Tom Holland

His son has eyes up Egypt.

Cambyses, right?

His son, yes.

So when Cyrus dies fighting in Central Asia in 529, he leaves behind him two sons.

And the first of these you just mentioned, Cambyses, he becomes the new king of kings.

But Cyrus also has a younger son called Bardiya, and Bardiya is entrusted with the rule of the eastern satrapies, the eastern provinces as they're called.

And it's obvious that Cyrus is very keen to ensure that the rule of the world remains within the family.

So to ensure that kind of rival nobles can't get in on the act, Cambyses has married both his sisters.

And this is an unprecedented display of incest.

There's nothing in Persian custom that would license that.

But Cyrus, Cambyses, Bardiya, you know, they want it to remain a kind of family concern.

And this is obviously bad news for even distant cousins of the Persian royal family.

And one of these distant cousins is Darius, who, when Cambyses becomes king, is still in his 20s.

And he is the lance bearer to Cambyses, which might sound a slightly menial function, but it doesn't because it indicates that essentially he's playing the role of a personal bodyguard.

And

The proximity to the monarch in Persia is a kind of indicator of status.

So actually, it's a very kind of splendid honorific.

I mean, it marks you out as certainly a kind of major player at court, even if you're not a royal.

And it enables Darius clearly to be privy to very, very sensitive royal secrets.

He's got his finger on the pulse.