Persian Empire - Research Paper Example

King Cambyses, after his successful invasion of Egypt never returns to Persia alive, he died en route (Allen, 2005). At the same time or even before the death of the Cambyses, Bardiya, a brother to Cambyses, took the throne of Persia in the summer. In September, another dramatic transformation of the monarchy led to the enthronement of Darius following Bardiya’s death. According to King Darius, he claims he is restoring the throne to the rightful Achaemenid house (Holland, 2005). King Darius claimed that he descended for a long line of eight kings in a genealogy that linked him to the family of the empire-founder Cyrus II through a mutual ancestor called Teispes.

Tesipes was the great-grandfather of Cyrus II; however, King Darius has added a legendary progenitor called Achaemenes. He therefore claims that he belongs to a collateral line of the royal family. The authenticity of his claims notwithstanding, the fact that King Darius’s father and grandfather are still alive and are not kings may lead one to doubt the authenticity of his claims. Even if his claims are true, Darius is not the next in line of succession given that his father and grandfather are still alive. . Following the death of Cambyses II in 522 BC, Darius rushed to Media, where in September he and his allied Persian nobles kill Bardiya, another son of Cyrus and brother of Cambyses II (Encyclop?

diaBritannica, 2011). King Darius admitted but defended this deed and his own assumption of kingship on the grounds that the usurper was actually Gaumata, a Magian, who had impersonated Bardiya after Bardiya had been murdered secretly by Cambyses. King Darius attributed the chaos in Persian to a sinister plot sparked by the evil deed of Cambyses. Darius alleged that Cambyses secretly killed his brother Bardiya and that the new figure who was enthroned just before Cambyses’ death was an impostor called Gaumata.

Thus, Darius desire to restore the throne to the rightful Achaemenes house. When the impostor threaten those aware of the usurpation with death, Darius and his allied Persian noble responded by slewing the impostor. The fact that the impostor body was not displayed publicly, as other rebel, makes one to think that Darius may have committed regicide (Cook, 1985). Many Persians doubt the legitimacy of Darius accession to the throne. In fact this explains the extent to which the rebellion has gone.

Most of the rebels are members of the ruling class, who thought they have equal right to the Persian throne. Appeals have been made to royal rights older than Darius’. In fact, several of the rebel leaders claimed to have descended from archaic kings such as Cyaxares or Nabonidus and have won over support to their sides. Darius has responded by combining his ancient genealogy with the favor granted him by the Persian god, Ahuramazda (Allen, 2005). According to King Darius, Ahuramazda, one of the