DARITS, or DARETCS, is the name of several Persian kings, and, like the Egyptian word Pharaoh, is titular and not personal.—DATurs I., the son of Hystaspes, a Persian noble, leagued himself with six other nobles to murder Smerdis, the Magian, who had usurped the throne on the death of Cambyses. The conspirators were successful in their plot, and having. after some discussion, fixed on the monarchical as the proper form of government, D. contrived to be elected king, 521 B.C. His position at first was very insecure, but his caution, skill. and energy enabled him to govern, his vast domin ions for 36 years. To strengthen himself, he married the daughter Of Otanes, who had been the head of the conspiracy, and likewise took three wives from the royal house— viz., two daughters of Cyrus, and one of Cyrus's son, Smerdis. He then divided his empire into 20 satrapies, and determined the exact amount of taxation to be borne by each. In some of the remoter provinces, great confusion seems to have prevailed after the death of Smerdis, the Magian; and a proof of how little D. could effect at first is afforded by the conduct of Ormtas, the governor of Sardis, who for some time was quite defiant of his authority. Babylon next revolted, and D. besieged the city unsuccess fully for two years. At last, however, it was taken by an extraordinary stratagem of his gen. Zopyrus, 516. In 513, D., with an army of 700,000, crossed the Bosporus by a
bridge of boats, marched through what is now known as European Turkey to the mouths of the Danube, crossed, and advanced against the Scythians. The expedition proved a failure. D. retreated, but detached from his main force an army of 80,000 men under 3legabyzus, to conquer Thrace, while he himself returned to Persia, where he extended his authority in the east as far as the Indus. The assistance given by the Athenians and Eretrians to the Ionic states, when they ventured to throw off the Persian yoke, and the part which they took in the burning of Sardis, determined D., who was also influenced thereto by the banished Hippias, to attempt the subjugation of the whole of Greece. In 493, he sent Mardonius with an army into Thrace and Mace donia, and at the same time dispatched a fleet against the islands. The former was routed by the Brygi in Thrace, the latter was shattered and dispersed by a storm when rounding the promontory of Mt. Athos. In 490, he renewed his attempt. His fleet committed great ravages in the Cyclades. but his army was entirely defeated at 3lara thou by the Athenians, under Miltiades, the " tyrant" of the Chersonese. In the midst of his preparations for a third expedition, D. died, 485 D.C.