Bardiya

This article deals with the historical person Bardiya, for the district of the same name in Nepal see Bardiya (district) .

Bardiya or Bardija ( Persian بردیا Bardiyā [ bærdijɑ ], old Persian: Bŗdiya ) was a member of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in the 6th century BC. He was the second son of Cyrus II and thus the younger brother of Cambyses II.

Lore

In Herodotus (3.30) Smerdis called, was this supposedly of Cambyses because of a dream, more likely to prevent a rebellion, v before his Egyptian campaign in 525th Murdered BC. The secrecy was completely successful, so that the magician and high priest Gaumata (Herodotus describes a similarity between the two through sorcery) during the absence of Cambyses could pretend to be bardiya, be deceived and crowned king.

In modern research, however, it is considered quite possible that the alleged Gaumata was in fact Bardiya, who was not murdered. Thus, the depiction of Darius would only have been the justification for usurpation and Herodotus (who knows and mentions the contrary version) would have been subjected to the official propaganda that Darius himself spread in the rock inscription of Bisutun .

Bardiya had a daughter named Parmys, who was married by Darius I after he killed Gaumata. His grandson was Ariomardos .

Surname

The old Persian name Bardiya means something like "the high one" or "the sublime" and should probably be a reference to an extraordinary height. It is recorded in the Behistun inscription , in which Darius I his version of the circumstances of his coup d'état of 522 BC. Publicly stated. In historiography he is generally considered to be the actual name of the second son of Cyrus.

In Greco-Roman historiography, however, various different names were used for Prince Bardiya, which occasionally leads to irritation. Probably the best known and most frequently used Greek alternative name is Smerdis , which was used by Herodotus in his histories , who also described the coup in the most detailed way and largely followed the official version of Darius. Translated it means something like "giant", which also refers to the prince's height. Herodotus reports, probably related to the physique, that the "false Smerdis" ( Gaumata ) looked very similar to the real prince and could only be defeated by the seven conspirators with great effort. From Xenophon and about the same time writing Ktesias the lesser-known Greek name variants are Tanaoxares or Tanyoxarkes used what extent surprised at Ktesias because he lived at the court of the Achaemenid and had by all authors most likely access to the Behistun inscription, which he the correct name form of the prince could have found out. Nevertheless, these variations also indicate the physical characteristics of the prince, since they are translated as "having a large (or strong) body". It is possible that Bardiya was commonly known by this nickname in the Greek-speaking world.

The poet Aeschylus named the prince Mardos and Justin , who wrote in late Roman times, had adopted the name Mergis for his epitome from the Philippian story of Pompey Trogus .

family tree

Achaimenes 1st King, Regent of Persia

Teispes 2nd King, Regent of Persia

Ariaramna I. 3rd King, Regent of Persis

Cyrus I. 4th King, Regent of Anzhan

Arshama I. Regional Regent

Cambyses I. 5th King, Regent of Anjan

Hystaspes prince

Cyrus II. 6th King, Regent of Persia

Dareios I. 9th King, Regent of Persia

Cambyses II. 7th King, Regent of Persia

Bardiya 8th King, Regent of Persia (or Gaumata as Smerdis)

Artystone princess

Atossa princess

Roxane princess

Xerxes I. 10th King, Regent of Persia

Artaxerxes I. 11th King, Regent of Persia

literature

• Pierre Briant : From Cyrus to Alexander. A History of the Persian Empire . Eisenbrauns Press, Winona Lake, Ind. 2002, ISBN 1-57506-031-0 .
• Alexander Demandt : Darius and the "false" Smerdis 522 BC Chr. In: Alexander Demandt (ed.): The assassination in history. Böhlau, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-412-16795-9 , pp. 1-14
• Josef Wiesehöfer : The uprising of Gaumāta and the beginnings of Darius I. Habelt, Bonn 1978. (Habelt's dissertation prints / series of old history 13), ISBN 3-7749-1477-X
• Muchammed A. Dandamaev: A political history of the Achaemenid empire. Brill, Leiden 1989. ISBN 90-04-09172-6

Individual evidence

1. ^ Behistun-Inscription (DB), plate 1, §10 in: Roland G. Kent, Old Persian-Grammar Texts Lexicon . American Oriental Society, 1953.
2. ↑ Herodotus , Historíai . 3, 30.
3. ↑ Xenophon , Kyrupädie. 8, 7, 11. Ktesias of Knidos , Persica . in: The Fragments of the Greek Historians No. 688, Frag. 9, 8 [based on the edition by Dominique Lenfant ].
4. ↑ Dandamaev, p. 85, note 5.
5. ↑ Aeschylus , Persai . Line 774. Justin 1, 9.