faithfully records the names of his six companions, emphasizing the fact that they were his only helpers. "These are the men who alone were there when I slew Gaumata, the Magian, who was called. Bardiya. These alone are the men who were my assistants." One of them was Gobryas, his father-in-law.

* He had reigned seven months since the death of Kambyses, very nearly a year in all,