Justin. l. 3. Herodot. l. 3.III. DARIUS, the son of Hystaspes, was one of the seven Conspirators, who killed the impostor Smerdis, and the Magians, who had usurped the kingdom of Persia. Every one knows how Darius the son of Hystaspes came to be acknowledged king. For as they had agreed among themselves, that he should be owned by all the rest as king, whose horse first saluted the rising sun with his neighing, Darius’s Groom, the day before they were to meet for this purpose, carried his master’s horse with a mare to the place of rendezvous. The next morning the seven Conspirators met there. Darius was there at the sun’s rising, and his horse enlivened with what had passed there the day before, began to neigh: whereupon the six Lords, his Competitors, immediately dismounted, and prostrating themselves before him, unanimously vested him with the royal Authority. This fell out in the year of the world 3488, before Jesus Christ 517, before the Vulgar Æra 521.
Herodot. l. 7. c. 3. Herodot. l. 7. c. 69.Darius married first of all Atossa the daughter of Cyrus, who had before been married to Cambyses her own brother, and was afterwards to the impostor Smerdis. Herodotus says, that Darius had four sons by her, and that for a long time she had a great share in the government; for which reason it is thought she was not the same as Vashti, who was very early divorced by this Prince. He married besides Aristone, for whom he had a particular tenderness, preferring her before his other wives, and erected a statue to her of hammer’d gold. She and Esther were probably the same. Besides these two wives, he had many others, according to the custom of the eastern Princes. His first wife was the daughter of Gobrias; he married likewise the princess Parmis, daughter to Smerdis the son Herodot. l. 7. c. 88. Idem ibidem, c. 68, 69. Idem, l. 7. c. 224.of Cyrus, and Phædima, daughter to Othanes, and Phralagune, the only daughter of Atarnes, brother to Darius. One of these was probably the person whom he divorced, and who is called Vashti in the book of Esther. I shall not relate this history at length, it will be seen more particularly in the Article Esther, and some account of it has already been given in that of Ahasuerus. We place the divorce of Vashti in the fourth year of Darius, and of the World 3487. Esther became his wife, and was acknowledged to be Queen about the year 3488, before the Vulgar Æra 514.
In the second year of this Prince’s reign, and in that of the World 3485, the Jews, encouraged by the exhortations of the prophets Haggai and Zachary, began again to work upon the Temple, in which structure they had made no progress ever since the time of Cyrus. Their enemies gave intelligence to Darius of what they were about, who permitted Ezra vi. 12, 14.them to go on with it without interruption. Haman the son of Hammedatha, having abused the king’s goodness towards him, by desiring the death of all the Jews who were in his dominions, Darius understanding the injustice of his request, ordered him to be hanged upon the gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai, and permitted the Jews to take vengeance on their enemies in 3496.
This Prince reduced Babylon after a siege of twenty months. This city, which had been formerly the capital of the whole East, and the mistress of all nations in the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, his sons, and grandsons, could not bear without great reluctancy, to see itself reduced to the second rank, and divested of its dearest prerogatives, upon the kings of Persia transferring the seat of their Empire to Susa. She resolved hereupon to deliver herself from the yoke of servitude, and revolt from the Persians. Having this Herodot. l. 3. Justin. l. 1. c. 10. Polyæn. l. 7.design therefore, and taking advantage of the revolution which happened in Persia, first at the death of Cambyses, and afterwards upon the massacre of the Magians, they began secretly to make preparations for war, and to sustain a long siege. They employ’d four years in these preparations, and when they thought their city abundantly furnished with provisions for several years, they set up the standard of rebellion, and refused to obey Darius the son of Hystaspes.
This Prince levied an army in great haste, and laid siege to Babylon with all his forces. The Babylonians did not venture to expose themselves in the open field against a prince of Darius’s valour, but shut themselves up within their walls, which were of an height and thickness that secured them from insults; and as they had nothing to fear but famine, they took the most barbarous resolution that was ever heard of, which was to destroy all the useless persons, and such as were incapable of fighting. They got together all the women and children, and strangled them, every one reserving only the most beloved of his wives, and one servant to perform the offices of their families. Thus the following words of Isaiah were verified, Thou saidst, O Babylon, I shall be always mistress; and thou hast considered carefully what was to befall thee in the end. Hear now, O delicious city, thou that dwellest without fear, and sayst in thine heart; I am, and no other is like me: I shall not be a widow, nor shall I experience thy loss of children; these two evils shall fall suddenly upon thee in one day, both widowhood, and loss of children, &c. And in reality, may not Babylon be said to have suffered these two misfortunes in one day, by the death of her women and children.
Some believe with reason, that the Jews who dwelt at Babylon, were either driven thence by the Babylonians, as too much in the interest of king Darius, who was in all things very favourable to them; or that of themselves they resolved upon departing from thence, when they saw the people determined to rebel. The Prophets had frequently admonished them to fly from this criminal city. Go forth from Babylon, said Isai. xlviii. 7, 8, 9. Isa. xlviii. 20. Jer. l. 8.Isaiah, flee from the Chaldæans, declare with a loud voice the Lord hath redeemed his people. And Jeremiah, Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldæans; for lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon, an assembly of great nations from the northcountry, who shall take it, and Chaldæa shall Jerem. li. 6, 7, 8, 9.be a spoil. And again, Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunken of her vice, therefore the nations are mad: she is suddenly fallen and destroyd, &c. Lastly, Zachary almost at the same time, that is to say, about the fifth year of Darius, addressing himself to the Jews of Babylon, says, Flee from the land of the north, saith Zech. xi. 6, 7.the Lord—Deliver thyself, O Sion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
Darius the son of Hystaspes lay twenty months before Babylon, without making any considerable progress; the city was furnished with all sorts of provisions for many years: the height and strength of its ramparts render’d it impregnable, and the resolution of its inhabitants was extreme. Within the inclosure of Q. Curt. l. 5. c. 1.Babylon, there was a large void space of land, capable of being cultivated, which was a mighty help to the besieged; so that it could be taken neither by assault nor famine. Zopyrus, one of Darius’s Generals, undertook to get possession of it by stratagem. He had his nose and ears cut off, and made several incisions over his whole body, and in this condition threw himself into the place, complaining bitterly of Darius’s cruelty, whom he accused with having unjustly treated him in this manner. He so effectually engaged the confidence of the Babylonians, that they trusted him with the government of their city, and the command of their troops. He made use of these opportunities to deliver up the city to the king, who during the remainder of his life, heaped honours and wealth upon him.
He no sooner had Babylon in his power, but he ordered the hundred gates of brass to be taken away, according to Jeremiah’s Jerem. li. 58.prediction in this particular: Thus saith the Lord, the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, and the people shall labour in vain. This is what we have related by Herod. l. 3.Herodotus. Darius pulled down the walls of Babylon, not entirely, for he left them fifty cubits high, instead of two hundred, which was the height of them before; and carried off all the gates, which Cyrus, when he took the city, had not done. Lastly, he commanded three thousand of the most mutinous to be crucified; and pardon’d all the rest: and to prevent Babylon’s continuing a desart, he took care to have fifty thousand women brought from the neighbouring provinces to supply the place of those who had been killed in the beginning of the siege.
The other wars which Darius the son of Hystaspes was concerned in, and the other events of his reign, have no relation to our subject. We read, that this prince, who appeared always to be very favourable to the Jews, and had married Esther, and advanced Mordecai to great honours, and who consequently must have had some knowledge of the true God, towards the end of his life fell into the errors of the Magians, who were worshippers of fire. Zoroastres coming to his court at Susa, so Religio vet. Persarum, c. 24, 25, 26.effectually insinuated himself into the king’s favour, and proposed his opinions to him with so much address, that Darius embraced them: and his example was followed by the Courtiers, the Nobility, and all the Persons of distinction in the kingdom. Thus Magianism, or the worship of fire, became the prevailing Religion in Persia, and so continued to be till the establishment of Mahometanism in the same country.
Porphyr. de abstinentiâ.Zoroastres attempted afterwards to engage Argasp king of the oriental Scythians, a zealous Sabian, to embrace his religion; and to accomplish this more easily, he made use of Darius’s authority.
The Scythian king, enraged at the design of imposing arbitrarily upon him in a matter of this nature, invaded Bactria with an army, beat the troops of Darius, killed Zoroastres, with all his priests to the number of fourscore, and demolished all the Temples of this province. Darius made haste thither, fell upon the Scythians before they had leisure to retreat, made a great slaughter of their troops, drove them out of the country, and rebuilt the Temples which they had destroy’d, particularly that of Balch, which was as it were the metropolis of all the religion of the Magians: Darius restored it with extraordinary grandeur and magnificence, and out of gratitude, it was called afterwards, The Temple of Darius Hystaspis. He is said to have assumed the title of Master of the Magians, and to have required that this title should be engrav’d upon his tomb.
We shall in the article Esther examine the difficulties that are formed with relation to Esther’s husband, which quality we attribute to Darius the son of Hystaspes.