Darius did not seem to have any treasonous thoughts as Cambyses II ascended the throne peacefully, and through promotion Darius was eventually elevated to Cambyses's personal lancer.

Even though Darius did not have the support of the populace, Darius had a loyal army, led by close confidants and nobles ( including the six nobles with whom he removed Gaumata ) with whom he was able to suppress and quell all revolts within a year.

To ensure that one person did not gain too much power, each satrap had a secretary who observed the affairs of the state and communicated with Darius, a treasurer who safeguarded provincial revenues and a garrison commander who was responsible for the troops.

Darius did not actually take the field against Alexander ’ s army until a year and a half after Granicus, at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC.

Darius did attempt to restore his once great army after his defeat at the hands of Alexander, but he failed to raise a force comparable to that which had fought at Gaugamela, partly because the defeat had undermined his authority, and also because Alexander ’ s liberal policy, for instance in Babylonia and in Persis, offered an acceptable alternative to Persian domination.

Darius obviously did not accept this plan, and his conspirators became more anxious to remove him for his successive failures against Alexander and his forces.

He claimed that he did not have enough troops, but that Artaphernes, Darius ’ brother and the Persian satrap of Lydia, who commanded a large army and navy on the coast of Asia, could help supply troops.

It is likely that Artaxerxes I and Darius II visited the country as well, although it is not attested in our sources, and did not prevent the Egyptians from feeling unhappy.

The satrap Artaphernes did not want to send him back to Susa, where he suspected that Darius would pardon him, so he executed him and sent his head to Darius.

According to Herodotus, Darius still did not believe Histiaeus was a traitor and gave his head an honourable burial.

Although Darius and Girenas did not have navigational equipment and flew under unfavorable weather conditions, the flight was one of the most precise in aviation history.

The script of the episode " Band of Brothers " describes Darius as a monk with a " hideously ugly face ", but when the producers cast the part, they chose Stocker, who did not fit this description.

He did a voice acting role in the video game Need for Speed: Carbon, as a street racer named Darius.

Immediately after, lightning and thunder occurred leading the other six noblemen to believe to be an act of God, causing them to dismount and kneel before Darius.

They believe that the person who ruled for a few months was the real son of Cyrus, and that the story of his impersonation by a magus was an invention of Darius to justify his seizure of the throne.

He refuses to believe MacLeod's assertion that Darius was murdered by mortals, but is forced to when the leader of the killers is revealed to be his own brother-in-law, James Horton.

Moreover, the Persian king Darius was a usurper, and had spent considerable time extinguishing revolts against his rule.

Even before the Ionian Revolt, Darius had begun to expand the Empire into Europe, subjugating Thrace, and forcing Macedon to become allied to Persia.

The revolt was used as an opportunity by Darius to extend the empire's border to the islands of the eastern Aegean and the Propontis, which had not been part of the Persian dominions before.

In 492 BC, once the Ionian Revolt had finally been crushed, Darius dispatched an expedition to Greece under the command of his son-in-law, Mardonius.

However in 490 BC, following up the successes of the previous campaign, Darius decided to send a maritime expedition led by Artaphernes, ( son of the satrap to whom Hippias had fled ) and Datis, a Median admiral.

The expedition was intended to bring the Cyclades into the Persian empire, to punish Naxos ( which had resisted a Persian assault in 499 BC ) and then to head to Greece to force Eretria and Athens to submit to Darius or be destroyed.

Herodotus tells us that c. 482 BC Xerxes I ( the son of Darius ) had two pontoon bridges built across the width of the Hellespont at Abydos in order that his huge army could cross from Persia into Greece.

In Persia, from the time of Darius the Great, Persian rulers used the title " King of Kings " ( Shahanshah in modern Iranian ) since they had dominion over peoples from India to Greece.

On June 15, 2007, the Jaguars released veteran strong safety Donovin Darius, who had seen diminished playing time in previous years due to mounting injuries.

Unlike some of his predecessors the new Spartan general, Lysander, was not a member of the Spartan royal families and was also formidable in naval strategy ; he was an artful diplomat, who had even cultivated good personal relationships with the Persian prince Cyrus, the son of Darius II.

Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.

Chalouf or Shaloof ), located just south of the Great Bitter Lake, had become so blocked with silt that Darius needed to clear it out so as to allow navigation once again.

After Darius III of Persia had been defeated by Alexander the Great, the satrap of Bactria, Bessus attempted to organize a national resistance but was captured by other warlords and delivered to Alexander.

Some modern scholars also view the unusual decision of Darius to give the throne to Xerxes to be a result of his consideration of the unique positions that Cyrus the Great and his daughter Atossa have had.

Darius expanded his empire by conquering Thrace and Macedon and invading Scythia, home of the Scythians, nomadic tribes who invaded Media and had previously killed Cyrus the Great.

Also according to Herodotus ( III. 139 ), Darius, prior to seizing power and " of no consequence at the time ", had served as a spearman ( doryphoros ) in the Egyptian campaign ( 528 – 525 BCE ) of Cambyses II, then the Persian Great King.

However, once Cyrus had crossed the Aras River he had a dream with a vision of Darius in which he had wings atop his shoulders and stood upon the confines of Europe and Asia ( the whole known world ).

Darius, who had served Cambyses as his lance-bearer until the deposed ruler's death, prayed for aid and in September 522 BCE, along with Otanes, Intraphrenes, Gobryas, Hydarnes, Megabyxus and Aspathines, killed Gaumata in the fortress of Sikayauvati.

Several days after Gaumata had been assassinated, Darius and the other seven nobles discussed the fate of the empire.

According to Herodotus, Darius had a slave, Oebares who helped Darius win this contest.

Darius then died whilst preparing to march on Egypt, and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I. Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt, and very quickly restarted the preparations for the invasion of Greece.

His death in 522 was followed by a period of turmoil until Darius the Great seized the throne in about 521.

Larissa was indeed the birthplace of Meno, who thus became, along with Xenophon and a few others, one of the generals leading several thousands Greeks from various places, in the ill-fated expedition of 401 ( retold in Xenophon's Anabasis ) meant to help Cyrus the Younger, son of Darius II, king of Persia, overthrow his elder brother Artaxerxes II and take over the throne of Persia ( Meno is featured in Plato's dialogue bearing his name, in which Socrates uses the example of " the way to Larissa " to help explain Meno the difference between true opinion and science ( Meno, 97a – c ) ; this " way to Larissa " might well be on the part of Socrates an attempt to call to Meno's mind a " way home ", understood as the way toward one's true and " eternal " home reached only at death, that each man is supposed to seek in his life ).

After Cyrus ' death Darius I of Persia succeeded his throne.

Gandhara and Sattagydia ( Thatagus ) are listed amongst the provinces inherited by Darius when he seized the throne in 522 BC in his commemorative Behistun inscription, however, the dates of the initial annexation of these two regions is not certain.

The throne then passed to the Persians, who their king Darius was the first to sit successfully on Solomon's throne since his death, and after that the throne passed into the possession of the Greeks and Ahasuerus.

Artobazan was born to " Darius the subject ", while Xerxes was the eldest son born in the purple after Darius's rise to the throne, and Artobazan's mother was a commoner while Xerxes's mother was the daughter of the founder of the empire.

It was only when Darius Hystaspis acquired the Persian throne and ruled it as a representative of the Zoroastrian religion, that the old tradition was broken and the claim of Babylon to confer legitimacy on the rulers of western Asia ceased to be acknowledged.

Darius ascended the throne by overthrowing the alleged magus usurper of Bardiya with the assistance of six other Persian noble families ; Darius was crowned the following morning.

However, his son Cambyses was the heir to the throne, not Darius, causing Cyrus to wonder if Darius was forming treasonable and ambitious designs.

The rise of Darius to the throne contains two variations, an account from Darius and another other from Greek historians.

To them, it seems likely that Gaumata was in fact Bardiya, and that under cover of revolts, Darius killed the heir to the throne and took it himself.

Darius was son of Hystaspes and grandson of Arsames, both men belonging to the Achaemenid tribe, and being alive when Darius ascended the throne.

Darius justifies his ascension to the throne with his lineage tracing back to Achaemenes, even though he was distantly related.