NOTICES IN DANIEL. Darius the Median
91
"
in Daniel is compatible with all that have certainty from other sources. only to suppose that Cyrus, in the interval between the brief governorship of Gobryas and the sovereignty of Cambyses, placed Babylon under a Median noble named Darius, and allowed him a position intermediate between that of a mere " " and the full royal authority. governor ordinary The position of Darius the Median, as a subject king set up by Cyrus, has been widely accepted, but critics have not been content to rest at this point. Attempts have been made to identify him further with som,e person celebrated in history and it has been suggested that he was either Astyages, the last Median monarch,* or his supposed son Cyaxares.f Neither identification can be substantiated. The very existence of a second Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, is more than The names are, in both cases, unsuitable. questionable. t The age of Darius when he " took the kingdom " falls short of the probable age of Astyages. It seems best to acquiesce in the view of those who hold that " Darius the Mede is an historic character," but one " whose name has not yet been '
We
we know with any
;
found except in Scripture. " It is in no way surprising that, on being set over the realm of the Chaldees, Darius should have occupied himself
We
are scarcely entitled to giving it a new organization. assume, from the expression used inDan.vi. 1, that he called " his new officers " but still it is that in
satraps
;
quite possible
he used the word, which had not yet received a technical " sense, and only meant etymologically supporters of the crown." The number, one hundred and twenty, is more than we should have expected, and can receive no support from the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Ahasuerus (Esth. i. 1), who ruled from Ethiopia to India, whereas Darius reigned only over the realm of the Chaldees we ;
must view
either as resulting from Oriental ostentation, or as an anticipation of the maxim, Divide et impera. Each " " must have ruled over a comparatively small dissatrap trict. They may have been the head men of tribes, and if so, it is pertinent to remark that the tribes of the Euphrates it
* So Syncellus, Jackson, Marshani, and Winer, t So Josephus, Prideaux, Hales, Hengstenbcrg, Von Lengerke, and others. t Herodotus declares that Astyages had no male offspring (i., ".Speaker's Commentary" on Dan. v. 31.