Darius the Great

Imperial power begins with family anxieties in Jacob Abbott's account of Darius I of Persia. The opening looks back to Cyrus, whose dream of the young Darius casts a shadow over his plans for the succession. Cambyses inherits the throne, and a dispute involving an Egyptian physician and a royal marriage proposal introduces the tangled motives behind conflict between kingdoms. This narrative biography places personal ambition alongside the affairs of a vast empire.

Chapters cover Darius's accession, the provinces, Babylon, Scythia and Greece. In the middle excerpt, Syloson asks Darius to give him control of Samos, bringing questions of loyalty, reward and authority into a story of rival rulers. Abbott's preface explains his preference for calm accounts of wrongdoing rather than angry denunciation. Readers interested in ancient monarchy can follow how he turns changes of ruler and military campaigns into connected stories about decisions and their consequences.