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The Margians

People of the Murghab oasis in Margiana, far east of the empire; revolt of 522-521 BCE

In the game: Level 3: The Lie

The Margians lived in Margiana, an oasis country in the far east of the Persian empire, around the Murghab river. They are known above all from Darius's Behistun inscription, which records their revolt under a leader called Frada and its defeat. Greek writers say almost nothing of them by name.

In the game: The game names the Margians only in the Chronicle, the decrees and the field briefings, and gives them no mechanic of their own. The briefing's mention of Parthia 'under Hystaspes' needs care: in the inscription Hystaspes fought the Parthian rebels for Darius.

Margiana in Darius's list of lands

In the record

Darius's inscriptions name Margiana among the countries that belonged to him, which shows that the Murghab oasis was part of the empire in his reign. The Old Persian name of the land was Margu. The Margians are known from such lists and from the Behistun text rather than from any account of their own.

DB §6; DNa

The revolt of Frada

In the record

The Behistun inscription says that Margiana rebelled against Darius and that a man named Frada became its leader. Darius sent Dadarshish, a Persian in his service and satrap of Bactria, against them. Dadarshish won a battle and Frada was taken. The inscription gives casualty figures, which are a king's claims and should be read as such.

DB §§38-39

One revolt among many

In the record

Darius presents Margiana's rising as part of a single wave of rebellion in 522-521 BCE, alongside Media, Elam, Babylon, Armenia and Parthia. In Parthia the rebels joined the Median pretender Fravartish, and Darius's father Hystaspes fought them there for the king. In the inscription Hystaspes is thus a loyal commander against the Parthians, not their leader.

DB §§35-36

What the Greek writers say

Ancient account

Herodotus does not name the Margians in his tribute and army catalogues, as far as can be told. Eastern peoples there appear under other names, and the Margians may have been counted with neighbours such as the Bactrians. Strabo describes Margiane as a fertile oasis, but he writes centuries after the Persian period.

Herodotus 3.89-94; Strabo 11.10

How far the revolt reached

Disputed

Historians debate how much of Darius's account of simultaneous rebellions reflects real coordination. Some think the inscription magnifies a series of local risings into one great crisis to justify his seizure of the throne. The Margian rising is known only through his text, so its size and causes cannot be checked against another source.

P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 2002