Darius I
Dareios
Darius son of Hystaspes, Great King of Persia from 522 BC — conqueror of Thrace and Macedon in the 510s, crusher of the Ionian Revolt (499–493) and burner of Sardis's avenger, who launched the punitive expedition of 490 that ended at Marathon. Herodotus tells how, on hearing the Athenians had helped burn Sardis, Darius shot an arrow into the air asking Zeus to let him punish them, and instructed a servant to say at every dinner that the Athenians must be remembered — a literary motif for the long-term origin of the Marathon campaign. He died in 486 while preparing a second, larger invasion; his son Xerxes inherited it.
Origin
Son of Hystaspes; seized the throne in 522 BC after killing the usurper Gaumata / Smerdis — the canonical Achaemenid propaganda version of his accession, preserved in his own Behistun inscription and in Herodotus's third book.
