The Behistun Inscription
Darius I’s own account of how he became king of Persia in 522 BC and put down the revolts that followed, carved in three languages on a cliff beside the road from Babylon to Ecbatana.
See the object at livius.org ↗The monument and its setting (Livius) ↗
The inscription is cut into a rock face about a hundred metres above the ground, beneath a relief of Darius I with the rebel leaders bound before him. In it Darius says that a Magian named Gaumâta had seized the throne by pretending to be the brother of Cambyses, that he killed Gaumâta in the autumn of 522 BC and became king, and that he then defeated a series of rebels across the empire, in Babylon among other places.
It is a contemporary document and the starting point for the chronology of his reign. It is also the victor’s version: every opponent is called a liar, and no other account of these events from inside the empire survives to set beside it. The biblical books of Ezra, Haggai and Zechariah date events by the years of this king.
Cited in
- March 515 BC, estimated date