DARIUS THE MEDE 266 DARLING the neck of land between the Gulf of Darien and the Pacific. DARIUS THE MEDE (da-ri'us), son of Astyages, King of the Medes, and brother of Mandane, mother of Cyrus, and of Amyit the mother of Evil- merodach and grandmother of Belshaz- zar; thus, he was uncle, by the mother's side, to Evil-merodach and to Cyrus. The Hebrew generally calls him Darius; the Septuagint, Artaxerxes; and Xenophon, Cyaxares. Darius dethroned Belshazzar, King of the Chaldeans, and occupied the throne till his death, two years after, when it reverted to the illustrious Cyrus. DARIUS I., King of Persia, was the son of Hystaspes. He entered into a conspiracy, with six others, against the usurper Smerdis, and having slain him, they agreed that he should have the crown whose horse would neigh first in the morning. By a well-concerted plan of his groom, the horse of Darius neighed immediately after he came to the spot where they were to meet, in consequence of which he was saluted king. He took Babylon after a siege of 20 months, gave permission for the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem, and sent the cap- tive Jews to their own country. The re- volt of the Greek cities in Ionia was the occasion of the famous Persian war. The army of Darius, under the command of Mardonius, invaded Greece, but accom- plished nothing. A second invasion was undertaken, and the Persians were de- feated by the Greeks at Marathon; on which he resolved to carry on the war in person, but died in the midst of his prep- aration, 485 B. C. DARIUS II., surnamed Ochus, or Nothus (bastard) , was an illegitimate son of Artaxerxes. He ascended the throne of Persia after the assassination of Xerxes, and married Parysatis, his sister, a licentious and cruel woman, by whom he had Artaxerxes, Mnemon, Amistris, and Cyrus the Younger. He died in 405 B. C. DARIUS III., surnamed Codomanus, the last King of Persia. His kingdom be- ing invaded by Alexander the Great, he met him in person at the head of an army of 600,000 men. At the battle of Granicus the Persians were defeated, but met the Greeks again near Issus, where they were totally routed. Upward of 100,000 Persians were killed, and Alex- ander took, among the prisoners of war, the mother, wife, and children of Darius. Darius himself escaped in disguise and under cover of the night. Not discour- aged by his reverses, he ventured another battle at Arbela, but was again defeated, •and fled toward Media. Bessus, the gov- ernor of Bactriana, coveting his throne, attempted his life, and Darius was found by the Macedonians, in his chariot, cov- ered with wounds and expiring. He died in 330 B. c. DARJEELING, or DARJILING, a district of India, in the extreme N. of the lieutenant-governorship of Bengal; divi- sion of Cooch-Behar; area, 1,234 square miles. Tea, coffee, cinchona, and cotton are cultivated more or less, and the culti- vation of the tea-plant and the making of tea is now the staple industry. Pop. about 250,000. Darjeeling, the chief town in the district, is a sanatory station for British troops, and though little more than 36 miles from the plains stands at an elevation of 7,400 feet above sea-level, on a ridge with deep valleys on either side, in a bleak but healthy situation. There is a residence of the lieutenant- governor, barracks, a sanitarium, etc. Pop. about 17,000, much increased in the hot weather. DARK AGES, THE, a period supposed to extend from the fall of the Roman empire, A. D. 475, to the revival of liter- ature on the discovery of the Pandects at Amalfi in 1137. Not to draw the limits too finely, say 700 years (450 to 1150). The Middle Ages may be extended to about 1550, covering from 10 to 11 cen- turies. DARLEY, FELIX OCTAVIUS CARR, an American artist; born in Philadel- phia, June 23, 1822. His illustrations of literary masterpieces gave pleasure to thousands and made him famous. His best work comprises his dravdngs to ac- company the text of "Rip Van Winkle"; "Sleepy Hollow"; "Courtship of Miles Standish"; "Scarlet Letter"; "Evan- geline"; the novels of Cooper, Dickens, and others, besides many special pictures. His book "Sketches Abroad with Pen and Pencil" (1868) is well known. He died in Claymont, Del., March 27, 1888. DARLING, GRACE, an English hero- ine; born in the Longstone Lighthouse (Fame Islands, coast of Northumber- land), of which her father was keeper, Nov. 24, 1815. In 1838 the steamer "Forfarshire," with 41 passengers on board besides her crew, became disabled off the Fame Islands during a storm, and was thrown on a rock, where she broke in two, part of the crew and passengers being left clinging to the wreck. Next morning William Darling descried them from Longstone, about a mile distant, but he shrank from attempting to reach the wreck. His daughter Grace persuaded him to make the attempt and to allow her to accompany him. Father and daughter rowed to the wreck and rescued nine per-
