Darius I
551 BCE – 487 BCE Persian King of the Achaemenid Persian Empire
Achaemenid king who reorganised and expanded the Persian Empire and launched the first Persian invasion of Greece.
- Religion
- Zoroastrian
- Affiliations
- Achaemenid dynasty
Darius I took the Achaemenid throne after a disputed succession, which he justified in the trilingual Behistun inscription. He reorganised the empire into provinces called satrapies with a standard tax and coinage system, built the Royal Road and a canal linking the Nile to the Red Sea, and founded the ceremonial capital of Persepolis. He extended Persian rule from the Indus to the Balkans. His invasion of mainland Greece ended in defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, and he died before he could renew the campaign his son Xerxes would continue.
In the timeline
- 571 BCE – 201 BCE Orontid dynasty rules Armenia mentioned
- 550 BCE Founding of the Achaemenid Persian Empire the king who reorganised and expanded the empire
- 515 BCE The Persian daric mentioned