“As a military leader, Darius should be considered in the company of Cyrus, Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar.”

By Joseph Stiles

UNDER KING DARIUS the Great (r. 522-496 BCE) the ancient Persian Empire reached its height of power and influence. Darius is universally remembered as a brilliant ruler who engineered the organization of the empire. In contrast to his acclaim as an administrator, Darius’ great skill as a military commander is a less explored topic.

Son of the Persian nobleman Hystapes, Darius gained his first military experience during the Persian conquest of Egypt in 525 BCE. Darius served as a bodyguard to the Persian King Cambyses II. Cambyses, the son of the Persian Empire’s founder Cyrus the Great, is portrayed by Herodotus in The Histories, our main source for the period, as an unstable tyrant.

After his conquest of Egypt, Cambyses died under mysterious circumstances. Following the king’s death power in the empire passed to Bardiya, a man who claimed to be the brother of Cambyses. It is unclear whether Bardiya truly was the brother of the dead king or an imposter. Regardless of his legitimacy, Darius led a successful coup against Bardiya and took the throne from himself.

From the onset of his rule as King of Persia in 522 BCE, Darius faced uprisings and instability in all corners of his new empire. Many of these rebellions were crushed by Darius’ lieutenants. The more serious insurrections in Babylon and Media, Darius dealt with personally.

Our knowledge of this critical period in Darius’ reign is benefited by the existence of the Behistun Inscription found on a mountain face in Iran. On the relief Darius himself outlines the course of events. According to the inscription, Darius’ armies fought 19 battles and captured nine kings in the first year of his rule. (Behistun, 4.52.)

The Babylonian rebellion led by King Nebuchadnezzar III would be Darius’ first challenge. The Persian king marched his army to the Tigris River but found crossing the river difficult. Darius ingeniously employed inflated animal skins along with his camels and horses to get his army across. Alexander the Great would later do similar in his fording of the Danube (Arrian, The Anabasis of Alexander 1.3.6.) Having crossed the river, Darius engaged the Babylonian army in battle and emerged victorious. (Behistun, 1.18.) Nebuchadnezzar now marched to fight Darius in person and the two armies clashed on the Euphrates at Zazana. Darius scored a crushing victory in the battle driving the Babylonian army into the river. (Behistun, 1.19.)

Having suffered two defeats, Nebuchadnezzar fled back to Babylon itself. Darius put the famous city under siege. The Behistun inscription speaks of a swift capture of the city in which the Babylon king was captured and executed.(Behistun, 2.20.) Our Greek literary sources of Herodotus and Polyaenus portray a drawn-out affair. These Greek accounts hinge on a romanticized story of a man named Zopyrus who disfigured his face and then pretended to defect to the Babylonians. Zopyrus, when he had gained the Babylonians’ trust, threw open the gates for Darius’ army which stormed the city. In the aftermath of his victory, Darius ordered the city’s defenses torn down.(Herodotus, 3.151; Polyaenus, Stratagems 7.13.)

From Babylon, Darius marched to Media to confront another rebellion led by Phraortes. The rebel leader claimed descent from the old Median royal house that Cyrus had overthrown. Darius’ general Hydarnes inflicted an initial defeat on the Medians but the rebellion persisted. Arriving in person, Darius engaged Phraortes in battle at Kundurus and defeated him utterly. Phrarotes met a similar fate to Nebuchadnezzar being captured and executed this time in an exceedingly cruel manner. (Behistun, 2.24-25; 2.31-32.)

The defeats of the Babylonian and Median uprisings would solidify Darius’ hold on power. Darius next moved against the nomadic Saka/Sacae of Central Asia. Cyrus the Great had fallen in battle with warriors of this steppe region. Behistun’s description is brief, stating that Darius defeated the Saka and took their king Skunkha as a prisoner. Polyaenus provides a longer narrative with Darius facing down three separate Saka armies attempting to surround him. Darius defeated the first army in battle and looted their clothing. He then had his warriors disguise themselves as Saka and approach the second army. Taken by surprise, this group of Saka was also defeated. The third Saka army on hearing of the dual disasters surrendered outright to Darius. Marching back to friendly territory proved to be a challenge as his army ran low on water only to be saved by a sudden rainstorm. (Polyaenus, Stratagems 7.11.6;12.)

Following the success against the Saka, Darius pushed further afield to the East reaching the Indus River on the borderlands of India. Of this campaign, we know little, according to Herodotus Darius conquered the Indians of the region. Much in the vein of Alexander’s later drive to the Indus, Darius would play the role of explorer. He ordered an expedition to find where the Indus led into the sea. Unfortunately, we don’t have many details about this remarkable campaign. (Herodotus, 4.44.)

Having pushed to the eastern extremes of his empire, Darius turned to the west and Europe. He now had the determination to make war against the Scythians in present-day Ukraine. The Scythians were another nomadic people akin to the Saka. He gathered a massive army and navy, drawing upon the support from the Asiatic Greeks of Ionia and Aeolia, and intended to cross over the Bosphorus from Asia to Europe. (Herodotus, 4.83.)

The first objective for the great king was the capture of Chalcedon as a crossing point. Arriving before the city, Darius saw that Chalcedon had significant defenses and instead of mounting an assault merely encamped. The Persian king slyly pretended to await the arrival of more soldiers keeping the soldiers of Chalcedon focused on manning their walls. Meanwhile, Darius had tunnels dug and the city fortifications undermined with his forces storming the breach at night. The population of Chalcedon quickly found their city captured without a fight. (Polyaenus, Stratagems 7.11.5.)

To make the crossing to Europe, Darius famously ordered the building of a bridge of boats over the Bosphorus numbering some 600 ships by Herodotus’ account. Darius’ army set out through the region called Thrace towards the Ister (Danube) River, the border to Scythian lands. The cities of coastal Thrace surrendered without a fight and after some resistance, the local Thracian Getae were subdued. (Herodotus, 4.93.) Arriving at the Ister, Darius crossed the river and left his Greek allies to watch the bridge at his rear.

The Scythian campaign is difficult to reconstruct but what’s certain is that things did not go according to plan for Darius. The Scythians, unlike their Saka cousins, refused battle and retreated, dragging Darius further afield. The Persian king was now in danger of meeting a similar fate to Cyrus. Unable to conclude the campaign militarily, Darius marched back to the Ister. Along the way, his rearguard repeatedly fell victim to Scythian attacks. (Orosius History Against the Pagans 2.8.5.) The Greeks considered stranding Darius across the river but ultimately rejected the idea instead lending aid to the retreating Persians. Darius, after arriving back safely, departed for Asia while leaving a portion of his army to finish the subjugation of Thrace.

It is unclear the extent of the failure Darius sustained in Scythia. The defeat was obviously a great blow to the military prowess of the Persian king. However, though he was unable to defeat the Scythians, Darius still established the roots of Persian rule in Thrace and the Ister as an imperial border. The Roman-era historian Justin notes the losses from the campaign were severe but does not deem it to have been a disaster. (Justin, Historiae Philippicae 2.5.)

The next and final time our sources have Darius leading an army came much later in 497 BCE. The populace of Egypt revolted apparently due to the cruelty of the Persian governor Aryandes. Darius marched across the desert and entered the Egyptian capital of Memphis. At Memphis, Darius honored the Egyptian deity Apis which was received favorably by the population. According to Polyaenus, the Egyptians themselves turned against the rebels. (Polyaenus, Stratagems 11.7.) Darius had Aryandes executed for good measure as it said he was aspiring to kingship. (Herodotus, 4.166.) By moving decisively in person, Darius had put down the Egyptian rebellion this time without a significant battle.

The militarily the later portion of Darius’ reign was occupied by matters concerning Greece. The period between 499-493 was spent putting down a widespread uprising in Ionia. In 490, the first invasion of Greece was launched which failed at the Battle of Marathon. Neither of these campaigns was led by Darius in person. Herodotus notes that at the time of his death, Darius was planning a great second expedition to conquer the Greeks. (Herodotus, 7.4.) This war against the Greeks would be taken up by his son Xerxes.

On the battlefield, Darius proved his merit as a military commander. As outlined above, he won five pitched battles (two against the Babylonians, one against the Medians, and two against the Saka). The Persian king proved his merit at siege warfare capturing both Babylon and Chalcedon. Darius faced a variety of different foes (Babylonians, Medians, Saka, Indians, Asiatic Greeks, Getae, Scythians, Egyptians) and except for the Scythians always emerged victorious. As a military leader, Darius should be considered in the company of Cyrus, Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar.

Joseph Stiles is the author of Alexander the Great and Persia: From Conqueror to King of Asia (Pen & Sword, 2022).  He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Temple University and recently gained his master’s degree in World History from Norwich University, Vermont, where his research centered on Alexander the Great and his policies in the East. He now works as a teacher and lives in suburban Philadelphia.