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Bible Dictionaries
Darius
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or 1. DARIUS THE MEDE
Daniel 5:31 9:1 11:1 , was son of Astyages king of the Medes, and brother of Mandane mother of Cyrus, and of Amyit the mother of Evil-merodach and grandmother of Belshazzar: thus he was uncle, by the mother's side, to Evil-merodach and to Cyrus. The Hebrew generally calls him Darius; the Septuagint, Artaxerxes; and Xenophon, Cyaxares. Darius dethroned Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans, and occupied the throne till his death two years after, when it reverted to the illustrious Cyrus. In his reign Daniel was cast into the lion's den, Daniel 6:1-28 .
2. DARIUS HYSTASPIS
Spoken of in Ezra 4:1-7:28 , Haggai, and Zechariah, as the king who renewed the permission to rebuild the temple, given to the Jews by Cyrus and afterwards recalled. He succeeded Smerdis, the Magian usurper, B. C. 521, and reigned thirty-six years. He removed the seat of government to Susa, whereupon Babylon rebelled against him; but he subdued the rebellion and broke down the walls of Babylon, as was predicted, Jeremiah 51:58 .
3. DARIUS CODOMANUS
Nehemiah 12:22 , was one of the most brave and generous of the Persian kings. Alexander the Great defeated him several times, and at great length subverted the Persian monarchy, after it had been established two hundred and six years. Darius was killed by his own generals, after a short reign of six years. Thus were verified the prophecies of Daniel, Daniel 8:1-27 , who had foretold the enlargement of the Persian monarchy, under the symbol of a ram, butting with its horns westward, northward, and southward, which nothing could resist; and its destruction by a goat having a very large horn between his eyes, (Alexander the Great,) coming from the west, and overrunning the world without touching the earth. Nothing can be added to the clearness of these prophecies, so exactly describing what in due time took place and is matter of history.
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Darius'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/d/darius.html. 1859.
