Cambyses, Smerdis and the Accession of Darius

Inheriting is harder than conquering

Cyrus built the empire himself. Everything held together because he had taken it and people knew who he was. His son **Cambyses** inherited it in **530 BC**. Within eight years the empire had gained Egypt, lost its king far from home, been seized by a man claiming to be someone else, and ended up ruled by a noble who was not in the direct line at all. This module is those eight years, and the reason they are hard to write about.

Five names to hold on to

This period is confusing largely because of who is pretending to be whom.

Eight years, in order

Put the turning points of 530 to 522 BC into sequence.

• Cambyses succeeds his father Cyrus (530 BC)
• Cambyses invades and conquers Egypt (525 BC)
• While he is still away, a man claiming to be Smerdis seizes the throne
• Cambyses dies on the journey back (522 BC)
• Darius and six other nobles kill the claimant, and Darius becomes king

What Cambyses actually achieved

Cambyses is often remembered for how his reign ended. What did he achieve while it lasted?

• He conquered Egypt in 525 BC, adding the wealthiest kingdom of the age to the empire
• He conquered Babylon
• He invaded mainland Greece
• Nothing of note, which is why he was overthrown

Herodotus does not like him

Almost everything colourful you will read about Cambyses comes from Herodotus, writing decades later. It is worth seeing what kind of account that is before you use it.

The Egyptian campaign

Select the TWO statements you could defend in an answer about Cambyses in Egypt.

• He conquered Egypt in 525 BC and it remained under Persian rule after him
• Herodotus reports that he insulted Egyptian religion, though Egyptian inscriptions from his reign give him Egyptian royal titles
• He was mentally ill, which is why the campaign was so brutal
• The invasion of Egypt failed and Persia withdrew

Someone else is on the throne

While Cambyses was still in Egypt, word came that his brother **Smerdis** had taken the throne in Persia. That should have been impossible. According to both Herodotus and Darius, Cambyses had already had Smerdis secretly killed some years earlier, and almost nobody knew. Cambyses set out for home and died on the way in **522 BC**. A few months later Darius and six other Persian nobles killed the man on the throne, declaring that he was not Smerdis at all but an impostor, a Magus named **Gaumata**.

Who was the man on the throne?

According to the official version, who had seized power while Cambyses was in Egypt?

• A Magus named Gaumata, impersonating Cambyses' brother Smerdis, who had been secretly killed years before
• Cambyses' brother Smerdis, who had never been killed at all
• Darius himself, who then claimed the throne openly
• An Egyptian prince taking revenge for the conquest

Did Darius take the throne honestly?

Some historians have doubted the official story. Work through the evidence as a historian would.

• Both Herodotus and the Behistun Inscription say the man Darius killed was an impostor. Why is that agreement less reassuring than it sounds?
• Whose interests does the impostor story serve?
• What is the strongest way for a student to write about this?

A king writing his own history

The **Behistun Inscription** is carved high on a cliff face in western Iran, in three languages, beside a relief showing Darius standing over a defeated figure with a line of bound rebels before him. It is not a chronicle. It is a monument, put up by the man whose legitimacy was in question, stating that he was of the royal line, that the man he removed was a liar, and that he had restored what the liar had overthrown. That does not make it worthless. It makes it evidence of **what Darius needed people to believe**, which is a genuinely useful thing to know, and it is how a good answer uses it.

Eight years in one paragraph

Cambyses succeeded his father in 530 BC and conquered _____ in 525 BC. While he was still away, someone claiming to be his brother _____ seized the throne. Cambyses died in _____ BC on the journey home. Darius and six other nobles killed the claimant, naming him as an impostor called _____, and Darius set out his version of events on the _____ Inscription.

Who did what, and when

Write it like a historian

Build a sentence about the succession crisis that a marker would reward.

The year it all turned

In which year BC did Cambyses die and Darius become king? Give the number only.

Your turn: how much can we know?

Explain how Darius came to the throne, and how confident a historian can be about it.

• Outline what happened between 530 and 522 BC
• State the official version of who the man on the throne was
• Explain why Herodotus agreeing with Darius is weaker evidence than it looks
• Say what the Behistun Inscription IS good evidence for, even so