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See also: king of infamous memory; the prevalent
See also: Greek See also: form See also: Smerdis has assimilated the Persian name to the Greek (See also: Asiatic) name Smerdis or Smerdies, which occurs in the poems of See also: Alcaeus and See also: Anacreon
.
Smerdis was the younger son of Cyrus the See also: Great who, according to See also: Ctesias, on his deathbed appointed him governor of the eastern provinces (cf
.
Xen
.
Cyrop. viii
.
7, 11)
.
Before Cambyses set out to See also: Egypt, he secretly caused him to be murdered (Darius in the See also: Behistun Inscr. i
.
10), being afraid that he might attempt a See also: rebellion during his See also: absence
.
His See also: death was not known to the See also: people, and so in the spring of 522 a usurper pretended to be Smerdis and proclaimed himself king on a See also: mountain near the Persian See also: town Pishiyauvada
.
Owing to the despotic See also: rule of Cambyses and his long absence in Egypt, " the whole people, Persians, Medes and all the other nations," acknowledged the usurper, especially as he granted a remission of taxes for three years (See also: Herod. iii
.
68)
.
Cambyses began to See also: march against him, but seeing that his cause was hopeless, killed himself in the spring of 521 (but see further CAMBYSES)
.
The real name of the usurper was, as Darius tells us, Gaumata, a Magian
See also: priest from See also: Media; this name has been preserved by See also: Justin i
.
9 (from See also: Charon of See also: Lampsacus?), but given to his See also: brother (called by See also: Herodotus Patizeithes), who is said to have been the real See also: promoter of the intrigue; the true name of the usurper is here given as Oropastes; by Ctesias as Sphendadates
.
The See also: history of the false Smerdis is narrated by Herodotus and Ctesias according to official traditions; Cambyses before his death confessed to the See also: murder of his brother, and in public explained the whole See also: fraud
.
But, as Darius said, nobody had the courage to oppose the new king, who ruled for seven months over the whole See also: empire
.
Some contracts dating from his reign have been found in Babylonia, where his name is spelt Barziya (for the chronology cf
.
Ed
.
See also: Meyer, Forschungen zur See also: alien Geschichte, ii
.
472 ff.)
.
Darius says that he destroyed some temples, which Darius restored, and took away the herds and houses of the people (Behistun Inscr. i
.
14)
.
We have no means of explaining this statement, nor can we fully understand all the incidents connected with his usurpation; but the attempts of See also: modern authors to prove that Gaumata in reality was the genuine Smerdis and Darius a usurper have failed
.
It is certain that Smerdis transferred the seat of See also: government to Media; and here in a See also: castle in the See also: district of Nisaya he was surprised and killed by Darius and his six associates in See also: October 521
.
His death was annually celebrated in See also: Persia by a feast called " the killing of the magian," at which no magian was allowed to show himself (Herod. iii
.
79, Ctes . Pers . 15) . In the next See also: year, another pseudo-Smerdis, named Vahyazdata, See also: rose against Darius in eastern Persia and met with great success
.
But he was finally defeated, taken prisoner and executed (Behistun Inscr. iii
.
40 ff.; perhaps he is identical with the King Maraphis " the Maraphian," name of a Persian tribe,who occurs as successor in the See also: list of Persian See also: kings given by See also: Aeschylus, Pers
.
778)
.
See DARIUS (I.) and PERSIA, See also: Ancient History
.
(ED
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