VAGOES
Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2002 1:24 pm
DARIUS WAS NOT THE LEGAL KING OF PERSIA. PLEASE FIND OUT VAGOE'S ROLE.
Artaxerxes III Ochus (358-338 BC) was an able but violent monarch, not even the first legal heir, who had ascended to the throne by means of conspiracy and assassination. Ochus was poisoned on orders of his foremost general, the eunuch Bagoas , who placed Ochus' son Arses (337-335 BC) on the throne. Arses apparently did not live up to Bagoas' expectations and soon suffered the same fate as his father. Bagoas now offered the throne to Darius III Codomannus (336-330 BC).
Darius III was only a nephew of former King Artaxerxes II so definitely not an heir in the first line. But the intrigues of Bagoas and the harsh methods of Artaxerxes III Ochus had deprived Persia of most of its princes. Darius immediately afterwards had Bagoas poisoned.