Darius III. The last Achaemenid on the Persian throne
Darius III in O. Stone's film "Alexander", 2004
The last representative of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty, King Darius III (Darayavaush - "Good-natured") traditionally remains in the shadow of his great opponent Alexander the Great. He is only a secondary character in stories about him, this tradition was established by ancient authors, and, acting as Alexander's antagonist, Darius only emphasizes the greatness of the conqueror. But today we will try to make him the main character of two short articles.
Origin and early years of life of the last of the Achaemenids
Darius III was born in 381 BC and was a member of a collateral line of the Achaemenid dynasty. His father, Arsames, was a grandson of Darius II, and his mother, whom Diodorus Siculus calls Sisygambris and Curtius Sisygambis, was, according to the second author, a cousin of Ochus, who killed his brother Ostanes and his sons and ascended the throne as Artaxerxes III.
However, some authors deny the hero of the article's royal origin. Some modern researchers agree with them, pointing out that Artaxerxes III, who ascended the throne, ordered all his brothers to be killed, and the future Darius III somehow survived. Plutarch calls the hero of the article a royal messenger, and Claudius Aelianus calls him a slave. Commenting on Plutarch's message, Harvard professor E. Badian suggested that Darius could have been not an ordinary messenger, but the head of the palace postal service.
One way or another, it is clear that he was not among the closest contenders for the throne and stood far from the throne.
At birth, the future last Persian king received the name Artaxiata, and Marcus Junianus Justinus, the only author, calls him Codomanus. Young Darius was known as a strong and skilled warrior, at the age of 20 he became famous for the fact that before one of the battles, in front of King Artaxerxes III, he defeated an opponent from the hostile tribe of Cadusii in a traditional duel. Soon after, he was appointed to the post of satrap of Armenia.
Path to the throne
In 338 BC, the last strong king of the Achaemenid dynasty, Artaxerxes III, died in Persia. He was poisoned by the court eunuch Bagoas, an Egyptian by origin, who had such influence that "Artaxerxes did nothing without his advice" (Diodorus Siculus). Apparently, he hoped to become the de facto ruler of the country, using the heirs of the poisoned king as weak-willed puppets.
At first, his choice fell on Prince Arses, who ascended the throne as Artaxerxes IV. But he somehow did not please Bagoas and was also poisoned. This time, the eunuch elevated the hero of the article to the throne, who then became Darius III.
It is curious that Darius and Alexander became kings almost simultaneously – in 336 BC. Alexander was only 20 years old at that time, Darius was 45 years old, and he did not wait for his portion of poison – he poisoned the eunuch himself.
The problem was that Darius III was not really suited to rule a huge empire. Once in power, he indulged in luxury that surprised even those close to the previous kings. Plutarch later wrote about the impression that Darius' treasure-filled tent made on Alexander the Great. The young conqueror, who had never seen anything like it, told his friends:
“This is, apparently, what it means to reign.”
What can we say about the palaces and residences of Darius?
What this king did not have was an army capable of protecting both himself and his enormous wealth from an invasion from the north. Meanwhile, back in 401 BC, an event occurred after which many in Hellas began to think that the enormous Persian empire was essentially a colossus with feet of clay. We are talking about the famous Anabasis. After the death of this prince, a detachment of Greek mercenaries of Cyrus the Younger found themselves on the banks of the Euphrates without senior commanders, killed during negotiations by the Persians, but with continuous fighting they managed to break through to the Black Sea and return to Hellas.
The Greeks, who were left without leaders, were led by the Athenian Xenophon, who was a contemporary of Plato and a student of Socrates, but at the same time a great admirer of Sparta and its customs. He later described this campaign in the third person under the name Themistogenes of Syracuse.
Xenophon, a monument in Vienna
His work did not go unnoticed, and Polybius in his "Universal stories" claimed that it was Xenophon's book that inspired Alexander the Great to conquer Asia. The Byzantine historian Eunapius agreed with him. And the Greek historian and geographer Arrian, having written a book about the campaigns of Alexander the Great, directly called it "Alexander's Anabasis".
The Persian kings still tried to play on the contradictions of the Greek states, using not only iron but also gold. The same Artaxerxes II, whose reign was marked by the "Anabasis", soon expelled the Spartan army of King Agesilaus II from Asia Minor with the help of "an army of 30 thousand archers" (depicted on Persian gold coins).
Darik of Artaxerxes II
Having bribed the people's leaders (literally, demagogues), he formed an anti-Spartan coalition of Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Argos and some city-states of the Aegean islands. But the military weakness of the Persian state, demonstrated by the campaign of 401 BC, was not forgotten and had far-reaching consequences.
Many politicians in Athens and Sparta had the idea: if a relatively small Greek detachment left Persia under the most unfavorable conditions, then another, stronger one, could probably just as easily enter it?
A war of conquest against Persia was inevitable, but it could only take place if at least half of the Greek states united around Athens or Sparta, if not all. And with a guarantee that the other half of the Greek cities would not attack the first, which had sent its troops on a large Persian campaign.
The task of uniting Greece seemed impossible and overwhelming – until a third force appeared – barbarian Macedonia, led by the clever and strong king Philip II. He managed to force all the states of Hellas (except Sparta) to submit after winning the battle at Chaeronea, which took place in August or September 338 BC. e.
Head of Philip II of Macedon, Carlsberg Glyptothek
Representatives of the Greek city-states signed a treaty in Corinth to create the Hellenic Union, with Philip declared hegemon. He declared war on Persia for the sacrilegious crimes against Greek temples and other shrines committed by Xerxes. His son Alexander later declared Darius an accomplice of the eunuch Bagoas, and himself an avenger for the murdered Persian kings, writing to him:
"With the help of Bagoas, you killed Arses and seized power - unjustly, contrary to Persian law. You are unfair to the Persians."
Army of Darius III
Richard Scollins. Darius III and his warriors
It should be said that the Persian army at that time was already different from the army of Xerxes. It included cardacians, of whom Arrian says: "They were also hoplites." Detachments of warriors similar to the Greek peltasts (takabara) were formed; they were armed with small axes and javelins, and had small shields that resembled a crescent in shape. However, archers and slingers still predominated in the infantry. The heavy cavalry was represented mainly by Massagetan horsemen, as Arrian reports in describing the battle of Gaugamela:
“The barbarians were overwhelming in numbers, and besides, both the Scythians themselves and their horses were carefully protected by armor.”
The Persian cavalry consisted mainly of mounted archers and horsemen armed with javelins (paltons), which were used in hand-to-hand combat if necessary. The few heavily armed Persian cavalrymen, according to Curtius, were ineffective:
"The Persian horses and riders alike were weighed down by plate armor and moved with difficulty."
Curtius gives the following description of the army of Darius III:
"The marching order was as follows... horsemen of 12 tribes in various clothes and armed in different ways. Next came those whom the Persians call "immortals", numbering up to 10 thousand, no one else had such barbarically luxurious clothing: they had gold necklaces, cloaks embroidered with gold, and tunics with long sleeves, decorated with precious stones. At a short distance came the so-called "relatives of the king", numbering up to 15 thousand.
This crowd, with its almost feminine luxury in attire, stood out more for its splendor than for the beauty of its weapons. The courtiers who followed them, who usually kept the royal clothes, were called spearmen. They walked in front of the king's chariot, in which he towered above the rest.
Behind the chariot walked 10 thousand spearmen with spears richly decorated with silver and arrows with gold tips. About 200 close nobles followed to the right and left of the king. Their detachment was closed by 30 thousand infantrymen accompanied by 400 royal horses… then 600 mules and 300 camels carried the royal treasury: they were accompanied by a detachment of archers.
The last to come were the lightly armed soldiers, each with their own commander.”
This crowd, with its almost feminine luxury in attire, stood out more for its splendor than for the beauty of its weapons. The courtiers who followed them, who usually kept the royal clothes, were called spearmen. They walked in front of the king's chariot, in which he towered above the rest.
Behind the chariot walked 10 thousand spearmen with spears richly decorated with silver and arrows with gold tips. About 200 close nobles followed to the right and left of the king. Their detachment was closed by 30 thousand infantrymen accompanied by 400 royal horses… then 600 mules and 300 camels carried the royal treasury: they were accompanied by a detachment of archers.
The last to come were the lightly armed soldiers, each with their own commander.”
The Persian army's weak points were its mixed national composition and low discipline. And so the most combat-ready units were the Greek mercenaries.
Greek mercenaries of Darius III
The tradition of hiring Greek hoplites by the Persian kings was not new. Darius' father, Artaxerxes III, had them too. One of them, the Athenian Apollodorus, helped defend the city of Perinthus, which was being besieged by the army of Philip II.
After Alexander the Great's father conquered the Thessalian city of Pherae in 344 BC, its native Aristomedes went into the service of Artaxerxes, teaching the Persians to fight the Greeks. weapons and in the Greek line. At the Battle of Issus, the Greek mercenaries stood in the center of the Persian army, and the 20 "students" of Aristomedes stood to their left.
In Persia there was also a native of the island of Eudeia, Charidemus, who had a reputation as one of the most outstanding military leaders of his time. Diodorus Siculus called him "the most skillful and experienced strategist in military affairs," Quintus Curtius Rufus - "a man of amazing courage." The modern English historian Clifford Edmund Bosworth called him "a famous military leader," and the doctor of historical sciences, vice-president of the Russian Association of Classical Scholars L. P. Marinovich - the most prominent representative of the cohort of ancient Greek mercenary adventurers of the 4th century BC.
Other Greek commanders of Darius III were the Aetolian Glaucus and the Phocian Patron, whose troops confronted the Macedonian phalanx at the Battle of Gaugamela. Outstanding Greek commanders in Persian service were the Rhodian Mentor and his brother Memnon (whose widow Barsine later became a concubine of Alexander the Great and in 327 BC bore him a son, Hercules).
Memnon and Barsine in the film "Alexander the Great", 1956
Mentor suppressed the anti-Persian rebellion in Egypt, and in close cooperation with that same Bagoas, who commanded one of the armies: apparently, this eunuch was a truly capable man - not only a master of court intrigues, perhaps his poisoning was one of the reasons for the fall of the Persian Empire. Mentor was appointed commander-in-chief of all troops stationed in the coastal Asian provinces, but died in 340 BC. e.
Alexander the Great, according to Quintus Curtius Rufus, considered his younger brother Memnon to be his most dangerous opponent, believing that only he could thwart his plans. This author called Memnon's advice on using "scorched earth tactics" a "saving plan" for the Persians, and Diodorus Siculus assessed them as excellent.
Memnon successfully fought against the 10-strong corps of Parmenion and Attalus, which Philip II sent to Asia Minor as the vanguard of the invasion army. Memnon fought no less successfully against Parmenion's successor Calas. After the defeat of the Persians at the Granicus River, Memnon took part in the fortification of the city of Halicarnassus, then captured the island of Chios and several cities on the island of Lesbos, but in 333 BC he died of some disease during the siege of the city of Mytilene.
The Macedonians also served Darius. One of them, Amyntas, fled to Persia after Alexander's accession to the throne - from the repressions launched by the new king's mother, Olympias.
Even after the defeat at Gaugamela, about 1 Greek mercenaries remained loyal to Darius III. After Darius's death, they surrendered and their new commander was Andronicus, the husband of Alexander the Great's wet nurse Lanica (whose brother was Cleitus the Black).
It must be said that Darius III took Philip of Macedon more than seriously, and was very afraid of him – and therefore felt great relief upon receiving news of the king’s death. Darius was wrong, since he could probably have come to an agreement with the pragmatist Philip and retained the throne – by sacrificing some of the territories and paying a huge ransom. Alexander destroyed the Achaemenid Empire.
In any case, after Philip's murder, Darius practically stopped preparing for war, especially since Memnon had driven the Macedonian corps of Attalus and Parmenion back to the Hellespont. Attalus, who had once insulted Alexander, was killed on the orders of the young king, and Philip's best commander, Parmenion, was recalled to Macedonia for consultations; the Persian king regarded his departure as a sign that Alexander had abandoned the campaign to the east.
Calas, who remained in command, was defeated in Troad, but retained important bridgeheads on the Asian shore of the Hellespont, which Darius did not attach much importance to. The new Macedonian king did not seem a dangerous opponent to him, and he even ordered that if Philip II's son appeared in Persia, he should be taken alive and delivered to Susa. Darius wrote to Alexander:
"You will grow old in the time it takes you to even walk through my domain."
In the next article we will continue our story and see how wrong the last Persian king was.
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