THE DEATH OF DARIUS II AND THE ACCESSION OF ARTAXERXES II

From the historian’s perspective, the last years of Darius II are notable mainly for the events that led to the civil war between Darius II’s successor, Artaxerxes II (Arses), and his younger brother Cyrus. It soon became clear that Cyrus’ aim in trying to hasten the end of the Peloponnesian War was to prepare a Greek mercenary army to help him overthrow his brother. Cyrus’ expedition and the defeated Greek mercenary army’s return westward were immortalized by the Greek writers Ctesias and Xenophon as well as by Plutarch in his Life of Artaxerxes, which relied heavily on Ctesias’ and Xenophon’s accounts. Xenophon was a participant in Cyrus’ expedition and thus well-placed to offer a Greek insider’s perspective. While we have a rich trove of Greek sources to tap, we have relatively little Near Eastern material to supplement or correct them.

The final years of Darius II are mostly opaque. Trouble in Egypt around 410 BCE may presage its full secession between 401 and 399. A terse reference in Xenophon’s Hellenica (1.2.19) implies a rebellion in Media in 408, but no details as to its seriousness or extent are given. Xenophon also alludes to Darius on campaign against rebellious Cadusians (somewhere south of the Caspian Sea, Hellenica 2.1.13) in 405, but no context is provided. An oblique reference in a Babylonian economic tablet dated to 407 appears to imply, based on similar occurrences of the rare phraseology used in the text, that a state of siege existed in the city of Uruk in southern Babylonia, but one hesitates to read too much into an isolated reference. It is impossible to discern if these episodes were significant problems beyond the routine troubles any imperial power would face.