DARIUS THE MEDE. - Figure mentioned in the book of Daniel (v.) as king of Babylon between the end of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, in the person of Belshazzar (Dan. 6:1), and the rise of Cyrus the Persian (cf. 6:29). The report of a Median kingdom, intermediary between the Babylonian one and the Persian conquest, is in conflict both with the data of Oriental documents and with the depiction that the book of Daniel gives of the pagan empires of the East, in which Medes and Persians form a single historical entity. It is probable therefore that the mention of the fictitious figure is due to the reworking of a redactor, who had in mind Darius I (v.) son of Hystaspes (organizer of the Persian Empire with the system of satrapies, as in Dan. 6:2 is said of D. the Mede), but assigned him the chronological position of Cyrus, the true successor of the last Neo-Babylonian king.

Bibliography

BIBL.: H. H. Rowley, Darius the Mede and the four World Empires in the Book of Daniel, Cardiff 1935.

Giovanni Rinaldi

@incollection{ec4_dario_il_medo, author = {Rinaldi, Giovanni}, title = {Dario Il Medo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1224}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/dario-il-medo} }

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