DARIUS
676
DARIUS
cMTcer or ctmaervcOw, The former accords with AoU- ingfatt, which is the sense of Ddrd^ the modem Per- sian name of Darios, the latter with the derivation (according to Lassen, Intchriften^ p. 89, 158) fkvm San- scrit <2ri, to preserve. (See Gesenius, Tk^, HA. p. 860.) According to Rawlinson {Hjsrod, iii, 466), " It does not appear to mean either ip^fi'iyC) *the voriber,* as Herodotus states, or ^povc/ioc* *the wife,* as He- sychius, or TroXc/iixoc, *the wcorWce^' as the author of the Etymologicum says. The root appears to be the Old Persian dctr^ *to hold* or 'possess,* which is dere in Zend, dkri in Sanscrit, and dor in Modem Persian. The remainder of the word is thought to be a mere ap- peUative soifiz, elongated on euphonic grounds; but no very satisfkctory account can be given of it.** The name occurs both in the Ass3rrian and Egyptian in-
d a r y u K lo th .
fSI3ira!!9
n t r e i cu sh . Cnneifonn and HIeroglTphical Farmi of ^* Darius.**
scriptions. This title appears to have been the proper name of the son of Hystaspes, who first won it, but was assumed as a throne-name by Ochus (i. e. Darius Kothus), son and successor of Artaxerxes Longimanus (Ctesias, Pen, zlviii, 67), in like manner as Arsaces, soccessor of this Darius (i6. liii, 67) and Bessos (Curt ▼i, 6), both took the ro)^ name of ''Artaxerxes*' (q. ▼.). See Smith's Diet, of Clam. Biog. s. ▼. See Pbb-
8IA.
1. "Dakius the MBDE'*(^nttn''n, Dan. xi, 1, Sept. 6 Kvpoc; Chald. n^^^^ Sept Aaptiog 6 M^oc), <*the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes** (ix, 1, Sept. Aapiio^ 6 vlbg 'Affov^pov), who succeeded to (bap) the Babylonian kingdom on the death of Bel- shazzar, being then sixty-two years old (Dan. v, 81 ; ix, 1), B.C. 688. Only one year of his reign is men- tioned (Dan. ix, 1 ; xi, 1), but that was of great im- portance for the Jews. Daniel was advanced by the king to the highest dignity (Dan. vi, 1 sq.), probably in consequence of his former services (compare Dan. ▼, 17) ; and after his miraculous deliverance, Darius issued a decree enjoining throughout his dominions "reverence for the God of Daniel'* (Dan. vi, 26 sq.). See Medb.
The statement (Dan. vi, 28) that '* Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian," seems io represent him as the immediate predecessor of Cyrus. No Darius occupying this place, nor indeed any Darius anterior to the son of Hystas- pes, is found either in profsne history or (hitherto) on monuments. See Ahasuerus. Only the Scholiast on Aristoph. {Eccl. 602), followed by Suidas (s. v. Aa- pcucfic), and Harpocration, sa3rs that the daric took its name from "another Darius, earlier than the father of Xerxes*' (D. Hystaspis). Herodotus and Ctesias, dif- fering widely in other respects, agree in making As- tyages last king of the Median dynasty, with no male heir, conquered and deposed by Cyrus, first king of the Medo-Persian d3masty at Babylon. Xenophon, however, in the C^fropadia (i, 6, 2) introduces, as son and successor of Astyages, and unde (mother's broth- er) of Cyrus, a second Cyaxares, acting under whose orders Cyrus takes Bal^ylon, and receives in marriage his daughter, unnamed, with Media as her portion. Josephus (AfU, X, 11, 1) clearly means the Cyaxares II of Xenophon when he says that " Darius was the son of Astyages, but known to the Greeks by a differ- ent name;" and the statement of Aben Ezra, who re- ports fh>m " a book of the kings of Persia" that this Darius was Cyrus's father-in-law, probably rests at last on the supposed authority of Xenophon. See Ct-
Rus. Under these circnmstances, tlie extrme An- rity of the Babylonian annals has given occsm t three different hypotheses as to the name nmier vlid Darius the Mede is known in history.
1. The first of these, which identifiea him vid Di- rius Hystaspis, rests on no plausible evidence, sad w be dismissed at once (Lengerke, Dan. p. 219 sq.). $■ below. No. 2.
2. Another identification is that maintained brie* cus von Niebuhr {Getch. Ass. «. Bab. p. 46), by lAM Darius is represented as the personal name ci^lt^ ages," the last king of the Medes. It is gmU^ that the name " Astyages" was national and boc |e| sonal, and that Ahasuerus represents the name C^ ares, borne by the father of " Astyages'* (Tdb. xh, t On the contrary, however, Ahasneros (Heb. AdoM rotk) is Xerxes (cuneiform Khsi^farska)j and not " Kaptig (cuneiform Uvakskatrd). The desoiptkc the unnamed king in .£schylti8 (Per*. 768 sq.) a» whoee ** feelings were guided by wisdom,' assumed, on this view, to be applicable to the Danni Scripture and the As^^ages of Herodotus. the immediate fulfilment of the announcement U V, 28, in the catastrophe of vi, 1, Niebnhr (S.f sq.) determines that Belshazzar is £vil-merodadu r and successor of Nebuchadnezzar ; that, on hb dec: (slain by Neriglissar, his sister's husband), B.C jii, Astyages, who is Daniel's Darius the Mede, rdp^ one year at Babylon, which year in the Canoe v 1 Neriglissar; in the following year he was conqwtL by Cyrus, B.C. 668, in exact accordance with the c- parent incompleteness of the political arraageiBea which Darius *' purposed" to make (Dan. vi, S, T^y For the short duration of his suprane power may kn caused his division of the empire (Dan. vi, 1>— « vat cengenial to his character — to fall into ab^raaei^ff that it was not carried out till the time of hn wm- sake Darius Hystaspis : a supposition that may go If what it is worth. Daniel himself passed fits dt service of Darius to that of Cyms, and did not igia return to Babylon ; so Dan. vi, 28 is explained. Tkr mention, Dan. viii, 1, of the ddrd ye^r of rit'hiiTr makes a difficulty — not as Yon Niebohr puts it, beacm Evil-merodach has but two years in the Canon, frr ^ actual reign may very well have reached its third t«k, byt from the mention of Susa as the scene of the ve- ion ; for Susa, being Median, was not sab|ect to asr Chaldtsan king. The explanation gravely propMcd by Kiebuhr is, that Daniel, while at Snsa in the Mfv^ ice of .Darius the Mede, continued to date by yeaa of Belshazzar's reign, and this though he is rested a have been present in Babylon the night in wbieh Bel- shazzar was slain. The difficulty is not confined te Niebuhr's scheme : Belshazzar, whoever he waa, ms a Chaldean ; and the explanation may be, that tbc prophet is at Susa, not in bodUy presence, but trass ported in spirit to the city whidi was to be the ■*- tropolis of the Persian monardiy, the fate of vkkiL under the emblem of the ram, is portrayed in the c^^ suing vbion. See Daiosl. After the &n cf tUi Darius Astyages, Babylon recovered its indepeadon under Nabonned, to fiSi finally under the arms «f Cy- rus, B.C. 688. See Babtix)K.