Tom Holland

And this is why Darius had condemned the false Bardiya as a liar king.

He is not just someone who had been telling fibs.

He's someone who has been in hock to all that is darkest and most malign in the cosmos.

So in 520, when the Elamites launch yet another rebellion, I think losing track slightly, I think maybe it's their third or fourth, Darius takes this really, really momentous step.

He tells his army, and no one had ever done this before in history, that if they go to war against the Elamites, they can expect, and I quote, divine blessings, both in their lives and after death.

And the reason for this is because the Elamites are, and I quote, faithless,

They are offenders, not just against Darius himself, but against the truth and order of the cosmos and of the god of light and truth, Ahura Mazda, who is the god of this truth.

And it's hard to overemphasize how mad this is, because at this period,

No one had really thought that a people who neglect the worship of a god should be kind of punished for, you know, it's not their god, it doesn't matter, why would they be worshipping it?

But Darius is kind of instituting this notion that even though the Elamites don't necessarily worship Ahura Mazda, they should still be punished for it.

And you can see there that this is a really, really portentous innovation, because it contains the seeds of some quite radical notions which will have a very long afterlife.

So basically the idea that foreign rebels can be condemned as rebels against a god that they don't worship, that warriors can be promised not just riches in this life, but all kinds of benefits in paradise, and that conquest in the name of a god or of a kind of moral truth or order can be cast as a moral duty.

And these are going to...

He's going to have a very, very long life.

Yeah, ideas that have never gone away, Tom.

Correct.

So it's, I think, a very kind of crucial moment.

And it helps Darius secure his rule, crush his enemies, this combination of kind of militant devotion to notions of truth and a readiness to impale people and kind of mutilate them.

And it's, you know, it's a great combination, very effective.

And it helps him to set the Persian Empire on foundations that are so secure that it will endure...