Darius had not yet reached the goal; the kingdom was not entirely pacified. The reduction of Babylon and the execution of Nebuchadnezzar III. had not eradicated the strong impulse which the Babylonians felt to regain their independence. They were once more carried away by the charm which the name of Nebuchadnezzar exercised upon them: "When I was in Persia and Media," so Darius relates at the close of the third column of the great inscription of Behistun, "the Babylonians became rebellious for the second time. A man of the name of Arakha, an Armenian, rose up in the city of Dubana (Dubala, Dibleh?) in Babylonia. 'I am Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabonetus,' such was his falsehood: he made himself master of the city of Babylon and was king. I sent Intaphernes, my servant, a Mede, with an army against Babylon. Intaphernes took Babylon, and slew much people. On the 22nd of the month Markazana, Arakha with his chief adherents was captured;[240] then I ordered them to be crucified in Babylon." No doubt Darius had left sufficient garrisons in the two royal citadels of the city which he had conquered with so much trouble, and, therefore, it is the more remarkable that Arakha, who did not rebel in Babylon itself, was able to make himself master of the city. We may assume that Darius did not give the Babylonians time to fill up the breaches which he had made in the walls of Babylon; this time the Median Intaphernes must have found the task lighter. The second rising of the Babylonians seems to have seduced the Susiani, and to have caused a third rebellion of this land. In a fifth column, subsequently added to the inscription of Behistun, we have information about this rebellion of the Susiani and the reduction of the Sacæ. But this part of the inscription is so greatly injured that only a few words can be read with certainty. All that is clear is that Gaubaruva (Gobryas), the father-in-law of Darius and one of the Seven, was sent against the Susiani and conquered them, that Darius himself marched against the Sacæ, that he fought against the Çaka tigrakhauda, i. e. against the Sacæ with pointed caps, and conquered them on the sea (i. e. on the Caspian), that he captured and slew their chief Çakunka. Polyaenus has preserved a few details of the war against the Sacæ, though they rest on little authority; they prove that it was carried on in the neighbourhood of Bactria, and was a serious struggle.[241] Darius recapitulates the narrative of the achievements of the first years of his reign thus: "This is what I accomplished, what I accomplished always with the grace of Auramazda; I have fought nineteen battles, and taken captive nine kings."[242]
In remembrance of these deeds and achievements, Darius erected a magnificent memorial in that flourishing district of Media which the Medes called Bagistana, i. e. land of the gods. The Choaspes (Kerkha) rises on the southern slope of the Elvend, on the northern slope of which lay Ecbatana. Breaking through the mountain rim of Iran, it flows down a long and narrow valley towards the south into the Lower Tigris. In its upper course the Choaspes traverses an elevated depression, which is now thickly strewn with villages, the chosen summer abode of the shepherd tribes. To the north this depression is bounded by a steep mountain-chain, twenty miles in length, which ends towards the east in a precipitous wall of rock more than 1500 feet high. On this wall, which looks towards the rising sun, over a clear fountain which springs at the foot of the rock, Darius caused a part of the stone 300 feet above the plain to be made smooth with the chisel, polished and cut in relief; the relief is explained by two inscriptions, a shorter one above and a longer one below, in cuneiform letters. At the foot of the rock there was a park (paradisus) twelve stades in the circuit.[243] Being placed in Media, this monument was no doubt intended to remind the Medes that any rebellion against the power of the Persians even under the most favourable circumstances would fail. The rock-picture represents Darius, who in size towers over the other figures. He wears a robe which in front falls down over the knee, and behind to the middle of the calf, a crown, a simple fillet with spikes on his head; rings are on his arms, the hair is long, the beard curled. Behind him stand a bow-bearer and a lance-bearer, both with long robes and beards. The king places his right foot on a man lying on the ground. Below this we can read: "This Gaumata, the Magian, lied: he said, 'I am Bardiya, the son of Kurus; I am king.'" Opposite to Darius, bound to each other by a rope round their necks, and their hands tied behind them, stand nine kings with their heads uncovered (the last only has a very tall pointed cap, which marks him as the king of the Çaka tigrakhauda), clothed in various garments. Over the first form, which is clad in a long beautiful robe reaching to the ancles, we read: "This Atrina lied; he said: 'I am king in Susiana'"; and over the second, in a short robe: "This Naditabira lied; he said thus: 'I am Nabukadrachara, the son of Nabunita, I am king of Babylon.'" Near the third figure, also in a short garment, is written: "This Fravartis lied; he said: 'I am Khsathrita, of the race of Uvakhshathra, I am king in Media.'" The fourth wears Persian clothing: "This Martiya lied; he said; 'I am Ymani, king in Susiana.'" Over the fifth form we find: "This Chitratakhma lied; he said: 'I am king in Sagartia, of the race of Uvakshathra.'" Over the sixth, who is clothed as a Persian: "This Vahyazdata lied; he said: 'I am Bardiya, the son of Kurus; I am king.'" Over the seventh prisoner, who is clothed like the second, we read: "This Arakha lied; he said thus: 'I am Nabukadrachara, the son of Nabunita; I am king in Babylon.'" Over the eighth, who wears Persian garments: "This Frada lied; he said thus: 'I am king in Margiana.'" The ninth stands a little further back; the inscription tells us: "This is Çakunka, the Sacian." The picture does not mention the conquest of the Parthians, Hyrcanians, Assyrians, Armenians, and Sattagydae. In the midst, above the whole description, hovers Auramazda, a solemn, aged countenance, with long hair and beard, visible only to the knees, in a winged circle.
Under this picture, at the close of the fourth column, before the account of the new rebellion of the Susiani and the subjugation of the Sacæ, the inscription tells us: "What I have done, I have done by the grace of Auramazda. Auramazda came to my aid, and the other gods, who did so because I was not hostile; because I was not a liar or violent. Thou, who readest these inscriptions, may they tell thee what I have done. Regard them not as lies. These lands which became rebellious to me, the lie made them rebellious. Thou who wilt be king hereafter, guard against the lie. Punish severely the man who is a liar; if thou keepest this mind, my land will be powerful. Thou who seest this tablet hereafter, destroy it not. If thou preservest it as long as thou canst, Auramazda will be favourable to thee; thou wilt have descendants, and live long, and may Auramazda cause that to succeed which thou dost undertake. If thou destroyest this tablet, may Auramazda smite thee, may he give thee no posterity, and what thou doest may he render vain.[244]"
FOOTNOTES:
[219] Above, p. 195, n.
[220] Herod. 3, 67, 126, 150.
[221] He was, according to Herodotus, twenty years old at the death of Cyrus. Herod. 1, 209; 3, 139. Ctesias ("Pers." 19) gives Darius a reign of thirty-one years and a life of seventy-two. That the reign of Darius lasted thirty-six years is fixed both by the astronomical canon and Egyptian inscriptions, which mention the thirty-sixth year of Darius; and lastly by the Egibi-tablets of Babylon, which give dates out of thirty-five years (with the single exception of the seventh year). "Transact. Bibl. Arch." 6, 69 ff. According to Ctesias, Darius would be thirty-six years old in the year 521 B.C.
[222] Herod. (3, 118, 119) puts this event; αὐτίκα μετὰ τὴν ἐπανάστασιν.
[223] Herod. 1, 130.
[224] Justin repeats the narrative of Herodotus in a rhetorical form; he incorrectly regards Zopyrus as one of the seven. Diodorus attempts to unite the statements of Herodotus and Ctesias, by maintaining that Zopyrus was also called Megabyzus; the "twenty Babylons" are reduced to ten. (Exc. Vat. p. 34, 35 = 10, 19.) In Herod. (4, 143) Darius wishes when he opens the finest pomegranate that he had as many Megabyzuses (the father of Zopyrus is meant) as the fruit had seeds. Plutarch transfers this to Zopyrus, and represents Darius as saying that he would rather have Zopyrus uninjured than 100 Babylons; "Reg. Apophthegm." 3. In Polyaenus (7, 12), Zopyrus imitates the device which Sirakes, a Sacian, had previously employed against Darius, and opens the gates of Babylon to the Persians by night.