Who Was Darius the Mede?

Darius the Mede is an interesting person in history. The only historical records of King Darius occur in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. He appears at the end of Daniel 5, as King Belshazzar is overthrown and killed. He is then king of Babylon in Daniel 6, when Daniel is thrown into a den of lions. That chapter ends with a simple statement that

"Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian." (6:28)

Scholars differ on the identity of this individual. It was Cyrus the Great who conquered Babylon in 539 BC. He deposed Nabonidus. Apparently the general in that campaign was Gobryas and some believe Gobryas ruled Babylon under Cyrus. Gleason Archer, whose commentary on Daniel is a source for my study of that book, argues that Darius is indeed Gobryas. Other argue that Darius is just another name for Cyrus and interpret verse 6:28 (above) as, "...the reign of Darius, that is, the reign of Cyrus the Persian." Others claim that Darius is a fictional characgter or a character drawn from Darius the Great, who ruled Persia from 522 BC to 486, after Cyrus.

The ancient documents are scant and it was not uncommon for the leader of an empire to appoint rulers ("kings") under him to reign in provinces in their stead. (Thus we have King Herod of New Testament times, reigning at the appointment of Caesar.)

Given the multilingual culture of the ancient Near East, it was not uncommon for someone to have several names. An example from that time period occurs in 1 Chronicles 5:26 where we are given two names for Tiglath-Pileser.