Darius I

1 8.8

A Persian king who expands the empire and leads the first invasion of Greece and is defeated at Marathon

proper noun
/ˈdɛrɪəs aɪ/

: Darío I

Darius I reorganized the Persian Empire into provinces governed by satraps.

Examples

King Darius I ruled Persia from 522 to 486 BC.
Darius I commissioned the construction of the famous Royal Road to improve communication across his empire.
The defeat of Darius I at the Battle of Marathon marked a turning point in Greek history.
Did Darius I really lead the first invasion of Greece?
Darius I expanded the Achaemenid Empire by conquering new territories during his reign.
Darius I is known for implementing administrative reforms that improved the efficiency of the Persian Empire.
Darius I led his forces into Greece, where he faced a significant defeat at the Battle of Marathon.

Synonyms

Darius the Great

vsDarius I

1 9.1

A king of Persia who expanded the empire and lost at the Battle of Marathon

uses the regnal number form rather than the honorific title

Surface Forms

Darius I main

Morphology

Darius + I

This is a proper name plus an ordinal marker; the literal constituents ('Darius' and 'I') do not encode the encyclopedic information that he was a Persian king who invaded Greece. Even if learners recognize 'I' as 'the first', that only signals sequencing, not the person's role or historical facts, so the meaning cannot be derived from the parts without prior cultural/encyclopedic knowledge.

Etymology

Darius I is the name for the first king called Darius, often known as Darius the Great. Imagine a ruler building long roads, placing governors across his lands, and sending an army to Greece that was stopped at Marathon, and this image helps you remember that Darius I was the Persian king who expanded the empire and led the first invasion of Greece.