Darius III - Early Reign

Early Reign

Artaxerxes III of Persia and all of his sons except one, Arses, were assassinated by the orders of the vizier, Bagoas, who installed Arses on the throne as a puppet king. However, when Bagoas discovered that Arses couldn’t be controlled, he had Arses killed in 336 BC, and installed on the throne Artashata, the last surviving legitimate heir to the Persian throne. Artashata was a distant relative of the royal house who had distinguished himself in a combat of champions in a war against the Cadusii and was serving at the time as a royal courier. Artashata was the son of Arsames, son of Ostanes, one of Artaxerxes's brothers, and Sisygambis, daughter of Artaxerxes II Memnon. He took the throne at the age of 46.

Artashata took the regnal name Darius III, and quickly demonstrated his independence from his assassin benefactor. Bagoas then tried to poison Darius as well, when he learned that even Darius couldn't be controlled, but Darius was warned and forced Bagoas to drink the poison himself. The new king found himself in control of an unstable empire, large portions of which were governed by jealous and unreliable satraps and inhabited by disaffected and rebellious subjects, such as Khabash in Egypt. Compared to his ancestors and his fellow heirs who had since perished, Darius had a distinct lack of experience ruling an empire, and a lack of any previous ambition to do so. Darius was a ruler of entirely average stamp, without the striking talents and qualities which the administration of a vast empire required during that period of crisis.

In 336 BC Philip II of Macedonia was authorized by the League of Corinth as its Hegemon to initiate a sacred war of vengeance against the Persians for desecrating and burning the Athenian temples during the Second Persian War. He sent an advance force into Asia Minor under the command of his generals Parmenion and Attalus to "liberate" the Greeks living under Persian control. After they took the Greek cities of Asia from Troy to the Maiandros river, Philip was assassinated and his campaign was suspended while his heir consolidated his control of Macedonia and the rest of Greece.